👻 mātṛtantra

The term mātṛtantra (for Tibetan ma’i rgyud or ma rgyud) is, in my view, a ghost word. This, however, does not mean that also Tibetan ma’i rgyud or ma rgyud is ghost word. The Tibetan ma’i rgyud or ma rgyud is an abbreviated or elliptical expression for rnal ’byor ma’i rgyud and is actually a rendering of yoginītantra. In Tibetan it would be quite legitimate to translate yoginītantra as rnal ’byor ma’i rgyud especially when there is a need to distinguish it from yogatantra, just as it is quite common to render bhikṣuṇīvibhaṅga as dge slong ma’i rnam ’byed, which in turn has often be abbreviated as ma’i rnam ’byed.