About the Book Laksmi Tantra is a brilliant and unique Pañcaratra text where Lakṣmi is given equal importance with Visnu, and is even identified with the Mahiṣāsuramardini form of Durgā. The Pañcarātra theology is firmly embedded in its description of cosmo logy with Lakṣmi as the head. The present text is critically edited by Pandit V. Krishnamacharya with his commentary and detailed introduction.

Pandit V. Krishnamacharya (1885 1981) was an eminent Sanskrit scholar. He was on the Adyar Library staff for more than 20 years and was associated with the publication of descriptive catalogues of the manuscripts in the library.

Preface THE Adyar Library is happy to bring out this edition of the Laksmi-tantra, an important Pañicaratra text, as the eighty-seventh volume in the Adyar Library Series. This is the second Päñicarätra work published by the Library; the first was the Ahirbudhnya Samhita edited under the supervision of Dr. F. Otto Schrader and published in 1906.

The present edition of the Laksmi-tantra is based on the following material:

A. The Laksmi-tantra printed in 1888 in Telugu characters by the Sadvidyamandira Press, Mysore. B. Adyar Library MS. No. 73675 (palm-leaf) containing adhyaya-s 1 to 50.

C. Adyar Library MS. No. VB 1004 (palm-leaf) containing adhyaya-s 1 to 50, but lacking a few lines at the end.

D. Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras, MS. R. No. 60406 (palm-leaf) containing adhyaya-s 1 to 31, the last adhyaya being incomplete.

E. Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras, MS. D. No. 16058 (palm-leaf) containing adhyaya-s 1 to 17. F. Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras, MS. R. No.

28 (paper) containing adhyaya-s 1 to 50 with a gap in the 17th adhyaya. This is said to be a transcript of a MS. belonging to Sri M. O. Anandalvar of Bangalore.

G. Sri Venkatesvara Oriental Manuscripts Library, Tirupati, MS. No. 3852 (paper) containing adhyaya-s 1 to 50. I. Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras, MS. R. No. 5218 (palm-leaf) containing adhyaya-s 1 to 57, but lacking the end of the 55th, the whole of the 56th and the beginning of the 57th adhyaya-s.

Introduction Pandit V. Krishnamacharya's definitive critical edition of the Lakymi Tantra based on sufficient manuscript material, together with his brilliant commentary and exhaustive introduction, has been acclaimed by scholars in the field. Dr. Sanjukta Gupta's English translation with notes (Leiden, EJ. Brill, 1972) is mainly based on the Adyar Library edition. The English translation by Dr. V. Varadacharya, son of Pandit V. Krishnamacharya, of the Sanskrit Introduction to the Laksmi Tantra, titled Lakymimahima (The Glory of Laksml) has been published from Pondicherry in 1996.

The Lakṣmi Tantra is traditionally accepted as an important Pañcaratra text: it is called a Tantra because of its almost exclusive treatment of the Vaisnava goddess Laksmi whom it glorifies on an equal footing with Visnu and advocates her worship. It also alludes to the particular sadhana of the Vämäcära Tantra-s that require a female partner. In the commentary on Lalita Sahasranama, Bhaskararaya quotes from the Laksmi Tantra to show that Mahalakṣmi herself took the form of Durga to kill Mahiṣäsura.

The Laksmi Tantra generally follows the tradition of the Jayakhya Samhita and the Sattvata Samhita of the Päñcarätra tradition. It seems to have been recognized as a Sakta Agama, since it asserts that Durga, Bhadrakali, and Yogamaya are merely other names of Mahalaksmi (Laksmi Tantra IV.40 and 47).

The Laksmi Tantra has a close resemblance to the Ahirbudhnya Samhita, but there are no quotations. It mentions the Sattvata Samhita by name and quotes extensively from the Jayakhya Samhita. Buddha and Tārā are given as the joint manifestation of Lakṣmi and Nārāyaṇa. The acceptance of Buddha as an incarnation of Visnu becomes prominent in the Bhagavata Purana (in the ninth century).

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