Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

SHAKTI AND SHAKTA

through the whole range of Indian literature will only be appreciated when we are in a position to give precise meanings to many terms which are at present vague and without definition. It is also to the Tantras with their magical invocations (Sadhana) that we must look for an explanation of all the enigmatical figures which decorate in their swarming mulltitudes the facades of the Indian temples.

Mr, Avalon’s second volume, part of which has been written in collaboration with Ellen Avalon, has not the same range. Mr. Avalon has there gathered together from various sources in the Tantras, Purjnas, Mahibhirata, etc., Hymns addressed to the ‘ Goddess,’ or Devi, the most popular figure in the Indian Pantheon, and the perfect symbol of the Eternal Feminine in all its innumerable manifestations. The greater number of these Hymns are well known even in Europe (amongst Orientalist be it understood), and several have been already translated. But here, again, the notes with which Mr. Avalon has accompanied the text, and which are based on the commentaries or oral instructions of the Pandits, give us a large amount of useful explanation. Litterateurs will appreciate the moving strains of these hymns with their tone which is exalted and yet grave. The historians of religion may with confidence gather therefrom reliable materials for his study.’—Translated from Review Critique. (Professor Sylivan Lévi.)

‘¢ The Tantras have hitherto played in Indology the part of a jungle which everyboby is anxious to avoid. It is therefore a matter of consratulation that at last somebody has made up his mind scientifically to explore the jungle. . . That these books (mcludimg those in preparation) are likely to become a great boon, everybody will admit who knows to what an extent Medieval and Modern Hinduism are penetrated by Tantrism.’’—Theosophist.

“So far scholars have fought very shy .of this Tantric and Shakta Library and with good reason . . . The subject is one of the most difficult to disentangle. For the serious student of comparative religion, however, the Tantra is a mime of information

Sufficient has now been said to give the reader some slight indication of the problems and puzzles that await solution in this strange world of religious practice and experience contained in the Tantras, There are few who are in any way competent even to study the subject ; much less to deal with it. Mr. Avalon is a courageous pioneer into this unknown land . . His translation is therefore a very useful piece of work and practically opens up for us a ‘hew field of study, though per-

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