Shakti and Shâkta
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- Catalogue identifier
- kali-0089
- Alternate titles and import identifiers
- KALI-0089; shakti_shakta_avalon_1918
- Author or attribution
- Arthur Avalon (John Woodroffe)
- Record type
- Book
- Language
- English
- Date / edition
- 1918
- Source / repository
- Luzac & Co.
- Access
- Open access
- Subjects
- Kali Library Research Catalogue; Historical Accounts and Colonial Records; Tantras and Esoteric Literature; Art, Iconography, and Epigraphic Studies; Philosophy, Theology, and Comparative Religion
Description and curator notes
Woodroffe's collection of thirty essays explains and defends Shakta philosophy and Tantra for English-speaking readers. Topics range from consciousness and power to ritual, initiation, mantra, the guru and yoga. The substantial essay “The Indian Magna Mater” interprets images of Kali in relation to Shiva, cosmic manifestation and dissolution, the cremation ground, the corpse and the Mother as the power sustaining the universe. These discussions make the book especially valuable for the history of modern interpretations of Kali's iconography. The concluding essay situates Shakta claims within a philosophical account of whole and partial experience. This is a primary document of the early twentieth-century rehabilitation of Tantra, with the author's technical Sanskrit vocabulary and comparisons to Western thought. It should not be treated as a neutral description of all Shakta communities or as a substitute for the particular scriptures it cites. The complete work is available in chapter-based HTML, preserving the argumentative context that disappears when individual symbolic explanations are quoted alone.
KALI-0089 — Kali Library Research Catalogue.
Access and reliability assessments below are supplied by the curator's 4–5 November 2026 research release, not a new independent verification.
Author / attribution: Arthur Avalon (John Woodroffe)
Publication: Luzac & Co. · 1918
London: Luzac & Co., 1918.
Format / language: Historical book / primary devotional or interpretive source · English
Composition / textual history: Original English work; see publication date and edition notes
Identifier: shakti_shakta_avalon_1918
Kali relevance: Direct treatment of Kali iconography and Shakta theology, especially chapter XX.
Context: Read in its historical and literary context; translation choices are those of the named translator.
Subjects: Historical Accounts and Colonial Records; Tantras and Esoteric Literature; Art, Iconography, and Epigraphic Studies; Philosophy, Theology, and Comparative Religion
Evidence / reliability: Freely accessible complete historical text; interpretive and historical claims should be compared with modern scholarship.
Access / rights: Complete text checked 2026-11-04. Historical text and translation are public domain in the United States; observe host transcription terms and local law for reuse.
Source and alternate access links:
Read complete text: https://sacred-texts.com/book/shakti-and-shakta
Alternate / related form: https://sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/index.htm
Source access
Read or locate the original source at Luzac & Co.
Rights and reading conditions
Complete text checked 2026-11-04. Historical text and translation are public domain in the United States; observe host transcription terms and local law for reuse. This library links to the source and does not reproduce its full text.
Citation
Arthur Avalon (John Woodroffe). Shakti and Shâkta. Luzac & Co. · 1918.
This page supplies catalogue metadata and links. It does not reproduce the underlying source text. Historical, religious, healing and interpretive claims belong to the cited sources, not to an independent verification by this catalogue.