Towards a Reassessment of Indrabhūti’s Jñānasiddhi
Issue: Vol 37 No. 2 (2020)
Journal: Buddhist Studies Review
Subject Areas: Religious Studies Buddhist Studies
DOI: 10.1558/bsrv.41247
Abstract:
This article argues for the reassessment of Indrabhūti’s Jñānasiddhi in the light of newly discovered primary witnesses and previously unnoticed relations to other works. Presumably composed in the late eighth to early ninth century CE, it belongs to the earlier phase of Tantric Buddhism, a transitional period between the predominance of the Yoga- and Mahāyogatantras to the later Yoginītantras, and relates to a variety of important scriptures of this formation. While this article briefly discusses the origins, authorship, contents and context of the Jñānasiddhi, including a brief overview of its modern scholarship, it also highlights its intertextual relations with and notable influences upon other tantric works of major importance. The Jñānasiddhi stands out as a tantric scripture of paramount importance, and we attempt to demonstrate the necessity of its reassessment with recourse to hitherto neglected but nonetheless vital sources that have only recently come to light.
Author: Torsten Gerloff, Julian Schott
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