---
type: Reference
bundle: shakta-darshana
bundle_version: "0.8.0"
id: kularnava-tantra
title: "Kulārṇava Tantra — कुलार्णवतन्त्र (descriptive citation)"
iast: "Kulārṇava Tantra"
devanagari: "कुलार्णवतन्त्र"
description: "DESCRIPTIVE CITATION ONLY: a principal Kaula tantra, the locus classicus for guru-dīkṣā doctrine, the ācāra classifications, and the regulated left-current framework INCLUDING its own internal warnings; cited in this bundle as the adhikāra-discipline exemplar; its ritual content is not documented."
text_type: "Kaula tantra (17 ullāsas)"
period: "Kaula corpus (commonly dated c. 10th-14th century CE)"
tags: [kularnava, kaula, diksha, guru, vamachara, achara, reference, descriptive-only]
related:
  - /concepts/tantra.md
  - /concepts/vamachara-dakshinachara.md
  - /concepts/pancha-makara.md
  - /concepts/mantra-shastra.md
timestamp: "2026-07-01"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Kulārṇava Tantra -- कुलार्णवतन्त्र (descriptive citation)

## Scope Note (read first)

This reference is DESCRIPTIVE: it documents what the text is and which doctrinal frameworks this bundle cites it for. Ritual procedure is not documented, per bundle policy. The text is itself the bundle's best exemplar of why that policy mirrors the tradition: the Kulārṇava is famous equally for its left-current framework AND for its own severe warnings about unqualified practice, false gurus, and the misuse of exactly its material.

## Why This Text Is in the Bundle

Three frameworks cited here rest on it: (1) the guru-dīkṣā jurisprudence (its ullāsas on the necessity, qualification, and testing of guru and śiṣya are the classical statements; cross-bundle: guru.md, diksha.md in bhakti-marga v0.4); (2) the ācāra classification ladder grounding [vamachara-dakshinachara.md](../concepts/vamachara-dakshinachara.md); (3) the regulated framing of the pañca-makāra category ([pancha-makara.md](../concepts/pancha-makara.md)), where the text's own restriction-and-warning apparatus is the primary evidence against both the hedonism reading and the definitional inflation of the category.

## Use in This Bundle

- [tantra.md](../concepts/tantra.md): dīkṣā and restriction as definitional features of the tradition
- [vamachara-dakshinachara.md](../concepts/vamachara-dakshinachara.md), [pancha-makara.md](../concepts/pancha-makara.md): the primary regulated-context source
- [mantra-shastra.md](../concepts/mantra-shastra.md): mantra and dīkṣā chapters

## Editions

Sanskrit editions with the Arthur Avalon-series introduction (Woodroffe's series printed the text); M. P. Pandit's English rendering of key portions is widely available. Reception caution: Avalon-series framing carries its era's lens (see the bundle's error-genealogy files).
