Abstract

The present thesis studies the theory of reflection (pratibimbavāda) as discussed by Abhinavagupta (fl.c. 975-1025 CE), the non-dualist Trika Śaiva thinker of Kashmir, primarily focusing on what is often referred to as his magnum opus: the Tantrāloka. The present study has as its foundation a new critical edition of a small, nonetheless important, passage of the Tantrāloka—chapter-3, verses 1-65 and the commentary titled -viveka thereon by Jayaratha (fl.c. 1225-1275 CE)—along with an annotated English translation. The edition here presented represents the very first philologically exhaustive edition of any part of the Tantrāloka or Tantrāloka-viveka. 
The textual critical exercise undertaken in this thesis based on the examination of twenty-nine manuscripts has shown that the textual transmission of the Tantrāloka and -viveka (at least of the small part that I have studied) thereon has undergone corruption, but of a minor sort. The present edition is a much improved version over the editio princeps yet nothing significantly different from the latter as far as the interpretation of the text is concerned.
Abhinavagupta’s teachings are laid deep under the esoteric influence of the Kaula and the Krama systems, and he employs a robust model of developing a critical dialectical structure that manifests in his works like those of the theories of reflection amongst many others. In the Tantrāloka as also in his other Trika works, he is endeavouring to establish a unique ontological status to a reflected object (pratibimba) rejecting the thesis of Naiyāyikas, Sāṃkhyavādins and Vijñānavādins. The varied textures of his hermeneutics finds groundings in many branches of knowledge as diverse as metaphysics, epistemology, soteriology, aesthetics, mysticism and phenomenology.