Maria Iontseva

Biography

My DPhil grows directly out of my MPhil thesis, The Industry of Miracles: A Typology of Tantric Dream Operations (Oxford, 2026). There I surveyed sixteen Śaiva and Śākta texts, from the Niśvāsa and the Svacchandatantra to Abhinavagupta's Tantrāloka and late compendia such as the Yoginītantra, and proposed a typology of tantric dream practices by what they are meant to achieve: revelation (a mantra recited before sleep so that the deity answers in a dream), empowerment (the guru reading the initiand's dream before initiation), magic (dream rites aimed at others), and the transformation of consciousness (training to remain aware while dreaming, in effect a premodern discipline of lucid dreaming).

The DPhil extends this in three directions. It follows the tradition back to its earliest datable source, the dream mantra of Varāhamihira's sixth-century Bṛhadyātrā, and forward through the Jayadrathayāmala and the Kaula scriptures to the later cult of Svapnavārāhī. It brings in unpublished manuscripts, among them a Kashmirian initiation manual that describes the guru entering a disciple's sleep (svapnasaṃkrānti), to be edited and translated in an appendix. And it sets the Śaiva material beside the dream yoga of Vajrayāna Buddhism, where closely related techniques travelled to Tibet and became part of the standard yogic curriculum.

I came to Sanskrit from an IT and entrepreneurial background. Alongside the thesis I build digital tools for the humanities and help Professor Mallinson with the Haṭha Yoga Project website, yoga.ames.ox.ac.uk.

Thesis

Dream Technologies of Revelation and Power in Śaiva-Śākta Tantra: Critical Editions and Translations

Supervisor

Professor James Mallinson

Educational Background

DPhil in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Wolfson College, University of Oxford, 2026– (supervisor: Professor James Mallinson)
MPhil in Classical Indian Religion, University of Oxford, 2024–2026. Thesis: The Industry of Miracles: A Typology of Tantric Dream Operations
MA in Traditions of Yoga and Meditation, SOAS, University of London, 2021 (Distinction). Dissertation on the mutual borrowing of yogic and meditative techniques between tantric Śaivism and Vajrayāna Buddhism
MA in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Lomonosov Moscow State University

Research interests

Śaiva and Śākta Tantra
Dreaming, sleep and states of consciousness in Sanskrit literature
Lucid dreaming and its premodern history
Ritual, mantra and initiation
The Kashmirian exegetical tradition
Śaiva–Buddhist exchange in tantric yoga
Manuscript studies and critical editing
Digital philology

Recent publications

'An Industry of Miracles: A Typology of Tantric Dream Operations', paper presented at the International Indology Graduate Research Symposium (IIGRS 16), Naples, 23–25 September 2026.