Tantric Buddhism : Centennial Tribute to Dr. Benoytosh Bhattacharyya
Contents: Preface. 1. The introduction to Jayakhya Samhita by Benoytosh Bhattacharyya and indological chronology/Prabhakar Apte. 2. The Manda and the -la of the term Mandala/Alex Wayman. 3. Representation of Asta-Mahabodhisattvas from Nalanda: an iconographic study/Debala Mitra. 4. From the Goddesses of Plaosan to the Dharani-Mandala at Alchi/Lokesh Chandra and Sudarshana Devi Singhal. 5. Sanskritic Buddhism in South-East Asia/Indira Y. Junghare. 6. Kula in the Indo-Tibetan Tantra literature/Suniti Kumar Pathak. 7. The Bodhisattva ideal: a chronological survey/Meena V. Talim. 8. Goddess Vajravarahi: an iconographic study/Mallar Mitra. 9. History of Tantric Buddhism in Tamilnadu/G.V. Saroja. 10. The Tantras: an excursus into origins/Pranabananda Jash. 11. A new dimension to the study of the Buddhist Tantras/Vraj Vallabh Dvivedi. 12. Colour symbolism in Tantric Buddhism/T.K. Biswas. 13. Concept of Mudra in Japanese (Shingon) esoteric Buddhism/Kalpakam Sankaranarayan and Yoritomi Motohiro. 14. Social perspective of Tantrism: a religion of the Kali age/Bhaskar Chatterjee. 15. The cult of Tara in historical perspective/N.N. Bhattacharyya. 16. Vajrayogini and Mahakala-two most fearful deities in the Buddhist Tantric Pantheon/Kalpika Mukherjee. 17. Parnasabari: a Tantric Buddhist Goddess/Parnasabari Bhattacharyya. 18. Tantric Buddhism and the liberation of women: questions, problems and possibilities/Kumkum Roy. 19. The concept of Siddhacaryas, and their images/Shyamalkanti Chakravarti and Sipra Chakravarti. 20. The basic contents of the Siddhacaryas\' sayings from the Tibetan translation/Bhakti De. 21. Emergence of neo-religious thought in proto-medieval Bengal/Rangan Kanti Jana. 22. The Kalacakra school: the latest phase of Buddhism/Biswanath Banerjee. 23. Female deities in a Buddhist Tamil Epic/S.N. Kandaswamy. 24. Kurukulla, Tara and Vajresi in Sripura/R.N. Mehta. 25. The Tantric dance of Dharma: the mask dances at the Hemis Festival of Ladakh/Madhu Khanna. 26. Arapacana: a mystic Buddhist script/B.N. Mukherjee. Index.
"Tantrism, both traditional and Buddhist, with its vast literature containing intricate ritualistic and philosophical details occupies an important place in the religious and cultural life of India and some Asian countries. The subject, however, still appears to be an enigma, notwithstanding numerous works in this field.
This volume contains informative and analytical papers by eminent scholars on different aspects of Tantric Buddhism and Tantras in general. The essays throw significant light on the so-called puzzling obscurity of Tantric ideas and practices especially pertaining to the Buddhist Tantras. They demonstrate the richness and variety of Buddhist Tantric literature. They also show that fragments of Mahayanic philosophical ideas lie scattered in the Buddhist Tantras, sometimes as speculations on the nature of the truth and mainly in the context of the ceremonies and secret yogic practices. There are also manifested in Tibetan and other Asiatic forms of Buddhism and in icons representing the Gods and Goddesses, the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and their consorts.
The papers presented in this volume also reveal that there is basically no difference in the principles, viewpoints and even contents, between the Buddhist and non-Buddhist Tantras. Their contents are rooted in a single source-the spiritual and psychical consciousness of the most ancient peoples.
This volume is presented as a tribute to an outstanding pioneer in the field of Tantric Buddhist studies, Dr. Benoytosh Bhattacharyya (1897-1964)."
