Dreaming the Great Brahmin: Tibetan Traditions of the Buddhist Poet-Saint Saraha
"This is a splendid contribution to the growing body of materials about Saraha and his famed treasury of tantric songs with a special focus on the Tibetan creation, and recreation, of both over the centuries. Schaeffer examines both in the larger contexts of Tibetan literature, history and aesthetics, tracing the development of the figure of Saraha and his esoteric poetry in Tibetan narratives, ritual cycles, visions, iconography, and polemical debate. He reveals Saraha's famous anthology,The Treasury of Doha, to be a rich, creative and fluid communal tradition that had an organic life in Tibet, rather than a static composition with origins lost in an Indian past. This wonderful blend of the social analysis, aesthetics, and translation is an important work for Tibetan, Buddhist, and Tantric studies."--David Germano, University of Virginia"The Indian mystical poet Saraha is one of the most influential, compelling, and elusive figures in the history of tantric Buddhism, and Kurtis Schaeffer'sDreaming the Great Brahmintakes scholarship on the great adept a quantum leap past anything published before. Resisting yet another futile search for the historical Saraha, Schaeffer draws on a wide range of little-studied texts to show that, whatever the Indian origins of Saraha's legend and songs, most of what we know of him actually emerged from medieval Tibet, in response to uniquely Tibetan religious, social, and literary concerns. Erudite, well written, and intellectually challenging,Dreaming the Great Brahminwill be required reading for serious students of Indian and Tibetan tantric Buddhism for many years to come." --Roger R. Jackson, translator ofTantric Treasures: Three Collections of Mystical Verse fromBuddhist India"Kurtis Schaeffer has set before us a feast of Saraha lore, demonstrating the Tibetans' continued fascination with the person and the songs of the Great Brahmin.  In this excellent book, Schaeffer details the polysemic stature of Saraha in Tibetan literature: as the source of religious inspiration, as the vehicle for art, as the field of contested symbols, and as the basis for elaborate hermeneutics.  His critical treatment of the Saraha literature shows how Tibetans continued to redefine Saraha, so that he became a saint for all seasons."--Ronald M. Davidson, author ofIndian EsotericBuddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement