Acknowledgments

I wish to extend my heartfelt thanks to all the people who helped me in my research on the Vārāhī Tantra.

I am deeply grateful to my Gurus, to the late Śrī 1008 Manoranjan Bhattacharya Kāmākhyāpārvatīya Gosvāmī, His wife Smt. Uma Bhattacharya and His son Śrī Hridayaranjan Bhattacharya for having full-heartedly introduced me to the Śākta Tradition; Śrī Usha Rani Bhattacharya who kindly shared Her immense wisdom on the worship of the Goddess; His Holiness Dodrupchen Rinpoche and Śrī Tenzin Lopon Orgyen Rinpoche, Who compassionately introduced me to the worship of Vārāhī in the Bauddha Tāntrik Tradition.

My wholehearted gratitude is also given to H.H. the 17^th Karmapa, Orgyen Trinle Dorje, V.V. Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche and Kyabje Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche for their profound teachings and blessings.

I am deeply thankful to the late Śrī 1008 Paramankush Ramanuja Tridaṇḍī Svāmī of the Śrīsampradāya, for His immense kindness and wisdom.

I wish to express my gratitude to the late Paṇḍit Śrī Hemendranath Chakravarti, for his precious teachings on Tāntrik philosophy and on the worship of Vārāhī in the Śrīkula system.

I am grateful to Śrī Khenpo Sogyal of the Vajravidyā Institute in Sarnath, Varanasi, who shared his knowledge about the meaning of Vajravārāhī in the Kagyu Tradition.

I wholeheartedly thank my husband, Śrī Kedār Prado, who found the two main manuscripts of the Vārāhī Tantra used for this edition and also reviewed the English text, and who is a continuous source of inspiration.

I thank Śrī Anirvana Das, manuscriptologist and professor at the University of Pune, for his kind advice on the critical edition of the Vārāhī Tantra.

I also gratefully acknowledge the librarian of the Sarasvatī Bhavan Library for providing access to the Vārāhī Tantra and other manuscripts; the librarian of the Kaiser Library in Kathmandu, Nepal, for allowing me to consult a manuscript of the Vārāhī Tantra; Śrī Vivekananda Bhanerji, the librarian of the manuscript department of the Asiatic Society, in helping me to find a manuscript of the Vārāhī Tantra; Śrī Shaktananda Banerji, the president of the

Saṃskṛt Sahitya Pariṣad, and Śrī Aruna Bhattacharya, the librarian, for kindly allowing me to copy a manuscript of the Vārāhī Tantra; and Śrī Rajiv Sharma who has been always eager to help me in my research and thanks to whom I could access the manuscript of the Vārāhītantre Caṇḍīpāṭhaphala.

I am deeply grateful to Śrī Kamalesh Datta Tripathi, Emeritus Professor at the Dharmāgama Department in Benares Hindu University, and Śrī Shitala Upadhyaya, Dean at the Yogatantra Department in Sampurnananda, for their kind advices.

I wish to acknowledge my supervisor, Śrī Shitala Prasad Pandey, the Head of the Dharmāgama Department,

Śrī Kamalesh Jha, and Śrī Amardhārī Siṃh, for their kind and precious advices, and Professor Śrī Bhaktiputrarohatam for his support and help in my research.

I could not thank enough the Muktabodha Indological Research Institute and their resourceful Digital Library, through which I could easily access numerous manuscripts

belonging to the Śaiva, Vaiṣṇava and Śākta Tāntrik traditions, and in particular Dr. Mark Dyczkowski for his advice and whose work for the Muktabodha Digital Library and study of Kubjikā worship have been extremely helpful for my research.

I would like to acknowledge the help of Michael Ianuzielo for the proofreading of the English text.

I thank my parents with all my heart, without whose support and love this research would not have been possible.

Finally, I wish to clarify that whatever error has been committed in this study of the Vārāhī Tantra is to be attributed only to myself.