Mark S. G. Dyczkowski is an English Indologist, musician and a scholar on Tantra and Kashmir Shaivism.[1] He has published multiple translations and commentaries, most notably the 12 volume Manthanabhairava Tantra[2] and an 11 volume Tantrāloka including the commentary by Jayaratha. Dyczkowski also plays the sitar and has collected over 1,500 compositions for sitar.[3]

Life and career

Mark Dyczkowski was born in London on 29 August 1951 to a Polish father and Italian mother. He discovered the East and India at a very young age and was deeply influenced by their cultures and religion.[4] Dyczkowski at 14 read Vivekananda, Yogananda, Ramakrishna Paramahansa, the Bhagavad Gita, the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, among others; and started playing the sitar, which became a constant companion.[5] When he read Walter Evans-Wentz's books The Tibetan Book of the Dead and the Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines, he found them to be too complex to understand and realised the need for a Guru.

After finishing school at 17, Dyczkowski, now 18, traveled to India. He visited Guru Maharaj Ji's (Rawat Singh - then 12 years old) ashram in Delhi recommended by 2 fellow hotel guests, where he stayed for 6 months. Dyczkoswki went to London to assist Maharaj in his sermons, and stayed there until the Guru suggested he go to college in India.[4] He enrolled in the Banaras Hindu University in 1970 at the age of 19, where his professor was Acharya Rameshwar Jha and a fellow student was K.D. Tripathi. Dyczkowski met Pandit Hemant Chakravarti in Varanasi in 1971 (a student of Gopinath Kaviraj, who in turn was a student of Vishuddhananda Paramahansa and Anandamayi Ma). He studied Sanskrit, philosophy and Tantra under his guidance, while simultaneously learning the sitar from Budhaditya Mukherjee.[4] Dyczkowski also studied with Vrajvallabh Dwivedi and Pandit Vagish Shastri (who taught him Sanskrit grammar).[6]

By 1974 Dyczkowski had obtained a BA and MA in Indian Philosophy and Religion with distinction from Banaras Hindu University (BHU). He returned to England and was admitted to University of Oxford to conduct doctoral research into Kashmir Trika Shaivism. His doctoral advisor was Alexis Sanderson, one of the few scholars in the West who knew of its existence. His supervisor was Richard Gombrich.[7] In 1976 Dyczkowski traveled to Kashmir and was formally initiated into Kashmiri Shaivism by Swami Lakshman Joo, who became his guru and who he would stay with for 6 months every year to attend his lectures.[8]

Dyczkowski returned to India in late 1979 after receiving his PhD. He worked towards a second Doctorate at the Banaras Hindu University, where he studied as a Commonwealth Scholar. In 1985 he enrolled at the Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya for the Vachaspati (DLitt) degree.[7] He started learning the sitar and Indian classical music from Dr. Gangrade (the head of the music faculty at BHU) and Omir Bhattacharya, and learnt vocals from Pashupatinath Mishra. Dyczkowski published his doctoral dissertation, The Doctrine of Vibration as his first book, which introduced many people to Kashmir Shaivism and was reprinted multiple times.[7][9]

Prof. Sanderson gifted two books to Dyczkowski on his wedding. One of these was the Kubjikamata, which sparked his curiosity and led him to research the Kubjika tradition in Nepal which he would visit once or twice a year. His path breaking research was the first ever exposition of such a secret Tantric tradition and led to multiple other such efforts.[10] Dyczkowski primarily focuses on the Trika, Kaula, Krama, Bhairava and Siddhaanta schools of Tantra, among others.[11] He is also notable for digitizing many previously inaccessible Sanskrit manuscripts and scriptures in association with the Muktabodha Indological Research Institute.[12]

Works

Books

  • The Doctrine of Vibration: an analysis of the doctrines and practices of Kashmir Shaivism (1987, State University of New York Press, Albany, New York). ISBN 9780887064319, 9780887064326.
  • The canon of the Śaivāgama and the Kubjikā Tantras of the western Kaula tradition (1987, State University of New York Press, Albany, New York). ISBN 9780585078458.
  • Kubjikā, Kālī, Tripurā, and Trika (2000, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart & The Nepal Research Centre, Kathmandu). ISBN 9783515077729.
  • The cult of the goddess Kubjika: a preliminary comparative textual and anthropological survey of a secret Newar goddess (2001, The Nepal Research Centre, Kathmandu). ISBN 9783515081061.
  • A journey in the world of Tantras (2004, Indica Books, Varanasi). ISBN 9788186569429.
  • Self Awareness, own being and egoity (1990, DK Book Agencies, Varanasi). OCLC 715632176.

Works edited or translated

Articles

References

  1. ↑ "Dr. Mark Dyczkowski". Muktabodha Indological Research Institute. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
  2. ↑ "Mathanabhairavatantram". Index Theologicus. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
  3. ↑ Misra, Aparna (2020-02-21). "Mark Dyczkowski plays Bhairavi for Shiva at Varanasi". Center for Soft Power, Indica Academy. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
  4. 1 2 3 Osto, D. E. (2020-03-06). An Indian Tantric Tradition and Its Modern Global Revival: Contemporary Nondual Śaivism. Oxford & New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-04929-9.
  5. ↑ Compilation, Prabuddha Bharata (July 2018). Approaching Ramakrishna (1st Ebook ed.). Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama (A publication branch of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math). ISBN 978-81-7505-908-5.
  6. ↑ Battistini, Alessandro (2014-07-23). "Ātaṅkavādaśataka: the Century of Verses on Terrorism by Vagish Shastri". Governare la Paura. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. 7(1) (2014: India and Fear: Anatomy of an Emotion): 4. doi:10.6092/issn.1974-4935/4422. ISSN 1974-4935.
  7. 1 2 3 Das, Sadananda; Fürlinger, Ernst (2005). Samarasya. D.K. Printworld. ISBN 978-81-246-0338-3.
  8. ↑ Vasugupta; Singh, Jaideva (1992-01-01). The Yoga of Vibration and Divine Pulsation: A Translation of the Spanda Kārikās with Kṣemarāja's Commentary, the Spanda Nirṇaya. Albany, New York: SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-1179-7.
  9. ↑ Davis, Richard (1990). "Review of The Doctrine of Vibration: An Analysis of the Doctrines and Practices of Kashmir Shaivism, by Mark S. G. Dyczkowski". History of Religions. 29 (4): 424–426. JSTOR 1062928 – via JSTOR.
  10. ↑ White, David Gordon (2011). "Review of Manthānabhairavatantram Kumārikārikākhaṇḍaḥ: The Section Concerning the Virgin Goddess of the Tantra of the Churning Bhairava, by M. S. G. Dyczkowski". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 131 (2): 295–297. JSTOR 23044647 – via JSTOR.
  11. ↑ Kinsley, David R. (1998). Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahāvidyās (1st ed.). Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 253–280. ISBN 978-81-208-1522-3.
  12. ↑ Törzsök, Judit (2007), Padoux, Dominic Goodall & André (ed.), "The Search in Śaiva Scriptures for Meaning in Tantric Ritual", Mélanges tantriques à la mémoire d'Hélène Brunner – Tantric Studies in Memory of Hélène Brunner, Collection Indologie 106, Institut Français de Pondichéry Ecole Française d'Extrême Orient, pp. 485–516, retrieved 2023-08-27.
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