New History Of Tantric Lieterature In India

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

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- A NEW HISTORY OF TANTRIC LITERATURE IN INDIA 113 has concentrated his remarks on some of the most important tantras. It is to be hoped that his work will stimulate research along the same lines on other Tantric texts. The amount of Tantric literature is enormous. Many Sanskrit manuscripts have not yet been edited. Several hundreds of texts were preserved in Chinese translation and many more in Tibetan translation. It is still impossible to gain an exact idea of the amount of exegetical literature written by Tibetan scholars since the introduction of Tantrism into Tibet up to the present day. Little is known about the relations between Buddhist Tantrism and Hindu Tantrism in India and about the development of Tantrism in Tibet. Since the publication of Louis de La Vallee Poussin's Bouddhisme. Etudes et Materiaux (London, 1898), Tantric studies have made much progress, thanks to the work done by scholars in Japan, India and the West, but we still have a long way to go before a true picture of Tantrism in all its complexity can emerge. We must be grateful to Matsunaga for having made such an important contribution towards this distant goal. Australian National University J. W. de Jong.