The Yantras of Deities and their Numerological Foundations
by Fredrick W. Bunce

Hinduism is known for the bewildering profusion of its deities, who are represented not only in two or three dimensional anthropomorphic images, but also in abstract configurations, known as yantras.

In yantras is, thus, seen almost a parallel with the surfeit of deities in Hindu tradition. Literally meaning an ‘instrument’, ‘apparatus’ or a ‘talisman’, yantra is a kind of mystical diagram used, in tantra, for both meditation and invoking a divinity, and is believed to possess/arouse occult powers.