The Mystical World of the Body in the Bengali Tantric Work Nigūd . hārthaprakāśāvali (original) (raw)

Vernacular Tantra? An Analysis of the Bengali Text The Garland of Bones

Religions of South Asia, 2020

The paper introduces the Middle Bengali text The Garland of Bones (Hāṛamālā) into Western scholarship, and poses the question of what milieu it was produced and transmitted in. The main subject matter of this work is Tantric yoga, particularly the concept of the body. Content analysis reveals that it draws from different known sources (East Indian Kaula Sanskrit Tantras and vernacular works), but also contains a substantial amount of material that seems to be unique. Although the study of this text is full of uncertainties, and several questions related to it remain unanswered, the paper concludes that The Garland of Bones was probably composed in seventeenth-century Chittagong in a vernacular Tantric milieu, which was separate from the mainstream Sanskrit-oriented Kaula tradition. Later, probably in the eighteenth century, the text was adopted by the householder Nāths in the eastern parts of undivided Bengal, and became one of their most important scriptures.

Imagining the body in tantric contemplative practice

International Journal of Dharma Studies, 2017

This paper addresses imagination, focusing on two words, bhāvana and vikalpa, both frequently translated as "imagination," and addresses the connections imagination has with the body, specifically within the context of contemplative practices. Drawing primarily from the 10th and 11th century philosophical school of the Pratyabhijñā of Abhinavagupta and Utpaladeva, this paper proposes a more complex understanding of imagination as consisting of different forms, some connected with the body, others not. This paper suggests that the medieval Indian understanding of imagination as linked to the body allows this term for imagination to side-step much of our current philosophical difficulty within contemporary coginitive science regarding the mind-body problem.

Metaphors, Rasa, and Dhvani: Suggested Meaning in Tantric Esotericism

2007

Indian aesthetics provides a framework for reading Tantric traditions. Tantras describe the public and private domains of ritual in language that grounds esoteric experience while referring to commonsense entities. Th eir language is highly metaphoric, and uses conceptual blend, indication, and indirect suggestion. Th e experience transformed through meditation and ritual practice in this depiction parallels aesthetic bliss, and the theme of this description is the recognition of the true nature of the self, considered as concealed in mundane experience. Th e central argument of this paper is that the application of the aesthetic theories of rasa and dhvani to a reading of Tantra allows a deeper insight into Tantric rituals, their mystical writings, and esoteric practices. By studying two select cases of the description of esoteric bliss and consciousness, this essay contextualizes two aspects of aesthetics, rasa and dhvani, as tools for deciphering esoteric Tantric literature.

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.

Body, Self, and Healing in Tantric Ritual Paradigm

2012

This article addresses the spiritual healing practices in classical India that are still prevalent throughout the sub-continent. Primarily relying on the text, Netratantra, with its purview of religious exorcism, mantra healing, and yogic and contemplative practices, this article explores the possibility of relating practices in the field to what has been inscribed in the texts from within the culture. This research demonstrates the fluid relationship existing between the textual and oral traditions, in contrast of the ‘high’ and ‘low’ cultures conceived by the Indologists. Tantric texts are exemplary in this regard, as they attempt to provide a framework for the cultural references they are encoding. In a broader sense, this article explores the understanding of the body that is presupposed in the detailed prescriptions of mantra healing. Although what is ailing is the flesh, healing practices detailed here are directed towards the mentally constructed body, and rituals include visualisation, chanting, and other forms of practices. The body in this belief-system defies the oppositional boundaries of ‘outside’ and ‘inside’, and ‘subject’ and ‘object’. The healing process relies on the interaction and interpenetration of mental body with the constructed body and the flesh through mantras and other agents.

Selected fragments of the book Principles of Tantra

Selected fragments of: Principles of Tantra Volume I and II. Arthur Avalon. The TantraTattva of Shriyukta Shiva Candra Vidyârnava Bhattacârya Mahodaya Published by Virendra N. Tiwari for Shivalik Prakashan, First Edition Delhi 2011