This book presents a short philosophical treatise in which twenty
rival theories of the liberated state (mokṣa) are introduced and countered, and
a long, discursive commentary that explores and develops the arguments that the
treatise advances or implies. The original treatise comprises fifty-nine
Sanskrit verses composed by Sadyojyotiḥ (c. 675–725 AD), the earliest
named Śaiva philosopher of the Mantramārga of whom works survive. The
commentator, Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha (c. 950–1000 AD), was a Kashmirian
whose writings systematised the doctrines of the classical Śaiva Siddhānta, for
some centuries the dominant school of tantric Śaivism. Presented here is a first
critical edition of these interlinked works and a richly annotated English
translation. A lightly annotated introduction lays out clearly the ideas that
the edited texts expound. Their study casts light not only on the history of
Śaiva thought, but also on a number of religio-philosophical doctrines for which
little other testimony survives.
This book presents a short philosophical treatise in which twenty
rival theories of the liberated state (mokṣa) are introduced and countered, and
a long, discursive commentary that explores and develops the arguments that the
treatise advances or implies. The original treatise comprises fifty-nine
Sanskrit verses composed by Sadyojyotiḥ (c. 675–725 AD), the earliest
named Śaiva philosopher of the Mantramārga of whom works survive. The
commentator, Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha (c. 950–1000 AD), was a Kashmirian
whose writings systematised the doctrines of the classical Śaiva Siddhānta, for
some centuries the dominant school of tantric Śaivism. Presented here is a first
critical edition of these interlinked works and a richly annotated English
translation. A lightly annotated introduction lays out clearly the ideas that
the edited texts expound. Their study casts light not only on the history of
Śaiva thought, but also on a number of religio-philosophical doctrines for which
little other testimony survives.