Making a Mantra: Tantric Ritual and Renunciation on the Jain Path of Liberation. By Ellen Gough. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 2021. 315 pages with bibliography, index, and 20 halftone illustrations. $95 (hardcover), ISBN 9780226766904; $30 (paperback), ISBN 9780226767062. This book transforms at least four fields of study: the study of mantras, the study of the Jain…
Tag: mantra
Gifts of the Goddess: Offerings of Dhāraṇī (Memory Enhancement), Mantras, and Tantric Invocation Rituals by Sarasvatī and Śrī in the Sutra of Golden Light
The present study proposes that the goddesses Sarasvatī and Śrī appear in the Sutra of Golden Light (Suvarṇaprabhāsottama sūtra, 金光 明經, ca. early fifth century CE) as exemplars of the relationship of female deities to bodhisattvahood, dhāraṇī bestowal, and developments in deity invocation via mantra-based rituals. The goddesses demonstrate agency as Mahāyāna practitioners (i.e., bodhisattvas) who work on behalf of…