ABOUT THE BOOK:
Pandit H.N. Chakravarty(1918-2011) was a traditional scholar of Tantra and Kashmir Saivism in Varanasi who contributed much to the continued teaching of the tradition. The present volume is a tribute to his memory by some of his students and admirers. It contains original articles on important Tantras and Tantric traditions of Kashmir (by Bettina Sharada Baumer, Advaitavadini Kaul, Mark Oyczkowski, Annette Wilke, John Dupuche) and on the philosophy and aesthetics of non-dualist Kashmir Saivism (by John Nemec, Navjivan Rastogi, Mrinal Kaul. Sadananda Das, David Peter Lawrence, Ernst Furlinger, Aleksandra Wenta, Hamsa Stainton). The volume is illustrated with biographical photos and iconographical images.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Bettina Sharad a Baumer, Indologist from Austria and Professor of Religious Studies (Visiting Professor at several universities), has lived and worked in Varanasi since 1967. She is the author and editor of a number of books and over 50 research articles. Her main fields of research are non-dualistic Kashmir Saivism, Indian aesthetics, temple architecture and religious traditions of Odisha. and comparative mysticism. She has been Coordinator of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Varanasi. She has translated important Sanskrit texts into German and English. Her important publication is Abhinavagupta’s Hermeneutics of the absolute, Anuttaraprakriya (2011). In 2015 she received the Padrna Shri award from the President of India. She has been National Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (2015-17), and is Director of the Abhinavagupta Research Library, Varanasi. She has been extensively giving seminars on texts of Kashmir Saivism in India and Europe. |
