Differentiating the Concepts of "Yoga" and "Tantra" in Sanskrit Literary History (Report‪)‬

Two of the most puzzling yet important terms in current research in South Asian studies are the terms yoga and tantra, and the two books under review are important and welcome contributions to gaining some clarity regarding the meaning and significance of both. Both volumes are revised versions of Ph.D. dissertations, the former for the University of Bonn and the latter for Oxford University. Philipp Andre Maas provides the first critical edition of the first Pada of the Pataajalayogasastra, including both the sutrapatha of the Samadhi Pada and the bhasya attributed to Vyasa, which he dates to the period of 325 to 425 C.E. James Mallinson provides the first critical edition of a well-known Hatha Yoga text, the Khecarividya, many of the verses of which text are also to be found in the Goraksasid-dhantasamgraha, the Yogakundali Upanisad, and the Matsyendrasamhita, and a text that he dates to perhaps the fourteenth century C.E. or somewhat earlier. Both texts use the term yoga and both are important for understanding the meaning of the term tantra. What is striking, however, is that the two terms yoga and tantra have two distinctly different meanings in the respective traditions to which they belong, and before discussing these two new critical editions it is essential to make some historical and textual distinctions regarding the relation (sambandha) between yoga and tantra in these two environments. There is a great deal of popular as well as scholarly confusion regarding these terms that needs to be clarified and sorted out. P. V. Kane in his massive History of Dharmasastra makes the following observation: