This subject is discussed in greater depth in chapter 9. The term tantra 'means simply a system of ritual or essential instructions' and strictly speaking refers to certain texts, related to or derived from another class of scriptures called āgama — hence the name of the company which published Arthur Avalon's books, Āgamānusandhana Samiti, the Āgamas Research Society. It was said by a commentator in the fifteenth century: 'Śruti is twofold: Vaidik and Tantrik', which shows how the Tantras were regarded as a separate kind of revelation (śruti) and a new source of authority from the Vedas. Whereas the vedic tradition is synonymous with orthodoxy in Hinduism, the position of the Tantras and their followers has always been more ambiguous; the Tantras themselves however mostly claim to be in the vedic tradition.
A typical Tantra, according to a traditional list, should contain seven subjects including cosmogony ('creation and dissolution of the world'), worship, meditation, mantra, and the sat-karma or six magic acts. The tantric literature is divided between original Tantras, which are usually anonymous and considered to be the Word of Śiva (or other deities), and digests and commentaries by named authors. The former possibly originated from around the eighth or ninth century, but the period when Tantrism flourished was from the eighth until around the fourteenth century; it is still practised today.
Tantras prescribe individual practices (sādhanā) aimed at the goal of personal liberation (moksa) and/or the acquiring of magic power (siddhi). With the dual goal of knowledge as inner self-realization and as mastery over nature, Tantrics seek initiations (dīksā) from a Guru who imparts oral instruction and to whom the disciple submits. Tantric sādhanā has characteristic features by which it is usually defined. Most important of these is the use of certain mental and physical objects which express or concretize, abstract principles and deities. These are: mantra or bīja (sound'seeds') accompanied by yantra (geometric patterns representing mantras and divinities), mandala (cosmos diagrams), mudrā (ritual gestures) and figurative images (pratimī). Tantric divinities are those of the wider Hindu or Buddhist pantheon but conceived in many more forms and with a special iconography important for dhyāna — mental images constructed in meditation — which accompanies outer ritual worship (pūjā). Ideas of microcosm-macrocosm correspondence underlie Tantrism, where the bipolar, bisexual divinity (Śiva—Śakti in Śaiva and Śākta Tantra) resides in the human body, and is brought into conscious union through tantric or kundalinī yoga. Kundalinī is a form of śakti — 'energy' or 'power' — the female, active, cosmogonic aspect of the divine polarity, which is conceived to permeate all things and is the most important concept of Tantra. In the theological context śakti means the activity of a deity in manifesting the cosmic cycles and dissolving them, or reabsorbing them into the Godhead.
Eventually śakti became more significant than her consort — especially in the śākta literature that grew out of Śaiva Tantra — and the Goddess took central place, appearing in many forms and lesser emanations. Hence 'Tantra' in Hinduism became almost synonymous with Śāktism, although it originally had a wider reference, for there were tantric forms of Vaisnavism, Saivism, Buddhism and even Jainism. Today, the term tantra (or 'Tantrism') is often used generically to cover the body of metaphysical, theological and cosmological ideas along with ritual and yogic practices, which are contained in, or derive from, the āgamas and Tantras but are also to be found in other texts which do not bear that label. This is the sense in which the term is used in this book.
The prominence of the Goddess in itself appeared sinister enough, at least to English commentators on Hinduism and Buddhism who were mostly raised, unlike Woodroffe himself, in the protestant tradition where the 'maleness' of God is not compromised by the practice of devotion to the Mother of Jesus. To this was compounded Tantra's strong emphasis on ritual, with its images and mantras — seen as 'idols' and 'magic spells'. Moreover much of the imagery was associated with death and some rites (especially those of a more magical nature) took place in the cremation ground. This gave Tantra a particularly repugnant surface and was roundly dismissed as 'necromancy'. Last but not least, there was the sexuality of Tantra, derived at least in part from its concept of bisexual divinity. The notorious pañcatattva rite, or cakra pūjā (circle worship), was the main focus of notoriety in Woodroffe's time, in which male initiates worship female partners who represent śakti, through 'five substances' or 'five true things' (tattvas). These are also known as the pañca makāra, or the five 'm's: wine (madya) meat (māmsa), fish (matsya), grain (mudrā) and sexual intercourse (maithuna) This deliberate ritual transgression was usually seen by orthodox Hindus and European observers as simply an excuse for licentiousness.
The pañcatattva and the rites performed in the cremation ground remained secret, esoteric affairs, but the general features of tantric ritual and imagery gradually penetrated the Hindu mainstream and became allied to Vedanta philosophy. It was on this aspect of 'Tantra' that Avalon/ Woodroffe placed his emphasis. His approach was in striking contrast to that of nearly all previous European scholars who either ignored or vilified the Tantras.
~~Sir John Woodroffe, Tantra And Bengal -by- Kathleen Taylor
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