Kulachùdàmani Tantra

The Kulachudamani-tantra or “crest-jewel” of the Kulachara division of Tantrika Sadhakas is included in the list of revealed works, which according to the Vamakeshvara Tantra, are considered to be the chief amongst those which deal with the worship of Shakti. It is accordingly found frequently referred to as an authority in many compilations though the Kulachudamani itself (II, 8) refers us, for all technical terms, to the Bhairavi Tantra, which is, however now known chiefly from quotations made from it.

Like all original works on Tantrika worship, the Kulachudamani is cast in the form of a dialogue – the Shastra being revealed by the Devi in Her form as Bhairavi, in answer to questions put to Her by Shiva in His form as Bhairava. For this reason the book is included in the class which goes by the name of Nigama as opposed to Agama, in which the Shastra is revealed by Shiva Himself. The form in which a Shastra presented whet-her as the Revelation of Shiva or Shakti is mere Lila. Since Shiva and Shakti are one and the same and it is Shiva who reveals, Shiva is the revealer of the Shastra in all cases, though in some He figures as Shishya and in others as Guru.

Book Review –
“One cannot do enough homage to the magnificent series of publications which an English savant under the pseudonym of Arthur Avalon has brought into being a Pleiades of Tantrik works, texts and translations. One of the most inaccessible schools of Indian speculation has thus, thanks to him, been fruitfully explored”.- Revue Philosophique. (Paris.)