Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori

EDITORIAL NOTE TO THE CELEPHAÏS PRESS EDITION
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
This edition of Introduction to Tantra Śāstra was OCRed and proofed
from a copy of the 1973 “sixth edition” issued by Ganesh & co., Madras,
India. As noted on the imprint, this text originally formed the
extended Introduction to a translation of the Mahānirvāna-Tantra,
first published in London in 1913 under the pseudonym “Arthur
Avalon.” The first edition as an independent work which I have been
able to find cited is the 1952 Ganesh & co. printing, designated
“second edition.” However, the footnotes contain a number of references
to works by Woodroffe published subsequent to 1913, indicating
either (a) some revision by the author subsequent to the first
publication or (b) the interpolations of an anonymous later editor.
Since this book has gone through a number of editions, which
have not been typographically identical, no attempt has been made
to retain pagination, layout and style of my copy text. In this print
edition there were minor discrepancies in the romanization of
Sanskrit between the body text and some footnotes; these have been
made consistent where possible, which was not always (e.g., where I
wasn’t actually sure which, if either, was correct). A few apparent
errors have been conjecturally fixed.
I am not entirely sure of the value of this work as an “introduction”
to the subject, or how much Woodroffe assumed his readers
already knew. On the one hand he felt the need to explain things
like the Indian version of the descent of the ages, the “āśrama” or
traditional stages of life, the principal castes, &c., implying that at
least some of his readership was assumed to be unacquainted with
basic aspects of Indian society, culture and religion; on the other
hand, technical Sanskrit terms are thrown around left right and
centre without being defined clearly, or at all (and even Monier-
Willaims’ dictionary is unhelpful with many of these, giving at best
the literal meaning only), and works which are difficult of access and
in many cases have had no English translation are routinely cited in
notes; and occasionally words or phrases in romanized Sanskrit
which do not obviously appear to be technical terms appear in the
middle of English sentences (e.g. p. 62 notes 2 and 5).