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Tantra, a body of esoteric hindu and buddhist religious texts and rituals. The hidu tantras were written after the puranas in the medieval period, and are usually set in thje form of a dialogue between the god shiva and his consort parvati, in which he explains to her the philosophy and myths underlying the tantric ritual. They emphasize the goddess shakti as the female power or energy of the god. This view taken to its extreme holds that shiva without shakti is like a corpse. The tantric rituals involve reversals of normal hindu social practices and reversals of normal physiological processes. It also reverses the orthodox hindu, the curled serpent power that lies at the base of the spine-through successive focal points ( chakras), untill it reaches he highest chaktra, at the top of the skull, and the goddess. This processess begins with a systematic visualization of the delity, limb by limb, who materliazes through the use of vidsual diagrams ( yantras) and through the use of magic incantations( mantras). Buddhist tantra is an aspect of third stage of buddhism, the thunderbolt vehicle of diamond vehicle that developed out of mahanayana buddhism; it was perfected in Tibet and both influenced and was influenced by hindu Tantra, particularly is assam and bengal. Tantric sects once existed throughout china and nepal but at the present time survive principally in northern india. The text guides the reader towards a greater understnnding of the secrets, explaining various important and key facets in language simple enough for a general reader to understand the mystery of tantras and clear enough for a student to provoke him to further research on the subject. This is probably the first and the only such encyclopaedic available on tantra and will be welcomed by all classes of teachers - general, researchers, teachers, and students alike. It will particularly be interesting for the western readers as it provides him an opportunity to get all important information on this important branch of hindu philosophy at one place. Set of 5 volumes, pp 1750, figures, bibliography, references. Size 22 * 14 cm. Cloth binding. ISBN 81-7020-863-7.
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