Dr. Kaustubh Das

About

Dr. Kaustubh Das is a scholar, practitioner, and initiate whose work sits at the intersection of rigorous academic study and living traditional practice.

He holds a PhD in Yoga and Tantric Studies. His doctoral research, Decolonising Yoga and Tantra, engaged critically with the transmission of these traditions into contemporary contexts — examining what is lost when practice is severed from its philosophical roots and initiatory lineage.

He has spent twenty years in direct encounter with sādhus, yogis, and teachers across India, and has practiced Iyengar yoga for sixteen years.

Lineage & Initiation

Dr. Das is an initiate of the Anuttara Trika — the tradition of Abhinavagupta — through his teacher Mark Dyczkowski (1951–2025), one of the foremost scholars and practitioners of Kashmir Śaivism of his generation, and a direct disciple of Swami Lakshmanjoo of Kashmir.

Dyczkowski's monumental works — the eleven-volume Tantrāloka with Jayaratha's commentary and the twelve-volume Manthanabhairava Tantra — remain among the most significant contributions to Kashmir Śaiva scholarship in the modern period.

Dr. Das is also an initiate of the Sahajiyā Vaiṣṇava tradition of Bengal.

By the grace of his Gurus, he brings both the rigour of a scholar and the understanding of an initiate — for whom this tradition is not an object of study but a living practice.