The Garland of Letters (Studies in the Mantra-Sastra)

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Sir John Woodroffe, also recognized by the pseudonym Arthur Avalon, was a British Orientalist whose extensive and and intricate intric body of published works on the Tantras and various Hindu traditions played a pivotal role in sparking widespread interest in Hindu philosophy and yoga.

In addition to serving as the Advocate-General of Bengal and holding the position of Legal Member in the Government of India, Woodroffe dedicated himself to the study of Sanskrit and Hindu philosophy. His particular fascination with Hindu Tantra led him to translate around twenty original Sanskrit texts. Writing under the pen name Arthur Avalon, he not only published but also delivered prolific lectures on Indian philosophy, encompassing a broad spectrum of Yoga and Tantra subjects.

Woodroffe's works have gained global popularity, resonating not only with academics and scholars but also with a general audience around the world.

His other works also available from us Include "The Serpent Power', 'The Garland of Letters', 'The World as Power', 'The Great Liberation: Mahanirvana Tantra', 'Hymns to the Goddess and Hymn to Kali', 'Principles of Tantra', 'Introduction to Tantra Sastra', 'Sakti and Sakta', 'Is India Civilized: Essays on Indian Culture', and 'Isha Upanishad, Bharata Shakti & The Seed of Race'.

Sir John Woodroffe (Arthur Avalon) was instrumental in removing S many of the cobwebs of ignorance that had come to cluster round the Säkta philosophy and practice. The decent Indian mind that had developed a deep-seated prejudice against the Tantras became awake to their excellence after the pioneering work of this great foreigner. By editing the original Sanskrit texts, as also by publishing essays on the different aspects of Śāktism, he showed that this cult had a profound philosophy behind it, and that there was nothing irrational or obscurantist about the technique of worship it recommends.

This book is an attempt, now made for the first time, to explain to an English-knowing reader an undoubtedly difficult subject. I am therefore forcibly reminded of the saying, "Veda fears the man of little knowledge, since injury may be received from him" (Bibhetyalpassutad-Vedo mamayam prahariśyate). It is natural, given this difficulty and the mystery which surrounds the subject, that strangers to India should have failed to understand Mantra. They need not, however, have then (as some have done) jumped to the conclusion that it was "meaningless superstition." This is the familiar argument of the lower mind which says "what I cannot understand can have no sense at all." Mantra is, it is true, meaningless to those who do not know its meaning. But there are others who do, and to them it is not "superstition." It is because some English-educated Indians are as uninstructed in the matter as that rather common type of Western to whose mental outlook and opinions they mould their own, that it was possible to find a distinguished member of this class describing Mantra as "meaningless jabber.