Throughout human history, and across many religious cultures, offerings are made into fire. The essays collected in Homa Variations provide detailed studies of this practice, known in the tantric world as the "homa," from its inception up to the present.

• Preface


• Acknowledgments


• Contributors


• Introduction, Richard K. Payne


• Symbolic and Comparative Studies


• 1. The Ritual Interplay of Fire and Water in Hindu and Buddhist Tantras, Holly Grether


• 2. Buddhist Permutations and Symbolism of Fire, Tadeusz Skorupski


• 3. The Structure of Japanese Buddhist Homa, Musashi Tachikawa


• Textual Studies


• 4. The Vedic Homa and the Standardization of Hindu Puja, Timothy Lubin


• 5. Oblation, Non-conception, and Body-Systems of Psychosomatic Fire-oblation in Esoteric Buddhism in Medieval South Asia, Tsunehiko Sugiki


• 6. The Three Types of Fire Sacrifice According to Kanha'sSricakrasamvara-homavidhi, David B. Gray


• 7. Fire Rituals by the Queen of Siddhas: The Aparimitayur-homa-vidhi-nama in the Tengyur, Georgios T. Halkias


• 8. Homa Rituals in the Indian Kalacakratantra Tradition, Vesna A. Wallace


• 9. Ritual Subjects: Homa in Chinese Translations and Manuals from the Sixth through Eighth Centuries, Charles D. Orzech


• Descriptive Studies


• 10. Newar Buddhist Homa Ritual Traditions, Todd Lewis and Naresh Bajracarya


• 11. The Navaratra Homa: Liver, Enchantment, and Engendering the Divine "Sakti-s", Nawaraj Chaulagain


• 12. Fire on the Mountain: The Shugendo Saito Goma, Richard K. Payne


• 13. Agnihotra Rituals in Nepal, Michael Witzel


• Index

Richard K. Payne is Dean and Yehan Numata Professor of Japanese Buddhist Studies at the Institute of Buddhist Studies, Berkeley.
Michael Witzel is Wales Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University.