Early Tantra: Discovering the interrelationships and common ritual syntax of the Saiva, Buddhist, Vaisnava and Saura traditions

密宗经典构成了后吠陀时代印度几乎所有神学和仪式的有神论学派的基础，也是佛教（金刚乘）的一个主要分支。在这些学派中，以印度教湿婆神和毗湿奴神为中心的学派传播到印度次大陆以外的Kambuja（柬埔寨/老挝/泰国），Champa（越南）和印度尼西亚，而佛教密宗很快成为泛亚洲。我们的目标是在基本原始资料的基础上研究密宗传统之间的相互关系，我们将首次出版这些资料。我们在尼泊尔和印度发现了一些现存最早的这些宗教流派的梵文手稿。两部密宗著作（其中一部我们认为可能是现存密宗经典中最早的）和两部佛教著作被选中进行详细的处理，包括全文或选定章节的版本。这些作品的初步翻译已经产生了各种学者。两部早期的外士那瓦密宗经典，以及唯一已知的萨乌拉（太阳）密宗，也将被用作比较材料（由同意与我们协调工作的迪瓦卡尔·阿查里雅提供的初步翻译）。这些密宗传统中最早的似乎是密宗，但密宗显然既影响了佛教和外那教的密宗传统，也受到了它们的影响。我们的工作是首次为这样一个项目汇集这些不同但相关传统的专家，将为它们的形成和相互依存提供更多新的信息。

Tantric scriptures form the basis of almost all the various theistic schools of theology and ritual in post-Vedic India, as well as of a major strand of Buddhism (Vajrayāna). Among these schools, those centred on the Hindu deities Siva and Visnu spread well beyond the Indian subcontinent to Kambuja (Cambodia/Laos/Thailand), Champa (Vietnam) and Indonesia, while Buddhist tantrism quickly became pan-Asian. Our aim is to study the interrelationships between the tantric traditions on the basis of fundamental source-material, which we will be publishing for the first time. We have identified manuscripts in Nepal and in India of a number of the earliest surviving Sanskrit scriptures of these religious currents. Two Śaiva works (one of which we have argued may be the earliest of all surviving tantric scriptures) and two Buddhist ones have been selected for detailed treatment, including editions of the whole text or of selected chapters. Preliminary transcriptions of these works have already been produced by various scholars. Two early Vaisnava tantric scriptures, and the sole known Saura (Sun) tantra, will also be used as comparative material (preliminary transcriptions provided by Diwakar Acharya, who has agreed to coordinate his work with ours). The earliest of these tantric traditions appears to be the Śaiva one, but Śaiva tantrism has clearly both influenced and been influenced by the tantric traditions of Buddhism and of Vaisnavism. Our work, bringing together experts on these different but related traditions for the first time for such a project, will shed much new light on their formation and interdependence.