agama (Sanskrit, ‘what has come down’), an authoritative religious text of an Indian sect. There are Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist agamas. The Hindu agamas fall into three main classes: Vaifpava texts concerning the worship of Vishnu, Saiva texts dealing with worship of Siva, and Tantric texts regarding worship of Sakti. Saivism, e.g., has twenty-eight agamas. An agama may give instructions regarding making temples or idols, offer meditation techniques, teach philosophical doctrines, or commend methods of worship. The Mahayana Buddhist term for the basic teachings of the Theravada Buddhist tradition is ‘agama’. K.E.Y.