Using a commentary on the influential text, the Manjusri-namasamgiti, The Chanting of the Names of Manjusri, this book deals with Buddhist tantric meditation practice and its doctrinal context in early-medieval India. The commentary was written by the 8th-9th century Indian tantric scholar Vilasavajra, and the book contains a translation of the first five chapters. The translation is extensively annotated, and accompanied by introductions as well as a critical edition of the Sanskrit text based on eight Sanskrit manuscripts and two blockprint editions of the commentary's Tibetan translation.

The commentary interprets its root text within an elaborate framework of tantric visualisation and meditation that is based on an expanded form of the Buddhist Yoga Tantra mandala, the Vajradhatu-mandala. At its heart is the figure of Manjusri, no longer the familiar bodhisattva of wisdom, but now the embodiment of the awakened non-dual gnosis that underlies all Buddhas as well their activity in the cosmos.

The book contributes to our understanding of the history of Indian tantric Buddhism in a period of significant change and innovation. With its extensively annotated translation and lengthy introductions the book is designed to appeal not only to professional scholars and research students but also to contemporary Buddhists.

Tantric Buddhist Practice in India: Vilasavajra's Commentary on the Manjusri-Namasamgiti, Anthony Tribe, Routledge, Paperback, 2016, 438 Pages, $47.95

Anthony Tribe is an independent scholar with a research specialization in the history and development of tantric Buddhism in India. He is the co-author of Buddhist Thought: A Complete Introduction to the Indian Tradition (2012), also published by Routledge.

CONTENTS: Tantric Buddhist Practice in India
	List of figures		xi
	List of tables		xii
	Acknowledgements		xiii
PART I
Introductions			1
Overview			3
1	Contexts		5
2	Vilasavajra: locating the NMAA's author		21
3	The Namasamgiti		34
4	Vilasavajra's NMAA: overviews and remarks		41
5	The NMAA mandala in Himalayan and Tibetan Art		87
PART II
Vilasavajra's Namamantrarthavalokini: an annotated translation of chapters 1-5			95
Conventions in the translation			97
Chapter 1: On 'The Request for Instruction'			101
Chapter 2: On 'The Reply'			123
Chapter 3: On 'The Survey of the Six Families'			128
Chapter 4: On 'The Method of Awakening According to the Mayajala'			131
Chapter 5: On 'The Vajradhatu-Mahamandala of Bodhicittavajra'			148
PART III
Sanskrit edition			173
Materials and methods			175
	1	Sigla	175
	2	Manuscripts	177
	3	Methods of editing	185
	4	Stemma codicum	189
	5	The Tibetan Translation of Vilasavajra's NMAA	205
Critical edition of Vilasavajra's Namamantrarthavalokini, chapters 1-5			220
Textual notes			290
Insignificant variants			354
Textual collation to establish the stemma codicum			362
Appendices			373
	Appendix 1 -- Works and authors cited in the NMAA		375
	Appendix 2 -- Samvara, Cakrasamvara and Satprajnanaya-samvara citations		380
	Appendix 3 -- NMAA colophons		384
	Appendix 4 -- NMAA manuscripts: folio references		387
	Appendix 5 -- NMAA mandala-deities and doctrinal categories		388
	Appendix 6 -- Sakurai's (1988) edition of NMAA 3-4		390
	Appendix 7 -- Works attributed to Vilasavajra in Tibetan translation		393
	Appendix 8 -- Namasamgiti commentaries		396
	Appendix 9 -- Namasamgiti (1-41): parallel text and translation		401
	Abbreviations and symbols		406
	Bibliography		410
	Index of personal names		423
	Index of text titles		426
	General index		429