The cult of the goddess Tripurā, later exalted under the epithet Tripurasundarī (“the Beauty of the Three Worlds”), occupies a central position within the South Indian Śākta Tantric traditions. Its doctrinal foundation is preserved in the Tripurārahasya (TR), a Saṃskṛta text of South Indian provenance, composed most likely between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries CE, though possibly later. This work, deeply embedded in the Śākta-Tantric milieu, articulates the esoteric teachings of Tripurā and became a cornerstone of what subsequently crystallized into the living tradition of Śrīvidyā—the most widely disseminated of India’s Śākta cults.
According to Alexis Sanderson’s typology of Tantric schools, the Śrīvidyā tradition belongs to the Kulamārga, the Śākta current that developed between the ninth and twelfth centuries CE, inheriting the radical and transgressive ritualism of the Kāpālika ascetics. Within the Kulamārga, four currents are distinguished, and the Tripurā cult is traced to the Dakṣiṇāmnāya (“Southern transmission”), which centered on the veneration of Kāmeśvarī, Kāmadeva, and the Nityā (“eternal”) goddesses. From this milieu emerged the Tripurā-Tripurasundarī cult, whose principal scriptural authorities are the Nityāṣoḍaśikārṇava and the Yoginīhṛdaya (YH), both Kashmirian texts composed in the 11th century CE.
