Light on the Tantras (Tantraloka)

Introduction

Abhinavagupta’s largest work, a Sanskrit treatise in 37 chapters composed in Kashmir around 1000. It systematises the scriptures of the Trika, a non-dualist form of Shaivism, taking the Malinivijayottara Tantra as its main authority. The first chapters set out the philosophical framework: reality is the single consciousness of Shiva, which freely manifests itself as the world, and liberation is the recognition (pratyabhijna) of one’s identity with it. Abhinavagupta distinguishes four “means” (upayas) to this recognition, ranging from sudden grace to ritual and meditative practice. The later chapters, on initiation, mantras, mandalas and Kaula ritual, are hard to follow without the thirteenth-century commentary of Jayaratha. Abhinavagupta himself wrote a shorter summary, the Tantrasara.