Talk:Kaula (Hinduism)

I started importing my notes

As you can see the article has been radically expanded. I am trying to give an all around view of the many facets of the concept of "Kaula". Next will come a complex section on the actual "Kaula" practices. Stay tuned :-) or if you don't have patience you can visit my workbench at User:Visarga/Kaula where there is a preview of what is to come. Already there are some 32Kb of text in 200 edits. Visarga 05:48, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Bold Captions

I have used a lot of bold captions for specific tantric terms, usually in Sanskrit. If there is some specific Wikipedia guideline that I am violating please help me. Or if you see anything else wrong in the text. Thanks.

Some bold captioned words, as new articles are added in the field of Kashmir Shaivism will need to be turned into links. Visarga 05:54, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Still more to come

In the next few weeks I hope to finish adding the material for this article. It has been a long and laborious study for me too. A preview of what is to come is in my work area User:Visarga/Kaula. I hope all interested parties will help me with hints or contributions to the article. Visarga 09:05, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

Request for review

Please give evaluations on the form and content of the Kaula article. Is it too extended? Does it become too abstract and difficult to follow compared to normal practices on Wikipedia? Please insert feedback so as to help me learn & adjust my style. Visarga 10:12, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

Suggestions

To name a few:

• RE - Write lead by WP:LEAD. Too short at the moment
• Terminology: The defns are a little abstract. e.g Akula - that which transcends the Kula; an organizing force of a superior order.
• There seems to be some confusing statements about Kula and Kaula. e.g The basic meaning of kaula is "group" or "family" in lead. The basic meaning of Kula is "group", in Main interpretations.
• The spiritual family is 2nd half defn is confusing. The guru is identified by each disciple with his own supreme self (Atman), guru and his wife (shakti). Statements regarding guru repeated in "Guru" section.
• what ARE phoneme-energies or tattvAS is not certain ? A concrete defn is needed like those in a glossary of a book
• or, we could say like phrases used in spoken English should be avoided. Some how, i sense that this article is written like a spoken lecture with comments like "In this article we are going to switch back and forth between the four terms depending on context, but they all refer to the same fundamental notion", which are not neccessary IMO.
• Fundamental concepts: Pure and Impure: "A veritable alchemy of sin is developed here, by dissolving the lower categories into the higher ones, as lower levels are contained in the higher levels, till one reaches Shiva, and then regenerating the body by expressing the higher categories in the lower ones." - which lower and higher categories is the author quoted talking about??
• A process of purification and regeneration by light (prakāśa) has no verb - like spoken
• Secondary ref must be used instead of pri like Tantrāloka (35), 48 etc.
• No details like yr, publisher, ISBN of Abhinavagupta: The Kula Ritual (author too) and other books provided. Provide in References section.
• Quote ref as per WP:CITE. Write Muller-Ortega (1989), p. 61 instead of The Triadic Heart of Shiva, Paul Muller-Ortega, page 61. Use named ref

--Redtigerxyz 07:02, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Maybe it is too "wordy"

Believe it or not, there are still things to add, thus I might need to fork out some parts and shorten the texts in other places. I expanded too much on "Fundamental concepts:Freedom". Anyway, the Kaula concept is intimidating in itself, so many things to say, yet we don't want to write a mini-book here.Visarga (talk) 22:49, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

There is much useful material here, but a good deal is stated two or three times due to bad organisation. Additionally, much is stated again on other pages. Further, the page is written entirely from the view of Kashmir Savaism, ignoring dual and shakti schools.

So please excuse this sudden reordering. Redheylin (talk) 16:09, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Thank you Redheylin for your effort. The article is shorter but doesn't appear to have lost much actual information. Visarga (talk) 21:40, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Serious Problems with this article

This article is titled Kaula, yet it immediately establishes at the start that Kaula is a synonym of Kula. If you study a sanskrit dictionary one will see that the meanings of the words overlap in the sense of a grouping or even family, yet these are two different words. Most of the references for this article relate to Kula, a different word better suited to a different article. To add to the problems here, most of the text relates to Kashmir Shaivism, yet another word which already has its own article. While the numerous references seem to have given credibility to the article, most of the references are invalid as they are about a different thing, Kashmir Shaivism. -Vritti (talk) 05:57, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Kashmir Shaivism is the name of a philosophy that contains a number of schools. They all embrace the same dogma but differ on practical aspects. Kaula, Spanda, Pratyabhijna and Krama are all reunited under the same roof of Kashmir Shaivism, especially due to the grad unificatory work of Abhinavagupta who was accomplished in all of them. Please look up. 61.164.100.141 (talk) 21:11, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

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