Binding: Hardcover
Description: Early Tantric Medicine looks at a traditional medical system that flourished over 1,000 years ago in India. The Garuda Tantras had a powerful influence on traditional medicine for snakebite and some of their practices remain popular to this day. Snakebite may sound like a rare and exotic phenomenon but in India it is a problem that affects 1.4 million people every year and results in over 45,000 deaths. Michael Slouber offers a close examination of the Garuda Tantras which were deemed lost until the author himself discovered numerous ancient titles surviving in Sanskrit manuscripts written on fragile palm - leaves. The volume brings to life this rich tradition in which knowledge and faith are harnessed in complex visualizations accompanied by secret mantras to an array of gods and goddesses; this religious system is combined with herbal medicine and a fascinating mix of lore on snakes astrology and healing. The book's appendices include an accurate yet readable translation of ten chapters of the most significant Tantric medical text to be recovered: the Kriyakalagunottara. Also included is a critical edition based on the surviving Nepalese manuscripts.
Title: Early Tantric Medicine Snakebite Mantras And Healing In The Garuda Tantras
Author(s): Slouber Michael (Assistant Professor Of South Asia Assistant Professor Of South Asia Western Washington University)
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
Barcode: 9780190461812
Pages: 392 Pages
Publication Date: 12/23/2016
Category: History Of Medicine