Shamans and Bhūta Tāntrikas

Abstract

This chapter investigates the question as to whether a relationship might exist between the beliefs and practices of the Bhūta Tantra specialist (bhūtatāntrika) and the ‘shamans’ of India’s tribal communities who have long specialized in similar ritual practices, such as healing of illnesses perceived to be caused by spirits. Such healing is often accomplished through ‘trance work’ and possession, in which the trained practitioner enters altered states of consciousness at will and communicates with a spirit being. The chapter first evaluates the major points of debate in the long-contested etymology of the word ‘shaman’, touches on shamanism in prehistory, and engages with debates in anthropology and religious studies about the appropriateness of applying the term ‘shaman’ to non-Siberian religious specialists. It then presents recent scholarship on the origins of Tantric traditions in India that has tended to emphasize the influence of figures from non-elite communities, including numerous tribal groups in the Indian subcontinent and Monsoon Asia more broadly. Finally, it presents initial findings of the probable influence of shamanic traditions of India’s tribal peoples on the Bhūta Tantras.