Alchemical Metaphors for Spiritual Transformation in Abhinavagupta’s Īśvarapratyabhijñāvimarśinī and Īśvarapratyabhijñāvivṛtivimarśinī

Abstract

It is a great privilege to be able to present a paper in honour of Alexis G.J.S. Sanderson. I was fortunate enough to be his pupil for two years at Oxford, and to study with him subsequently in Leipzig and Kyoto. In my view, if one were to accord Professor Sanderson the praise that he in fact merits, it would sound (to those who do not know him) like embarrassingly unrestrained hyperbole. Suffice it to say here that his example formed my ideal of intellectual integrity, an ideal which entails relentless pursuit of the truth as part of a community of scholars engaged in the kind of longitudinal study that prioritizes the field as a whole over personal glory. Professor Sanderson taught me the value of admitting when I don’t know, of sacrificingmy own agenda in deference to the truth, and of striving to be as transparent a mediator as possible in the act of transmitting the words and ideas of the ancient Sanskrit thinkers to students of the present day. It is with enormous gratitude to his unstinting scholarly labours (I estimate he has logged well over a hundred thousand hours of research so far) that I offer this paper in his honour. The oeuvre of the KashmirianTantricmaster Abhinavagupta (fl. c. 975–1015) is one of themany areas of research Professor Sanderson hasmastered, and it is this authorwhich thepresent paper treats. Specifically,wehere focus on a trope found inAbhinavagupta’s two commentaries on the Īśvara-pratyabhijñā-kārikā (ĪPK) of Utpaladeva, viz., that of an alchemical metaphor for spiritual transformation. These passages provide no small number of difficulties, because the text aswehave it is not secure, and because some knowledge of Indian alchemy (rasāyana, dhātu-śāstra) is needed in order to translate it correctly. While I do not claim to have solved these problems, this paper may certainly contribute to our understanding of howAbhinavagupta thought about the process of spiritual transformation conferred by the uniquely potent insight ( jñāna) and yoga offered by initiatory Śaivism. Specifically, we learn much about his usage of the key terms samāveśa, turya, and turyātīta, and it is hoped that