ABSTRACT

Texts comprise the most signifi cant body of evidence for study of the Tantric Śaiva traditions of early medieval India. By “Tantric Śaivism,” I refer to systems and communities of esoteric praxis centered on forms of the deity Śiva and allied goddesses for which texts called tantras or āgamas have the status of scripture. The comparatively well-charted art-historical and epigraphic records provide substantial evidence for Tantric Śaivism as well. However, establishing correlations between period material evidence and text presents signifi cant historiographic challenges. As Michael Meister (1986: 233) posed the problem:

Written evidence rarely fi ts available images. Dates and the regional distribution of Indian manuscripts-Āgamas, Purāṇas, and Tantras-remain largely so little known, their texts still so little studied, that it seems hardly possible at present to trace with any precision the development and spread of cults or iconographic formulas in pre-and early ‘medieval’ India.