Shri Vidya

Shri Vidya (ISO: Śrī Vidyā; lit. ''knowledge', 'learning', 'lore', or 'science'';[1] sometimes also spelled Sri Vidya or Shree Vidya) is a Hindu Tantric religious system devoted to the Goddess as Lalitā Tripurasundarī (Beautiful Goddess of the Three Worlds).

The Shri Yantra (shown here in the three-dimensional projection known as Shri Meru Chakra or Maha Meru) is central to most Tantric forms of Shaktism.
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A thousand names for this form of Devī are recited in the Lalitā Sahasranāma, which includes Śrī Vidyā concepts.[2] The sect accepts and aims to provide both material prosperity and self-realisation. It has an extensive literature.[3] Details of belief vary in different texts but the general principles are similar to those found in Kashmir Shaivism.[4]

In the principally Shakta theology of Śrī Vidyā the goddess is supreme, transcending the cosmos that is her manifestation.[5] She is worshiped in the form of a mystical diagram (Sanskrit: yantra), a central focus and ritual object composed of nine intersecting triangles, called the Shri Yantra or Śrī Cakra.[6]

Major texts

References

Citations
  1. Apte 1965, p. 857.
  2. For influence on the Lalitā Sahasranāma and a brief summary of some Śrī Vidyā practices see: Sastry 1986, pp. vii–ix.
  3. Bhattacharyya 1999, p. 329.
  4. Flood 1996, p. 188.
  5. For goddess as supreme and beyond the manifest cosmos, see: Flood 1996, p. 188.
  6. Flood 1996, pp. 187–188.

Works cited
  • Apte, Vaman Shivram (1965), The Practical Sanskrit Dictionary (Fourth revised and enlarged ed.), Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, ISBN 81-208-0567-4
  • Bhattacharyya, N. N. (1999), History of the Tantric Religion (Second revised ed.), New Delhi: Manohar, ISBN 81-7304-025-7
  • Flood, Gavin (1996), An Introduction to Hinduism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-43878-0
  • Sastry, R. Ananthakrishna (1986), Lalitāsahasranāma, Delhi: Gian Publishing House

Further reading
  • Dempsey, Corinne G. (2006), The Goddess Lives in Upstate New York: Breaking Convention and Making Home at a North American Hindu Temple (first ed.), New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-518729-8
  • Dev, K. V., ed. (1996), The Thousand Names of the Divine Mother, San Ramon, California: Mata Amritanandamayi Center, ISBN 1-879410-67-2
  • Joshi, L. M. (1998), Lalitā Sahasranāma, New Delhi: D. K. Printworld (P) Ltd., ISBN 81-246-0073-2
  • Melanathuru, Venkata Subrahmanyam, Śhrī Vidya Upasana, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh
  • Tapasyananda, Swami (1990), Śrī Lalitā Sahasranāma, Mylapore, Chennai: Sri Ramakrishna Math, ISBN 81-7120-104-0


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