My dissertation is focused on a cycle of Saraha's Adamantine Songs and their relationship to the Great Seal. Belonging to a genre known as 'Adamantine Songs'---Vajra Giti in Sanskrit, or rDo rje 'i gLu in Tibetan---their titles are: "A Body Treasury called the Immortal Adamantine Song"; "A Speech Treasury called the Manjughosa Adamantine Song" and "A Mind Treasury called the Unborn Adamantine Song". The dissertation is divided into two parts: the first is the contextualization of a Great Seal (Sanskrit: mahamudra; Tibetan: phyag rgya chenpo) root text by the adept Saraha; and the second is a critical edition of the Tibetan text along with the first full translation of the text into English. The critical edition of the Tibetan is based on versions of the poems drawn from five different Tibetan sources---four scriptural (the sDe dge, Co ne, sNar thang and 'Peking' bsTan 'gyurs) and one literary (Mipham Rinpoche's 19th century collection 'phags yul grub dbang dam pa rnams kyi zab mo'i do ha rnams las kho la byung mu tig phreng ba or "Pearl Garland of the Profound Dohas of the Noble Great Siddhas of India"). The first chapters of the dissertation explore the contexts of this song cycle, its author and traditions that relate to it, in particular the Karma Kagyu (karma bka' brgyud) school of Tibetan Buddhism. The first chapter is a discussion of the author, Saraha, the tales of whose many 'lives' pervade Tibetan Buddhist traditions to this day. Chapter 2 explores the broader context of South Asian siddha traditions, while Chapters 3 and 4 provide an analysis of the Great Seal both as it emerges through Saraba's work and as it exists as a living tradition in the Tibetan Buddhist context. As mentioned above, particular emphasis is given to the Karma Kagyu school. Finally, Chapter 5 provides an introduction to Tibetan poetics and the Sanskrit traditions that influence it.
