Broo Måns - The Radha Tantra: a critical edition and annotated translation

Working with the Rdh Tantra has in many ways been an exploratory journey for me. I first came across the text at a bookseller in Kolkata, and it immediately struck me as odd, but odd in an appealing way. It sounded like a Vaiava text, but what kind of Vaiavism was this? Working with the text not only led me to explore the boundaries between Vaiavism and ktism, but also into working with Sanskrit manuscripts in several different Indic scripts. For a scholar who has always been fascinated with languages, old libraries and dusty tomes, this has been exciting beyond measure, and a kind of work I hope to return to in the future.

Many people helped me to bring this work to completion. With regard to finding and getting copies of manuscripts, I wish to first of all acknowledge the material help I received from Dr. Satyanarayana Das and the staff of the Jiva Institute, Vrindavan. May the Mistress of Vrindavan continue to bless their endeavours!

Many libraries and research institutions afforded me kind help along the way. I particularly wish to thank Dr. Bandana Mukherjee and Dr. Bibekananda Bannerjee at the Asiatic Society, Kolkata; Acyuta Dasa at the Bhaktivednta Research Library, Kolkata; Prof. Dr. S. M. Zabed Ahmed and Syeda Farida Parvin at the Dhaka University Library, Dhaka; Nam Raj Gurung at the Nepal Research Centre, Kathmandu; the late Prof. Manabendu Bannerjee at the Saskta Shitya Pariad, Kolkata; and Nikolai Serikoff and Stefania Signorello at the Wellcome Institute, London.

Among the scholars who helped me in other ways, I wish to acknowledge particularly Martin Gansten, University of Lund; Oliver Hellwig, Freie Universitt Berlin; Rembert Lutjeharms, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies; Paolo E. Rosati, Sapienza University of Rome; Ferdinando Sardella, University of Stockholm; Kiyokazu Okita, University of Kyoto; Lubomir Ondracka, Charles University, Prague; and Dominik Wujastyk, University of Vienna.

At Routledge, I am very grateful to Gavin Flood, Series Editor of Routledge Studies in Tantric Traditions, who enthusiastically welcomed my work, even in its first, inchoate proposal, and to Tina Cottone, project manager, for expertly guiding me along the way.

My thanks also go to Professor Peter Nyns, head of the Department of Comparative Religion, bo Akademi University, who not only encouraged me in this work at a critical stage but also helped in arranging a sabbatical for me in order to finish the work.

Finally, I wish to thank my beautiful wife, Saragrahi, without whose love and support nothing of this would have been possible.

bo, Finland,
March 2016