Exchange and Transaction as a Form of Life and Meaning in the Logic of Tantric Concepts

Abstract

This essay examines conceptual metaphors from Śaiva-Śākta traditions of Hindu tantra. It explores how conceptual metaphors associated with heterodox ritual exchanges between humans and fierce divinities were employed and used to transform other ideas (bodily fluids, sacrificial products, sexualized symbols, celibacy, states of consciousness, ideas about kinship) to express a new kind of kinship or family (kula) that replaced or supplemented orthodox concepts (such as class and caste). It then considers the combination or blending of these conceptual systems with other ideas about concentration and miniaturization (intensifying something to its essence). The resulting conceptual metaphors are then directly related to the way that tantric traditions moved over time to semanticized, abstract, orthodox, and mystical expressions and concepts. There is a diverse body of scholarship that examines and interprets the historical traditions of Hindu tantra. This body of scholarship is seldom considered outside of conversations among area specialists. Some of this is due to the heterodox nature of some tantric practices, especially concepts or rituals that use sex or sexual symbolism. Tantric focus on these heterodox conceptual frameworks conflicts directly with purity-oriented conceptual systems of orthodox Hindu traditions. Through a kind of meta-analysis of some of these conceptual metaphors, this essay seeks to consider a kind of conceptual logic that makes their heterodox content more understandable and accessible to other areas of religious studies and philosophy. The study relies on certain insights drawn from metaphor theory to formulate the concepts (such as exchange metaphors) it examines.