The Heart of the Yogini

We discussed the non-dualist Pratyabhijna philosophy and the dualist Shaiva-siddhanta in the context of the Tripura tradition because the entire country has contributed to the development of these streams of knowledge. This can be said especially regarding the Tripura tradition. We have already discussed 1 the Kashmiri, Kerala, and Gaudiya traditions developed within the Tripura doctrine elsewhere. These traditions encompass the entire country. This knowledge developed not only in the Sanskrit language but also in vernacular languages. We have already mentioned the book titled Hindu Tantric and Shakta Literature. The second part of this volume is titled "Tantric Shakta Literature in Modern Indian Languages." This section provides a somewhat detailed description of Shakta literature composed in Bengali, and a brief description of literature composed in Maithili, Rajasthani, Braj, and Punjabi. Fortunately, we recently received a book titled Shakta Sampradaya 2 from Professor Shastri Udayan Harishankar Shukla of the Baroda Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya. It contains an entire chapter on Shakta literature composed in the Gujarati language (pp. 111-144). Here, the biographies and literature of Nath Bhavan, Vallabh Bhatt, Mithu, Jani Bai, Kavi Bal, and Nrisimhacharya are highlighted well. Among these, Mithu 3 is identical to Hansamithu, the author of Hansa-vilasa. A notable feature of the aforementioned book Shakta Sampradaya is that it discusses the Shakta elements embedded within Buddhism and Jainism in separate chapters. The author is very liberal regarding Buddhism. He states that Buddhism and its philosophy have made a very large contribution to the formation of modern Hinduism (p. 156). Revered Shri Gopinath Kaviraj also held this same perspective regarding Buddhism and Jainism. It is surprising that while the mention of Hinduism alongside Buddhism and Jainism often triggers opposition, this does not occur when discussing Vaishnava, Shaiva, or Shakta traditions. The reason for this is...