The Power of Tantra: Religion, Sexuality, and the Politics of South Asian Studies

320 Pages·2009·3.35 MB·English

by  Hugh B. Urban

Hugh B. Urban is Professor of Comparative Studies at Ohio State
University. One of the leading Western scholars of Tantric religion,
Professor Urban is the author of several books which include Magia
Sexualis: Sex, Magic and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism
(2006), Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics and Power in the Study of Religion
(2003), and Songs of Ecstasy: Tantric and Devotional Songs from
Bengal (2001).
“The Power of Tantra is a major scholarly treatment of a much
misconstrued esoteric tradition and a well-written and illustrated
guide to a dimension of Hinduism that deserves the careful research
Hugh B. Urban has given it. An impressive achievement.”
– Paul B. Courtright, Professor of Religion and Asian Studies,
Emory University
“Building on his extraordinary knowledge of the Sanskrit, Bangla,
and Assamese sources, Hugh B. Urban flies straight into the heart of
the raging controversy over the sex and violence of Tantra: Is this an
Orientalist fantasy, or a Hindu nightmare, or a profound religious
phenomenon? Drawing richly upon previously untapped texts and
new fieldwork, Urban boldly and creatively takes the arguments
about Tantra in an entirely new direction, revealing aspects of the
worship of the goddess that have deep meaning for Hindus and
great potential power even for the heirs of Orientalism.”
– Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service
Professor of the History of Religions, University of Chicago
“Once again, Hugh B. Urban has given us a sophisticated, reflexive,
mind-bending study of a specific set of Tantric traditions. In the
process, we are taken down what he aptly calls “a path of desire and
power” whose paradoxical energies center on the goddess, flow
through the human body and its fluids, the social order, and the
body politic (all at once), are unleashed through esoteric ritual
practices, experienced as a source of supernatural powers, and put
in the service of kingship, political rule, even ultra-modern forms of
a new embodied spirituality. Writing against and beyond all the old
East–West dualisms, tired anti-intellectualisms, and easy
idealizations, Urban has become one of our most able, artful, and
careful guides.”
– Jeffrey J. Kripal, J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Religious
Studies, Rice University
LIBRARY OF MODERN RELIGION
Series ISBN: 978 1 84885 244 0
See www.ibtauris.com/LMR for a full list of titles
1. Returning to Religion: Why a Secular Age is Haunted by Faith
Jonathan Benthall
978 1 84511 718 4
2. Knowing the Unknowable: Science and Religions on God and the Universe
John Bowker (ed.)
978 1 84511 757 3
3. Sufism Today: Heritage and Tradition in the Global Community
Catharina Raudvere and Leif Stenberg (eds)
978 1 84511 762 7
4. Apocalyptic Islam and Iranian Shi’ism
Abbas Amanat
978 1 84511 124 3
5. Global Pentecostatism: Encounters with Other Religious Traditions
David Westerlund (ed.)
978 1 84511 877 8
6. Dying for Faith: Religiously Motivated Violence in the Contemporary
World
Madawi Al-Rasheed and Marat Shterin (eds)
978 1 84511 686 6
7. The Hindu Erotic: Exploring Hinduism and Sexuality
David Smith
978 1 84511 361 2
8. The Power of Tantra: Religion, Sexuality and the Politics of South Asian
Studies
Hugh B. Urban
978 1 84511 873 0
9. Jewish Identities in Iran: Resistance and Conversion to Islam and the
Eaha’i Faith
Mehrdad Amanat
978 1 84511 891 4
10. Islamic Reform and Conservatism: Al-Azhar and the Evolution of Modern
Sunni Islam
Indira Falk Gesink
978 1 84511 936 2
11. Muslim Women’s Rituals: Authority and Gender in the Islamic World
Catharina Raudvere and Margaret Rausch
978 1 84511 643 9
12. Lonesome: The Spiritual Meanings of American Solitude
Kevin Lewis
978 1 84885 075 0
13. A Short History of Atheism
Gavin Hyman
978 1 84885 136 8
THE POWER
OF TANTRA
Religion, Sexuality, and the Politics of South Asian
Studies
HUGH B. URBAN
Published in 2010 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com
Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
Copyright © Hugh B. Urban, 2010
The right of Hugh B. Urban to be identified as the author
of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may
not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the publisher.
Library of Modern Religion, Vol. 8
ISBN: 978 1 84511 873 0 (HB)
ISBN: 978 1 84511 874 7 (PB)
eISBN: 978 0 85773 158 6
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
For Nancy
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Map
Acknowledgments
Introduction Tantra and the Politics of South Asian Studies
Chapter One Matrix of Power: The Śākta Pīṭhas and the Sacred
Landscape of Tantra
Chapter Two Blood for the Goddess: Animal Sacrifice and Divine
Menstruation
Chapter Three Goddess of Power: Tantra, Kingship, and Sacrifice in
South Asian History
Chapter Four The Sacrifice of Desire: Sexual Rites and the Secret
Sacrifice
Chapter Five What About the Woman? Gender Politics and the
Interpretation of Women in Tantra
Chapter Six The Power of God in a Dark Valley: Reform,
Colonialism, and the Decline of Tantra in South Asia
Chapter Seven The Power of the Goddess in a Postcolonial Age:
Transformations of Tantra in the twentieth and
twenty-first Centuries
Conclusions Tantra and the End of Imperialism: Beyond “Deep
Orientalism” and “Third-Worldism”
Notes
Select Bibliography
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Kāmākhyā temple today
2. Possible Yoginī, Kāmākhyā temple grounds, ca. twelfth century 3.
Bala Bhairavī, ruins behind the Bhairavī temple, ca. twelfth century 4.
Siddha with female consort or disciple, Assam State Museum, twelfth
to fourteenth centuries 5. Contemporary popular poster of Kāmākhyā
6. Kāmeśvarī, Kāmākhyā temple
7. Cāmuṇḍā, Kāmākhyā temple ruins, ca. twelfth century 8. Female
figure with severed head, Sixty-Four Yoginī temple, Hirapur, Orissa 9.
Menstruating figure, Kāmākhyā temple outer wall 10. Śākta Tantric
guru, Kāmākhyā temple
11. Bhairava, Deopahar ruins, central Assam, tenth to eleventh centuries
12. Sacrificial post for goats, pigeons, and fish, Kāmākhyā temple 13.
Sacrificial post for buffaloes, Kāmākhyā temple 14. Mahiṣamardinī
with severed head, Kalipahara, Guwahati, tenth to eleventh centuries
15. Buffalo skull, Ugratārā temple, Guwahati 16. Severed buffalo head,
Kāmākhyā temple
17. Mask worn by sacrificial victims, Jaintia Durgā temple 18. Śākta
priest ladling offerings into the fire, Tārāpīṭh, West Bengal 19. Couple
in viparīta-rati, Madana Kāmadeva temple, Assam, tenth to twelfth
centuries 20. Female Śākta, Kāmākhyā temple
21. Female Śaivite, Kāmākhyā temple
22. Cover image for Kāmākhyā Tantrasāra
23. Shree Maa of Kāmākhyā
24. The “White Sadhu” and Shree Maa
Map
The four early Śākta Pīṭhas and other major goddess temples in South Asia