This book is related to abhichara, or sorcery and deals with the shatkarma or six acts often found in tantrik texts. Sorcery is an aspect of tantra which makes people uncomfortable, but it's directly embedded in most of the texts. Practically every tantra prescribes different methods by which a sadhaka can achieve certain results. For example, in the English abstract of the Tantrarajatantra, Sir John Woodroffe outlines the nature of each of the 15 Nityas, but omits the prayogas associated with each and which are exercised to deliver effects for the sadhaka.

The Yantrachintamani is far from being the only manual of this type. There are probably hundreds of others. One I've seen is called Kautukaratna Bhandagar, subtitled Bara Indrajala, a lengthy 12 chapter work in Hindi packed with magical prescriptions and containing tables and yantras such as the Shatkarma Chakra, the Shani (Saturn) chakra, the rulers of the 27 nakshatras, the directions the Yoginis move in, etc. As well as yantras similar to those in the Yantrachintamani, this work contains a large number of magical squares. An example shown here is a yantra which makes a person fearless. It's to be prepared on a Monday and worn on the body. There are hundreds of other examples, many of which have far more sinister objects than this. (Note: Sanskrit 98 font needs to be installed.)

The Yantrachintamani, published by Khemaraj Shrikrishnadas, is divided into nine sections and illustrated throughout with yantras used for magical purposes.

The six acts, according to this text and to many others, are vashikarana (subjugation), akarshana (attraction), stambhana (paralysing), vidveshana (causing enmity), marana (causing death), ucchatana (driving away), shantikarana (causing peace, nourishment). However, at the end of the Yantrachintamani there is a section called moksha (liberation) - presumably to remind would-be tantriks that one of the goals of sadhana is supposed to be just that. The first chapter deals with some preliminaries including an invocation, how to draw yantras, the materials that should be used and the like.

Subjugation (vashikarana)
The chapter on subjugation gets straight into things with a description and a drawing of the Mahamohana Yantra, the first of a total of 25 yantras described in this chapter. These yantras are of different shapes and sizes throughout, and inscribed with bija and longer mantras. The word "devadatta" often found at the centre of the yantras refers to the unlucky target of the jaduwala's desires. This yantra, for example, is called the bijasamputa yantra, the second of the subduing spells in this section.

Attraction (akarshana)
Tired of subjugating people or perhaps they're avoiding you like the plague because you've got a reputation as a spell caster? That means you need a clump of attraction or akarshana spells to replenish your stock to subjugate. There's only five yantras in this section.

Paralysis (stambhana)
The first yantra in this section is for shutting an enemy's mouth. The oblong yantra, guarded on four sides by a total of eighteen tridents and by eighteen iterations of the bija Tha.m, contains a grid of bija mantras. That's followed by a yantra intended to prevent a person travelling, The fifth yantra, called vahnistambhana, is intended to stop fires. There is a total of nine yantras in this section.

Creating Enmity (Vidveshana)
The first yantra is intended to create enmity between a man and a woman. The second is to give your own enemy a hard time. The third is to cause enmity between relatives. There are five yantras in this section.

Death Dealing (Marana)
If your enemy is dead, to paraphrase Stalin, he is no enemy at all. So this chapter has a number of yantras to fell them. If one person isn't enough for a sadhaka's homicidal tendencies, other yantras in this section are prescribed for killing a number of people, or both a man and a woman at the same time. This last, fifth yantra consists of a downward pointing pentagram, in the middle of which is an inverse triangle which contains the target.

Driving Away/Uprooting (Uccatana)
This particular chapter gives yantras and prayogas for causing your enemies to up sticks and be off. The second yantra pictures a crow standing on a rock and pecking the ground. You are expected to inscribe the name of your enemy on the wing of the crow. There are seven yantras described in this section aimed at individuals, men or women, or, apparently, whole populations.

Pacifying/Nourishing (Shanti)
There are 19 yantras described in this long section which include prayogas for causing fevers to stop, protecting unborn babies, driving away ghosts (bhutas), causing general good fortune, causing happiness, and other protective applications.

Liberation (Moksha)
Five yantras are described.