Abhinavagupta was the great Kashmiri polymath of the tenth century who wrote Tantrāloka (“Light on the Tantras”), a work of encyclopaedic nature and an excellent source of the Tantric Śaiva literature, philosophy, and practices. Abhinavagupta, who wrote extensive commentaries on the tantras as well as the exegetical literature by the various systems that flourished in Kashmir between the sixth and the tenth centuries, greatly influenced the development of Indian philosophy, religion, and culture up to the present day. His contribution is, however, still relatively unknown despite the efforts of some brilliant scholars who have done much to remedy this situation in the last decades. Although the interests in Abhinavagupta, who contributed to the fields of philosophy, aesthetics, literary theory, dramaturgy, musicology etc., extends beyond the confines of these disciplines, he is little known to other fields of study. The main reason for this is that many of his works still remain untranslated.
Abhinavagupta wrote three condensed works of his magnum opus Tantrāloka, to present the non-dual Śaiva doctrines and practices in a more accessible and digestible form. Indeed, it is not hard to see why Abhinavagupta felt the need for this, due to the lengthy and complex nature of the Tantrāloka (along with Jayaratha’s commentary it consists of about 12 volumes in more than 3500 pages). These abbreviated works are the Tantrasāra, consisting of twenty-two āhnika-s (chapters) written in prose, Tantroccaya, comprises of ten āhnika-s also written in prose, and lastly, the briefest digest out of three; the Tantravaṭadhānikā, consisting of three āhnika-s, written in ninety-eight verses. Out of these texts, the Tantrasāra, the lengthiest exposition of the three, is comparatively well-known and studied, whereas the Tantroccaya and the Tantravaṭadhānikā are much less known.
The practice of writing shorter and simplified abstracts of longer works containing elaborate and difficult philosophical arguments that required years of training in Sanskrit grammar and logic was s a common practice by the old pandits. This made it possible for people without sufficient training but with a keen interest to still dive into the teachings. The adherence to this tradition is also clearly seen in Abhinavagupta’s most prolific disciple, Kṣemarāja. Even if, as noted above, the brevity of the works can sometimes present more difficulty for the modern reader, they would have been less difficult to understand a millennium ago, when the doctrines and practices were alive and widespread.
As in the Tantrāloka, the first āhnika of the Tantravaṭadhānikā introduces the general matters; the nature of bondage and liberation and the role of knowledge concerning the attainment of the latter. Here Abhinavagupta also alludes to the doctrine of impurity (mala) and the descent of power (śaktipāta). Most verses found are devoted to explaining the nature of consciousness as autonomous selfluminosity. Abhinavagupta introduces the variety of means to liberation (upāyas) and the thirty-six principles (tattva-s) of the knowable reality, both of which he will elaborate on in the following two āhnika-s. The second āhnika, which is the shortest of the work, deals with the four upāyas; “the non-means” (anupāya), “the divine-means” (śaṃbhavopāya), “the empowered-means” (śāktopāya), and “the individual means” (āṇavopāya). The content of this chapter corresponds to āhnika-s 2, 3, 4 and 5 in the Tantrāloka (and Tantrasāra and Tantroccaya) where Abhinavagupta devotes one chapter to each upāya. This chapter ends with a brief description of the relationship between the disciple and the guru, that is found towards the end of āhnika 20 in the Tantrasāra and āhnika 15 in the Tantrāloka. The third āhnika begins with an exposition of the “path of time and space” (deśakālādhvan), that appears in āhnika-s 6-8 in Tantrāloka and 6-7 in the Tantrasāra. This chapter also gives the account of the hierarchy of tattva-s, which is treated in the ninth and tenth chapters of the Tantrāloka and chapters 8-10 in the Tantrasāra. The second half of this chapter is devoted to the descent of power (śaktipāta) and a summary of various kinds of initiation (dīkṣa); “initiation into the rules/tradition” (samayadīkṣa) and “initiation as a spiritual child” (putrakadīkṣa), all of which concern āhnika-s 11-19 and āhnika. 22 in the Tantrasāra and āhnika-s 13-27 and āhnika 29 in the Tantrāloka. The final subject treated is various kinds of ritual (kriyā), daily (nitya) and occasional (naimittika) rites, explained in āhnika 20 of the Tantrasāra and āhnika-s 15-29 in the Tantrāloka. The chapter ends with some concluding verses that complete the entire work.