Michael Slouber's Early Tantric Medicine is a welcome contribution to Tantric studies. The author provides a critical introduction to his critically edited and translated chapters (chapters 1–7, 30–31, and 35, with accompanying Devanāgarī text) of the Kriyākālaguṇottara, a previously untranslated Gāruḍa Tantric text located within the larger tradition of Mantramārga Śaivism. According to Slouber, the Gāruḍa Tantras, largely composed between the sixth and ninth centuries CE, enjoyed “a remarkable influence on the Puranas, later Ayurveda, and the Tantric traditions of Buddhism and Jainism” (p. 56). In this regard, the text is of great historical interest to the Indological community. That said, “the wider intellectual world” (p. 128) is right to question why Slouber chose to work on these particular chapters of the Kriyākālaguṇottara.
Slouber makes a case for the significance of the Kriyākālaguṇottara by situating his project at the intersection of postcolonial theory, South Asian studies, religious studies,...
