Illness and Immortality

Patricia Sauthoff is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Alberta and the ERC-funded AyurYog project. She received her PhD from SOAS, University of London, in South Asian Languages and Cultures. Her research focuses on health and immortality in the tantric and rasasastric traditions. She is particularly interested in the role women played in medieval ritual and health practices.

Preface

Introduction

A. Summary
B. Importance of Study

Chapter One: Mantra
I. Om Jum Sah: decoding the mantra

A. Overview of Tantric mantras
B. Encoding the mantra: NT 2.17-33

II. Language, the Body, and Mantra
A. The Nature of Mantra
B. Mantric Physicality: Siva, anu, and consciousness, NT 21.1-19
C. The Mrtyuñjaya Mantra: Exposition on the components of om jum sah NT 22.5-18

Chapter Two: Iconography
I. Iconography: the various forms of Ametesa
A. Visual representations in art history
B. The mythology of Siva

II. Mrtyujit in literature
A. Worshipping Amrtesa
B. Deities in the Netra Tantra

Chapter Three: Mandalas
I. Mandala: locating the divine in the physical world
II. Conclusion

Chapter Four: Diksa
I. Creating the Tantric Identity
II. Caste: initiation and purity
III. Purity and Interpretation: auspicious and inauspicious in the Svacchanda Tantra

Chapter Five: Nirajana
I. Diksa: building a new identity through initiation
A. Transgression: the benefits of breaking the rules

II. Religion of Monarchs
A. Kings, Poets and Patronage
B. Protecting the King: Netra Tantra 19.84-133
C. Private nirajana: Netra Tantra 15.1-19a

III. Conclusion

Chapter Six: Yoga
I. Conquering Death Through Ritual
A. Impurities, Kapalikas, and Exorcism
B. Vanquishing Death: mrtyu vañcana

II. Sthula Yoga
A. Maintaining the Physical Body
B. Easing the Pain of Death and Disease
C. Mandalas of Protection
D. Mantra and Color

III. Visualizing Amrta: Svacchanda Tantra 7.207-225

IV. Conclusion

Conclusion