Hindu Tantric Research Articles

When the Poison Is the Cure—Healing and Embodiment in Contemporary Śrīvidyā Tantra of the Lalitāmbikā Temple

This paper discusses the healing practices of samayācāra Śrīvidyā, a Hindu Tantric tradition. This study is based on field research conducted in the Śrī Lalitāmbikā temple in Coimbatore, India. The tradition not only advocates inner ritualism, but also focuses on healing practices derived from Tantric sources. By using both emic and etic approaches, this paper attempts to show how the rituals and Śrīvidyā meditative practices became incorporated into this system of healing and well-being. A further aim of this paper is to indicate how various forms of embodiment and healing define the spiritual practice of Lalitāmbikā Śrīvidyā.

Ontological Transformations in Hindu Tantric Ritualisms of Kathmandu Valley

Rituals of incorporation (utarnu) of numinous ontologies in Himalayan Tantric ritualisms represent an interesting field for developing a reflection on different phenomenologies of the body. From the physical body of the tantrika (Tantric practitioner), the formal remains of an individual atman-Self, I investigate the experiences that make it a receptacle for a numinous Other. This article is an attempt to identify some distinctive Tantric features in a ritual practice of incorporation (chema puja) among the Newar communities of the Kathmandu Valley. Such incorporations are supported by an essential narrative link which describes the figure of Siva-Mahadeva as the transmitter of knowledge of tantra-mantra, generating a direct esoteric filiation with the ritual practitioner. Through these incorporation processes, the tantrika achieves a perpetual alternation of two morphologically stable manifestations where the two natures, human and divine, merge into a single form, versus a fragmentation where the two distinct natures remain visible under two Gestalts. By proposing a neurocognitive anthropological approach, I will address the notions of Self and Alien in Hindu Tantric rituals of incorporation, where tantrikas' physical bodies become the encounter spaces where the Self merges and dissolves into the 'numinous' Other, in a bistable mode. In this way, I will be able to reconstruct the neural foundations of these endogenous experiences, mainly localized in the left temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) of the human brain, representing the fundamental core basis of these ritual practices of visualization and merging with a deity in Newar Tantrism and shamanism.

The Forgotten Consort: The Goddess and Kāmadeva in the Early Worship of Tripurasundarī

This article examines continuities between the Hindu Tantric tradition of Tripurasundarī, which later came to be known as Śrīvidyā, and the antecedent tradition of Nityās. A prominent role of Kāmadeva (the god of love) as the consort of the principal goddess in the antecedent tradition of Nityās provides important clues for later development of the worship of Tripurasundarī. Continuities between the worship of Tripurā and the Nityā tradition include a triangle at the heart of the Śrīcakra (the principal ritual diagram), names of subordinate goddesses that clearly demonstrate a historical connection with Kāmadeva, and elements of iconography of the principal goddess modeled after visualizations of the god of love. Practices in the antecedent Nityā tradition, outlined in the Nityākaula Tantra, and the early tradition of Tripurasundarī in the Vāmakeśvarīmata were meant exclusively for a male audience, a stance that was revised in the later Śrīvidyā. Furthermore, propitiation of Tripurasundarī in the ritual sections of the Vāmakeśvarīmata served primarily to satisfy desire by means of rituals of attraction (ākarṣaṇa) and subjugation (vaśīkaraṇa). Although Kāmadeva was no longer propitiated in the Vāmakeśvarīmata, his prominent role in the ritual system of the antecedent tradition illuminates features that remained at the core of the worship of Tripurasundarī for more than a millennium.

The Concept of Immortality in Hindu Tantric Soteriology

The Concept of Immortality in Hindu Tantric Soteriology

Body Building in the Hindu Tantric Tradition: The Advantages and Confusions of Scriptural Entextualization in the Worship of the Goddess Kālī”

This article investigates what happens when Tantra, a Hindu esoteric system that is based on the interpretation of the human being as a living, ritualized embodiment of scripture, becomes exotericized through a devotional framework. Building upon the work of Gavin Flood, who coins the term “entextualization” to refer to the way a textual tradition is “written upon” or divinizes the human body, we chart the changes in the medieval Sanskrit Tantric tradition of internalizing the Hindu goddess K?l? when it is taken up by eighteenth-century Bengali devotional poets. What is lost when the esoteric comes out into the open?

Possible Selves, Body Schemas, and Sādhana: Using Cognitive Science and Neuroscience in the Study of Medieval Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā Hindu Tantric Texts

In recent decades, historians of religions have turned to, and developed, entirely new methodologies for the study of religion and human consciousness. Foremost among these are a collection of approaches often termed the “cognitive science of religion” (CSR), typically drawing on cognitive science, neuroscience, linguistics, and contemporary metaphor theory. Although we are still “early” in this enterprise, I hope to show how a meaningful dialogue between religious studies and contemporary neuroscience and cognitive science can help us to better understand some intriguing mystical texts and practices from a tradition of medieval South Asian Hinduism. Known collectively as the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās, these followers of transgressive and antinomian Tantric Yoga provide excellent examples for exploring the nature of religion, ritual, consciousness, embodiment, identity, gender, emotions and sexuality. This paper will show how the study of these rich materials from seventeenth through eighteenth century Bengal in northeastern South Asia can be enhanced using insights from the philosopher Shaun Gallagher and the neurologist Patrick McNamara.

Modern Transformations of sādhanā as Art, Study, and Awareness: Religious Experience and Hindu Tantric Practice

“My first raising of the kuṇḍalinī was hearing Ma [her teacher] speak about art.” The experience of the awakening of śakti within practitioners in contemporary cultures occurs both in traditional religious settings and within novel circumstances. Traditional situations include direct transmission from a guru (śaktipāta), self-awakening through the practice of kuṇḍalinī-yoga or haṭhayoga, and direct acts of grace (anugraha) from the goddess or god. There are also novel expressions in hybrid religious-cultural experiences wherein artists, dancers, and musicians describe their arts explicitly in terms of faith/devotion (śraddhā, bhakti, etc.) and practice (sādhanā). They also describe direct experience of grace from the goddess or describe their ostensibly secular teachers as gurus. In contemporary experience, art becomes sādhanā and sādhanā becomes art. Creativity and artistic expression work as modern transformations of traditional religious experience. This development, while moving away from traditional ritual and practice, does have recognizable grounding within many tantric traditions, especially among the high tantra of the Kashmiri Śaiva exegetes.

The Hindu Tantric World: An Overview. By André Padoux. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017. xvii, 219 pp. ISBN: 9780226423937 (cloth, also available in paper and as e-book).

The Hindu Tantric World: An Overview. By André Padoux. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017. xvii, 219 pp. ISBN: 9780226423937 (cloth, also available in paper and as e-book).

A Day in the Life of an Aesthetic Tāntrika: From Synaesthetic Garden to Lucid Dreaming and Spaciousness

This essay addresses the question of the relationship between Aesthetics and Tantra, in the world-view and life-world of Hindu Tantric visionary Abhinavagupta (ca. 975–1025 C.E.) and his tradition. I respond to a classic work on Abhinavagupta’s understanding of aesthetic experience and religious experience by shifting the focus from ultimate experience to the life of a liberated being. I argue that Abhinavagupta’s blending of Aesthetics and Tantra naturally follows from his view of liberation, which re-integrates the body and senses into the religious life, and affirms the reality of the material world in which the liberated being is embedded. I recover the very humanness and boundedness of Abhinavagupta as an additional way of understanding liberation. I draw on hymns of praise, descriptions of ritual, thoughts on hermeneutics of Being, and complex metaphors, from Abhinavagupta’s tradition, and engage with various thinkers, including Performance Theorist Richard Schechner and neurologist James Austin, to flesh out complex metaphors depicting the relationship between consciousness and the world. I conclude by reflecting on similarities between the Trika model of Self, as interpreted by Abhinavagupta’s student Kṣemarāja, and lucid dreaming.

The Influence of Buddhist Meditation Traditions on the Autonomic System and Attention.

Cognitive and neuroscience research from the past several years has shed new light on the influences that meditative traditions have on the meditation practice. Here we review new evidence that shows that types of meditation that developed out of certain traditions such as Vajrayana and Hindu Tantric lead to heightened sympathetic activation and phasic alertness, while types of meditation from other traditions such as Theravada and Mahayana elicit heightened parasympathetic activity and tonic alertness. Such findings validate Buddhist scriptural descriptions of heightened arousal during Vajrayana practices and a calm and alert state of mind during Theravada and Mahayana types of meditation and demonstrate the importance of the cultural and philosophical context out of which the meditation practices develop.

Possible Selves, Body Schemas, and Sādhana: Using Cognitive Science and Neuroscience in the Study of Medieval Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā Hindu Tantric Texts

In recent decades, historians of religions have turned to, and developed, entirely new methodologies for the study of religion and human consciousness. Foremost among these are a collection of approaches often termed the “cognitive science of religion” (CSR), typically drawing on cognitive science, neuroscience, linguistics, and contemporary metaphor theory. Although we are still “early” in this enterprise, I hope to show how a meaningful dialogue between religious studies and contemporary neuroscience and cognitive science can help us to better understand some intriguing mystical texts and practices from a tradition of medieval South Asian Hinduism. Known collectively as the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās, these followers of transgressive and antinomian Tantric Yoga provide excellent examples for exploring the nature of religion, ritual, consciousness, embodiment, identity, gender, emotions and sexuality. This paper will show how the study of these rich materials from 17th through 18th century Bengal in northeastern South Asia can be enhanced using insights from the philosopher, Shaun Gallagher, and the neurologist, Patrick McNamara.

The Hermeneutics of Touch: Uncovering Abhinavagupta's Tactile Terrain

AbstractThis article introduces a “hermeneutics of touch” in order to uncover the place of tactile experience in the work of Abhinavagupta, the Kashmiri Hindu Tantric sage (c. 975-1025 C.E.). I focus on his understanding of the liberation of touch, especially as articulated in his Trankāloka (TĀ), his encyclopedic synthesis of Trika Śiva discourse and ritual. Inspired by the scholarship of the new emerging fields of anthropology of the senses as well as religion and the senses, I purposely break with the primary emphasis on vision and cognition seen in Abhinavagupta Studies, to reconsider the significance of the tactile sense.

Definitional Transgression, or the Revenge of the Vernacular in Hindu Tantric Studies

AbstractUntil recently the concerns of Sanskritists, esotericists, and philosophers have dominated the academic study of Hindu tantra. Now scholars increasingly focus on ritual practice, living traditions, and vernacular texts. These new concerns have radically recast how Hindu tantra and its impact on South Asian history are visualized. Where before scholars represented Hindu tantra as an elite discourse with little social impact, now many understand it as the warp on which South Asian history was woven.

Abhinavagupta’s Erotic Mysticism: The Reconciliation of Spirit and Flesh

This article focuses on the erotic aspects of a particular mystical worldview, the "erotic mysticism" of Abhinavagupta, the Hindu Tantric sage of Kashmir (ca. 975-1025 CE). In particular, I concentrate on Abhinavagupta's intertwining of consciousness and sexuality, as one example of his interpretative capacities. A master of multiple traditions, discourses, and methodologies3?ranging from the most analytical to the most poetic, and including Vyakarana,4 Nyaya-Vaisesika,5 Buddhist logic, hermeneutics, Saiva and Sakta mythology, symbolism, and religious imaginaire* Tantric and yogic ritual, theology, and aesthetics?Abhinavagupta applied his visionary capacities to numerous problematics, seamlessly blending diverse epistemic fields,7 creatively synthesizing different aspects of Being,8 and continually reconnecting polarities?One and Many, Purity and Power (see Sanderson 1985), Self and Other (see Dupuche 2001)?in his nondualistic vision of reality. Out of this vast array of problematics to which Abhinavagupta devoted himself, I will focus on consciousness and sexuality. I focus on these precisely because of the lack of attention that sexuality often gets in academic discussions of the seemingly abstract notion of consciousness. For Abhinavagupta, these two "polarities" are reconnected in his form of Tantra that I will refer to as "erotic mysticism." This term was used?for the first time in Hindu Studies as far as I am aware?by Edward C. Dimock, Jr., in his classic work The Place of the Hidden Moon: Erotic Mysticism in the Vaisiiava-sahajiya Cult of Bengal (1989 [1966]). Dimock (1989: 3, 15, and passim) shows that the Vaisnava-sahajiyas attempted to

The Pulsating Heart and Its Divine Sense Energies: Body and Touch in Abhinavagupta's Trika Śaivism

AbstractThis paper is a study of the significance of body and touch in the embodied thinking and lifeworld of the Hindu Tantric visionary Abhinavagupta (c. 975–1025 C.E.). I elucidate Abhinavagupta's embodied phenomenology of Śiva-Who-Is-Being, focusing on his multivocal metaphor of the pulsating heart and its divine sense-energies. I show that Abhinavagupta understood the central act of salvation, the recollection (vimarśa) of Being, or ultimate consciousness, as being a bodily felt process. Abhinavagupta drew on an earlier body of discourse and practice, the Kaula Trika substratum, whose pivotal ritual was that of sexual union. Thus, Abhinavagupta recovered the body and senses for consciousness in a sensuous and erotic phenomenology, so that vimarśa was understood precisely as the “body's recollection of Being,” the bodily felt awareness of the Pulsating Heart.

Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement. By Ronald M. Davidson. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. Pp. xvii+ 475, 4 maps, 23 illustrations. $60.00 (cloth); $25.00 (paper).

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsIndian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement. By Ronald M. Davidson. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. Pp. xvii+ 475, 4 maps, 23 illustrations. $60.00 (cloth); $25.00 (paper).Christian K. WedemeyerChristian K. WedemeyerUniversity of Chicago Search for more articles by this author University of ChicagoPDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by History of Religions Volume 45, Number 4May 2006 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/507859 Views: 31Total views on this site Citations: 2Citations are reported from Crossref Permission to reprint a book review printed in this section may be obtained only from the author.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Rachel Fell McDermott Body Building in the Hindu Tantric Tradition, Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts 10, no.1-21-2 (Aug 2019): 70–87.https://doi.org/10.1558/post.38087David B. Gray The Cakrasamvara Tantra : Its History, Interpretation, and Practice in India and Tibet, Religion Compass 1, no.66 (Oct 2007): 695–710.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2007.00046.x

Kiss of the Yoginī: “Tantric Sex” in Its South Asian Contexts. By David Gordon White. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Pp. xx+372. $43.00.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsKiss of the Yoginī: “Tantric Sex” in Its South Asian Contexts. By David Gordon White. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Pp. xx+372. $43.00.Hugh B. UrbanHugh B. UrbanOhio State University Search for more articles by this author Ohio State UniversityPDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by History of Religions Volume 45, Number 3February 2006 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/503727 Views: 27Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Permission to reprint a book review printed in this section may be obtained only from the author.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Mark Elmore Definitional Transgression, or the Revenge of the Vernacular in Hindu Tantric Studies, Religion Compass 1, no.66 (Sep 2007): 752–767.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2007.00041.x

The Iconography of Hindu Tantric Deities, vol. 1: The Pantheon of the Mantramahodadhi

The Iconography of Hindu Tantric Deities, vol. 1: The Pantheon of the Mantramahodadhi

Bühnemann, Gudrun, The Iconography of Hindu Tantric Deities

Bühnemann, Gudrun, The Iconography of Hindu Tantric Deities

The Cult of Ecstasy: Tantrism, the New Age, and the Spiritual Logic of Late Capitalism

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Cult of Ecstasy: Tantrism, the New Age, and the Spiritual Logic of Late CapitalismHugh B. UrbanHugh B. Urban Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by History of Religions Volume 39, Number 3Feb., 2000 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/463593 Views: 67Total views on this site Citations: 22Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 2000 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Ross Clifford, Philip Johnson Embodied witness to alternative spirituality seekers, Practical Theology 12, no.33 (May 2019): 271–282.https://doi.org/10.1080/1756073X.2019.1598685Victoria L. Rodner, Chloe Preece Consumer transits and religious identities: towards a syncretic consumer, Journal of Marketing Management 35, no.7-87-8 (Apr 2019): 742–769.https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2019.1601124Fulya Erdentuğ, Gülşen Musayeva Vefalı What is “old” and “past” in New Age discourse? A qualitative analysis of corpus evidence, Discourse, Context & Media 24 (Aug 2018): 85–91.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2018.01.009Guy Redden Revisiting the spiritual supermarket: does the commodification of spirituality necessarily devalue it?, Culture and Religion 17, no.22 (May 2016): 231–249.https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2016.1183690Marianna Ruah-Midbar The Sacralization of Randomness: The Theological Imagination and the Logic of Digital Divination Rituals, Numen 61, no.5-65-6 (Sep 2014): 619–655.https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341345Roshani Cari Shay, Henrik Bogdan Sex and Gender in the Words and Communes of Osho (née Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh), (Jan 2014): 59–88.https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137386434_4Per Faxneld, Jesper Aagaard Petersen Cult of Carnality: Sexuality, Eroticism, and Gender in Contemporary Satanism, (Jan 2014): 165–181.https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137386434_8Jenny Wade Transpersonal Sexual Experiences, (Aug 2013): 382–400.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118591277.ch21Narasingha P Sil The Odyssey of the Ananda Marga: A Comparative Study, Journal of Asian and African Studies 48, no.22 (Apr 2013): 229–241.https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909612449127James M. Wilce Sacred Psychotherapy in the “Age of Authenticity”: Healing and Cultural Revivalism in Contemporary Finland, Religions 2, no.44 (Oct 2011): 566–589.https://doi.org/10.3390/rel2040566Gülşen Musayeva Vefali, Fulya Erdentuğ The coordinate structures in a corpus of New Age talks: “man and woman”/“woman and man”, Text & Talk - An Interdisciplinary Journal of Language, Discourse & Communication Studies 30, no.44 (Jan 2010): 465–484.https://doi.org/10.1515/text.2010.023Gideon Aran, Nurit Stadler, Eyal Ben-Ari Fundamentalism and the masculine body: The case of Jewish Ultra-Orthodox men in Israel, Religion 38, no.11 (Feb 2011): 25–53.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.religion.2007.09.002Raymond L. M. Lee La fin de la religion? Réenchantement et déplacement du sacré, Social Compass 55, no.11 (Mar 2008): 66–83.https://doi.org/10.1177/0037768607086499Mark Elmore Definitional Transgression, or the Revenge of the Vernacular in Hindu Tantric Studies, Religion Compass 1, no.66 (Sep 2007): 752–767.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2007.00041.xOmar Lizardo Fight Club , or the Cultural Contradictions of Late Capitalism, Journal for Cultural Research 11, no.33 (Jul 2007): 221–243.https://doi.org/10.1080/14797580701763830Johan Elverskog Two Buddhisms in Contemporary Mongolia, Contemporary Buddhism 7, no.11 (May 2006): 29–46.https://doi.org/10.1080/14639940600877937Tommy E. Turner, Nancy J. Fox, Hayden Center, Jerry D. Kiser Uniting Spirituality and Sexual Counseling: Eastern Influences, The Family Journal 14, no.11 (Aug 2016): 81–84.https://doi.org/10.1177/1066480705282063Dagmar D. Nasel, Wdavidg Haynes Spiritual and Religious Dimensions Scale: Development and psychometric analysis, Australian Journal of Psychology 57, no.11 (Feb 2011): 61–71.https://doi.org/10.1080/00049530412331283408Guy Redden The New Age: Towards a Market Model, Journal of Contemporary Religion 20, no.22 (Aug 2006): 231–246.https://doi.org/10.1080/13537900500067851Elizabeth K. Ullery Consideration of a Spiritual Role in Sex and Sex Therapy, The Family Journal 12, no.11 (Aug 2016): 78–81.https://doi.org/10.1177/1066480703258710Hugh B. Urban Avatar for Our Age: Sathya Sai Baba and the Cultural Contradictions of Late Capitalism, Religion 33, no.11 (Jan 2003): 73–93.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0048-721X(02)00080-5Adrian Ivakhiv Nature and Self in New Age Pilgrimage, Culture and Religion 4, no.11 (Jan 2003): 93–118.https://doi.org/10.1080/01438300302812