P1: KDP Trim: 156mm × 234mm Top: 0.625in Gutter: 0.875in IBBK001-FM IBBK001/Hugh ISBN: 978 1 84511 873 0 September 21, 2009 17:39 THE POWER OF TANTRA 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 As- samese sources, Hugh B. Urban flies straight into the heart of the raging controversy over the sex and violence of Tantra: Is this an Orientalist fan- tasy, 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, re- vealing 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 i 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: 7. The Hindu Erotic: Why a Secular Age is Haunted Exploring Hinduism and Sexuality by Faith David Smith Jonathan Benthall 978 1 84511 361 2 978 1 84511 718 4 8. The Power of Tantra: 2. Knowing the Unknowable: Religion, Sexuality and the Politics Science and Religions on God of South Asian Studies and the Universe Hugh B. Urban John Bowker (ed.) 978 1 84511 873 0 978 1 84511 757 3 9. Jewish Identities in Iran: Resistance and Conversion to 3. Sufism Today: Islam and the Eaha’i Faith Heritage and Tradition in Mehrdad Amanat the Global Community 978 1 84511 891 4 Catharina Raudvere and Leif Stenberg (eds) 10. Islamic Reform and Conservatism: 978 1 84511 762 7 Al-Azhar and the Evolution of Modern Sunni Islam 4. Apocalyptic Islam and Indira Falk Gesink Iranian Shi’ism 978 1 84511 936 2 Abbas Amanat 978 1 84511 124 3 11. Muslim Women’s Rituals: Authority and Gender in the 5. Global Pentecostatism: Islamic World Encounters with Other Religious Catharina Raudvere and Traditions Margaret Rausch David Westerlund (ed.) 978 1 84511 643 9 978 1 84511 877 8 12. Lonesome: The Spiritual Meanings of American Solitude 6. Dying for Faith: Kevin Lewis Religiously Motivated Violence in 978 1 84885 075 0 the Contemporary World Madawi Al-Rasheed and 13. A Short History of Atheism Marat Shterin (eds) Gavin Hyman 978 1 84511 686 6 978 1 84885 136 8 ii THE POWER OF TANTRA Religion, Sexuality, and the Politics of South Asian Studies H UGH B. URBAN iii For Nancy v 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 C 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) 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 Typeset in Plantin Light by Aptara Inc., New Delhi Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham iv CONTENTS List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction Tantra and the Politics of South Asian Studies 1 Chapter One Matrix of Power: The S´ akta¯ P¯ıt.has and the Sacred Landscape of Tantra 31 Chapter Two Blood for the Goddess: Animal Sacrifice and Divine Menstruation 51 Chapter Three Goddess of Power: Tantra, Kingship, and Sacrifice in South Asian History 73 Chapter Four The Sacrifice of Desire: Sexual Rites and the Secret Sacrifice 99 Chapter Five What About the Woman? Gender Politics and the Interpretation of Women in Tantra 125 Chapter Six The Power of God in a Dark Valley: Reform, Colonialism, and the Decline of Tantra in South Asia 147 Chapter Seven The Power of the Goddess in a Postcolonial Age: Transformations of Tantra in the twentieth and twenty-first Centuries 165 vii viii the power of tantra Conclusions Tantra and the End of Imperialism: Beyond “Deep Orientalism” and “Third-Worldism” 187 Notes 197 Select Bibliography 235 Index 245 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Plates between pages 116 and 117 1. Kam¯ akhy¯ atempletoday¯ 2. Possible Yogin¯ı, Kam¯ akhy¯ a¯ temple grounds, ca. twelfth century 3. Bala Bhairav¯ı, ruins behind the Bhairav¯ı temple, ca. twelfth century 4. Siddha with female consort or disciple, Assam State Museum, twelfth to fourteenth centuries 5. Contemporary popular poster of Kam¯ akhy¯ a¯ 6. Kame¯ svar´ ¯ı, Kam¯ akhy¯ a¯ temple 7. Camun¯ . d. a,¯ Kam¯ akhy¯ a¯ temple ruins, ca. twelfth century 8. Female figure with severed head, Sixty-Four Yogin¯ı temple, Hirapur, Orissa 9. Menstruating figure, Kam¯ akhy¯ a¯ temple outer wall 10. S´ akta¯ Tantric guru, Kam¯ akhy¯ a¯ temple 11. Bhairava, Deopahar ruins, central Assam, tenth to eleventh centuries 12. Sacrificial post for goats, pigeons, and fish, Kam¯ akhy¯ a¯ temple 13. Sacrificial post for buffaloes, Kam¯ akhy¯ a¯ temple 14. Mahis.amardin¯ı with severed head, Kalipahara, Guwahati, tenth to eleventh centuries ix x the power of tantra 15. Buffalo skull, Ugratar¯ a¯ temple, Guwahati 16. Severed buffalo head, Kam¯ akhy¯ a¯ temple 17. Mask worn by sacrificial victims, Jaintia Durga¯ temple 18. S´ akta¯ priest ladling offerings into the fire, Tar¯ ap¯ ¯ıt.h, West Bengal 19. Couple in vipar¯ıta-rati, Madana Kamadeva¯ temple, Assam, tenth to twelfth centuries 20. Female S´ akta,¯ Kam¯ akhy¯ a¯ temple 21. Female Saivite,´ Kam¯ akhy¯ a¯ temple 22. CoverimageforKam¯ akhy¯ a¯ Tantrasara¯ 23. Shree Maa of Kam¯ akhy¯ a¯ 24. The “White Sadhu” and Shree Maa Map The four early S´ akta¯ P¯ıt.has and other major goddess temples in South Asia 33 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Research for this book was conducted in Assam, Bengal, Orissa, Tripura, and Meghalaya between 2000 and 2008 based on generous funding from the Fulbright Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Academy of Religion. The many in- dividuals and groups who deserve thanks here include: Maitreyee Bora, Paul Courtright, Patricia Dold, Wendy Doniger, Susan Huntington, Padma Kaimal, the Kam¯ akhy¯ a¯ Temple Trust Board, Jeffrey Kripal, Bruce Lincoln, Rob Linrothe, Rajiv Malhotra, Kimberly Masteller, Prem Saran, Shree Maa of Kam¯ akhy¯ a,¯ Swami Satyananda Saraswati, David Gordon White, and Alex Wright. xi INTRODUCTION: TANTRA AND THE POLITICS OF SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES She is supreme, the primordial power whose nature is eternal, incom- parable bliss, the source of all that moves or is motionless . —Pun. yanandan¯ atha,¯ Kamakal¯ avil¯ asa¯ (KKV 2) The omnipresence of power. Power is everywhere; not because it embraces everything, but because it comes from everywhere. —Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality1 urely no aspect of South Asian religion has generated more confu- Ssion, controversy, or misunderstanding than the complex body of texts and traditions known as Tantra. Since their first encounter with Indian religions, Western audiences have been at once fascinated and horrified, by turns shocked and titillated by this seemingly most exotic of all aspects of the exotic Orient. For European colonizers, Orientalist scholars, and Christian missionaries of the Victorian era, Tantra was generally seen as the worst, most degenerate and depraved example of all the worst tendencies in the “Indian mind,” a pathological mix- ture of religion and sensuality that had led to the decline of modern Hinduism. Yet for most contemporary New Age and popular writers, conversely, Tantra is now celebrated as a much-needed affirmation of physical pleasure and sexuality, as a “yoga of sex” or “cult of ecs- tasy” that might counteract the hypocritical prudery of the Christian West.