Jayatu Khaḍgarāvaṇaḥ

I have decided to make my 2007 MA Thesis available for download and I would like to use this entry to introduce it. The first 17 pages introduce the cult of Khaḍgarāvaṇa and the principal source of my thesis, the Kriyākālaguṇottara. I consider this introduction and the theories I advance in it useful, but not the strongest part of the thesis. In particular, my understanding of the nature of the KKGU and of the Bhūta Tantra genre has shifted considerably in the three years since I wrote this MA thesis. More current are my studies of the manuscripts themselves and the critical edition and translation of the ninth chapter of the Kriyākālaguṇottara that form the larger part of the thesis. Chapter 9, 10, and 11 of the KKGU form the “Khaḍgarāvaṇakalpa”, and are the most detailed source on this interesting figure that survive, to my knowledge.

In the future I would like to do a detailed study on the relationships between the Bhūta and Gāruḍa Tantras. I do not think it is as simple as published comments make it sound, i.e. that they both deal with pragmatic magical topics and so were typically found together by default. In fact many ritual procedures are identical for exorcism and countering poison, and differ only in the principal mantra employed by, or rather called on to possess, the practitioner. More to come.