Sat-Sahasrika-Hevajratika

About the Book

Satsahasrika-hevajra-tika, a commentary on the Hevajra-tantra, a Vajrayana or Esoteric Buddhist text, is published here for the first time. It is second such commentary to be available in print. A fragment of Sanskrit text only is available, the author being Dasabhumisvara Vajragarbha. Although the Tibetan translation of the commentary available in bsTan. hgyur comments on the whole of Hevajra Tantra, the editor has doubts about the authorship of later chapters. In the course of the commentary, the author throws light on the socio-religious ethos of his days and is highly critical of many of the then current practices. Besides this, the commentary furnishes many technical details which are difficult to understand without a guru well-versed in the esoteric lore. In order to complete the picture, the summaries of the chapters from Tibetan translation are supplied by the editor.

About the Author

Malati J. Shendge, editor of the commentary, is a well-known Indologist, and has worked for more than two decades on Vajrayana as practised in India, Tibet and Japan. She has published several articles on different aspects of Esoteric Buddhism, and has presented a penetrating analysis of Esoteric Buddhism and its thought world with social anthropological methods. In order to be able to have easy access to original sources and to carry on research on this most complex system of religious thought and experience, besides modern European languages, she has mastered several other languages—Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Buddhist Chinese and Japanese.