Feeding the Enemy to the Goddess: War Magic in Śaiva Tantric Texts
Open this record in the interactive library
- Catalogue identifier
- kali-fifty4-010
- Alternate titles and import identifiers
- KALI-50B4-010
- Author or attribution
- Olga Serbaeva
- Record type
- Article
- Language
- English
- Date / edition
- 2022-03-24
- Source / repository
- Religions 13(4), 278 — publisher PDF via Wisdom Library
- Access
- Open access
- Subjects
- 50 Full-Text Sources — Batch 4, November 2026; Scholarship and historical studies
Description and curator notes
Serbaeva compares war-related ritual prescriptions in Sanskrit Śaiva Tantras, Purāṇas and manuals addressed to royal patrons. The study is especially useful for Kālī research because it presents and translates material from the Jayadrathayāmala, including the Astrakālī chapter, alongside evidence from the Ṣaṭsāhasrasaṃhitā. The author tests the expectation that texts intended for tantric initiates would prescribe the most extreme war rituals. Her comparison instead identifies especially transgressive prescriptions in mixed literature serving kings and religious specialists, while warfare occupies relatively little space in many initiated traditions. She argues that apparent royal objectives could conceal or overlap with practitioners’ own religious purposes. This interpretation should be attributed to the author rather than treated as settled evidence of what historical actors actually did. It is a full scholarly study, not a complete edition of the much larger Jayadrathayāmala. Ritual descriptions are documentary evidence for textual traditions, not proof of supernatural efficacy or endorsement of harmful practices.
Curator source KALI-50B4-010. Scholarship and historical studies. Research supplement dated 5 November 2026.
Except where specific checks are described below, source access, completeness and scholarly or devotional assessments are supplied by the curator document, not a new independent verification by this library. Comparative goddess identities, healing claims and devotional interpretations are attributed, not established universal or clinical facts. Full source content is linked, not reproduced.
10. Feeding the Enemy to the Goddess: War Magic in Śaiva Tantric Texts
Author/editor: Olga Serbaeva | 2022-03-24
Type / language: Peer-reviewed scholarly article with editions and translations of primary passages | English
Serbaeva compares war-related ritual prescriptions in Sanskrit Śaiva Tantras, Purāṇas and manuals addressed to royal patrons. The study is especially useful for Kālī research because it presents and translates material from the Jayadrathayāmala, including the Astrakālī chapter, alongside evidence from the Ṣaṭsāhasrasaṃhitā. The author tests the expectation that texts intended for tantric initiates would prescribe the most extreme war rituals. Her comparison instead identifies especially transgressive prescriptions in mixed literature serving kings and religious specialists, while warfare occupies relatively little space in many initiated traditions. She argues that apparent royal objectives could conceal or overlap with practitioners’ own religious purposes. This interpretation should be attributed to the author rather than treated as settled evidence of what historical actors actually did. It is a full scholarly study, not a complete edition of the much larger Jayadrathayāmala. Ritual descriptions are documentary evidence for textual traditions, not proof of supernatural efficacy or endorsement of harmful practices.
Read the complete source: Open full-text document
https://www.wisdomlib.org/uploads/journals/mdpi-relig/2022-volume-13-issue-4--2077-1444-13-4-278-.pdf
Access check: Complete freely readable publisher PDF obtained from a CC BY licensed mirror; checked 5 November 2026.
Source links:
https://www.wisdomlib.org/uploads/journals/mdpi-relig/2022-volume-13-issue-4--2077-1444-13-4-278-.pdf
Source access
Read or locate the original source at Religions 13(4), 278 — publisher PDF via Wisdom Library
Rights and reading conditions
Curator-reported free reading is not a blanket republication licence. Follow each source's copyright and reuse conditions; third-party images may have different rights from the article text. No full texts or scans are reproduced here. Complete freely readable publisher PDF obtained from a CC BY licensed mirror; checked 5 November 2026.
Citation
Olga Serbaeva. Feeding the Enemy to the Goddess: War Magic in Śaiva Tantric Texts. Religions 13(4), 278 — publisher PDF via Wisdom Library. 2022-03-24. https://www.wisdomlib.org/uploads/journals/mdpi-relig/2022-volume-13-issue-4--2077-1444-13-4-278-.pdf
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.