Advayavajra's Naiātmyāp rakāśa: A Critical Edition.

This article provides a critical edition and commentary on the Nairātmyāprakāśa, an eleventh-century Buddhist tantric ritual manual (sādhana) by the scholar and siddha Advayavajra, also known as Maitrīpāda. The text guides meditations on Nairātmyā, the central female deity (yoginī) in the Hevajra tantric system, while blending the author's unique philosophical and practical approaches. The introduction explores the figure of Nairātmyā and related texts, situates the manual within Advayavajra's broader work, and identifies influences from the scholar Ratnākaraśānti through textual borrowings.

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Abstract

This article presents a critical edition of and commentary on the Nairātmyāprakāśa, a Buddhist tantric ritual manual (sādhana) composed by the eleventh-century scholar and siddha Advayavajra/Maitrīpāda. The text teaches meditations on Nairātmyā, the central yoginī of the Hevajra system, while also incorporating distinctive elements of Advayavajra's philosophy and system of tantric practice. An introduction to the edition examines the figure of Nairātmyā and her associated corpus of texts. It also situates the Nairātmyāprakāśa within Advayavajra's broader oeuvre and identifies traces in this text of the author's intellectual and religious ecosystem, particularly in light of his textual borrowings from Ratnākaraśānti.