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The Origins of Yoga and Tantra: Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century
Yoga, tantra and other forms of Asian meditation are practised in modernized forms throughout the world today, but most introductions to Hinduism or Buddhism tell only part of the story of how they developed. This book is an interpretation of the history of Indic religions up to around 1200 CE, with particular focus on the development of yogic and tantric traditions. It assesses how much we really know about this period, and asks what sense we can make of the evolution of yogic and tantric practices, which were to become such central and important features of the Indic religious scene. Its originality lies in seeking to understand these traditions in terms of the total social and religious context of South Asian society during this period, including the religious practices of the general population with their close engagement with family, gender, economic life and other pragmatic concerns.
431 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2008
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December 14, 2014
This is a thoroughly researched and erudite work on the social history of Indic religions. A historical treatise that traces the social, religious and political atmosphere that gave rise to the yogic and tantric systems. There aren’t many philosophical discussions and ritualistic details in this work.
He traces the origins of Yoga and Tantra by following the various developments in the Indic religions up to the 13th century CE. Instead of trying to build a linear structure, he traces the various ritualistic traditions and cults that were present in the Indic scene, and the dialectic that happened between them, resulting in the formation of the renunciate, Yogic and tantric orders.
Fortunately he doesn’t just focus on the textual sources but also uses archaeological, linguistic and anthropological sources to give a clear account of the social contours where these two traditions evolved and flourished.
He starts the book with a chapter on the Indus valley civilisation and the famous iconography that many scholars have supposed to be a Proto – Siva sitting in a Yogic posture. However Samuel warns us that the evidence for that is far from conclusive. This is followed by a long chapter on Indic historiography.
The book is then divided into two parts. Part one focusing on Meditation and Yoga, and the part two focusing on Tantra. The period in focus in the first part is mainly the period of second urbanisation. In this, he focuses on the Bhrahmanical and Sramanic ascetic traditions and the Yaksha religion and its role in the renunciate traditions. He gives a very clear account of the rise of the renunciate schools. In the second part, he follows the social changes from after the fall of the Mauryas to the rise of the Guptas and upto 13th century CE. The Vratya rituals, the Kapalika style ascetics and the transgressive practices associated with cremation grounds, the local village goddess cults, the low caste ritual groups and the kula traditions, the rise of the fierce, wild goddesses and the influence of Chinese alchemy that gave rise to the Kundalini system.
The word Tantra has been associated with a wide range of rituals and practices and so he doesn't try to define it. But he does mention a categorisation of Saiva and Buddhist Tantra into three phases. The first being the transgressive practices associated with death and the cremation ground, and with the goals of harnessing magical powers and sorcery. The second being the rise of sexual yoga and kundalini style practices probably influenced by Chinese alchemical traditions. These were adopted by both Saiva and Buddhist practitioners giving way to the elaborate rituals associated with the fierce goddesses, the Yogini Tantras and the ritual cycles of Hevajra and Chakrasamvara Tantras. By the 11th and 12th centuries these trangressive and sexual practices became the esoteric practices for the advanced practitioners. They became internalised and were increasingly seen as a set of practices leading to a psychological liberating insight.
One thing I would have loved to see discussed more is the impact of the tantra on gender relations. Especially during the time, when with the increasing dominance of the patriarchical Brahmanical culture with the ideas of purity and impurity, women were increasingly marginalised and restricted in the society. Once again he is circumspect about this, but he does accept the fact that condition of women was far better in South India than in the North.
The period dealt with in this book is very vast to fit in a single volume. So this not in any way a comprehensive account. Also the sources that he uses are mainly secondary and he is very circumspect about making any primary assertions. But this still is a very important contribution to the field.
He traces the origins of Yoga and Tantra by following the various developments in the Indic religions up to the 13th century CE. Instead of trying to build a linear structure, he traces the various ritualistic traditions and cults that were present in the Indic scene, and the dialectic that happened between them, resulting in the formation of the renunciate, Yogic and tantric orders.
Fortunately he doesn’t just focus on the textual sources but also uses archaeological, linguistic and anthropological sources to give a clear account of the social contours where these two traditions evolved and flourished.
He starts the book with a chapter on the Indus valley civilisation and the famous iconography that many scholars have supposed to be a Proto – Siva sitting in a Yogic posture. However Samuel warns us that the evidence for that is far from conclusive. This is followed by a long chapter on Indic historiography.
The book is then divided into two parts. Part one focusing on Meditation and Yoga, and the part two focusing on Tantra. The period in focus in the first part is mainly the period of second urbanisation. In this, he focuses on the Bhrahmanical and Sramanic ascetic traditions and the Yaksha religion and its role in the renunciate traditions. He gives a very clear account of the rise of the renunciate schools. In the second part, he follows the social changes from after the fall of the Mauryas to the rise of the Guptas and upto 13th century CE. The Vratya rituals, the Kapalika style ascetics and the transgressive practices associated with cremation grounds, the local village goddess cults, the low caste ritual groups and the kula traditions, the rise of the fierce, wild goddesses and the influence of Chinese alchemy that gave rise to the Kundalini system.
The word Tantra has been associated with a wide range of rituals and practices and so he doesn't try to define it. But he does mention a categorisation of Saiva and Buddhist Tantra into three phases. The first being the transgressive practices associated with death and the cremation ground, and with the goals of harnessing magical powers and sorcery. The second being the rise of sexual yoga and kundalini style practices probably influenced by Chinese alchemical traditions. These were adopted by both Saiva and Buddhist practitioners giving way to the elaborate rituals associated with the fierce goddesses, the Yogini Tantras and the ritual cycles of Hevajra and Chakrasamvara Tantras. By the 11th and 12th centuries these trangressive and sexual practices became the esoteric practices for the advanced practitioners. They became internalised and were increasingly seen as a set of practices leading to a psychological liberating insight.
One thing I would have loved to see discussed more is the impact of the tantra on gender relations. Especially during the time, when with the increasing dominance of the patriarchical Brahmanical culture with the ideas of purity and impurity, women were increasingly marginalised and restricted in the society. Once again he is circumspect about this, but he does accept the fact that condition of women was far better in South India than in the North.
The period dealt with in this book is very vast to fit in a single volume. So this not in any way a comprehensive account. Also the sources that he uses are mainly secondary and he is very circumspect about making any primary assertions. But this still is a very important contribution to the field.
April 22, 2023
I have never really quite grasped what tantra meant. Having read this, I better understand why it is not easy to define what it is. To try to pin down what tantra is through our modern eyes, and to give it a simplistic narrative would be a reductionist exercise.
This is a solid piece of scholarly work, well-referenced (over 50 pages of references in not-senior- friendly print) and appropriately caveated. The author, Professor Geoffrey Samuel is emeritus professor of religious studies at Cardiff University. He is known for his ethnographic studies of Tibetan and other Indic religions, investigating topics such as yoga, tantra, and the subtle body.
This is a fascinating read and I appreciate the author’s constant and careful qualifications for many statements, since many of sources of information and views are speculative and still widely contested, especially for sources before the common era. He tries to present as many views as possible and attempts to highlight the most plausible perspectives based on available sources at this point in time (archaeological, iconographic, epigraphical, numismatic and textual). His position is that being open and tentative gives us more room to shift our understanding when new information or technologies are available to help us better decipher the past.
And indeed, it is important to try to better understand this particular past given the global interest in yoga and meditation in the last 50 years (with its related tantric elements, albeit in modernised and transformed permutations without the word "tantra" attached). To lock ourselves into a position is not very helpful to the process of scholarship and understanding. And a crude understanding of the complexity of the past can lead to fundamentalist and destructive stances (including re-engineering of the past) which can lead to dreadful consequences to community and society.
I highly recommend this read. Eventhough I struggled with the second half of the book because there are just so many different strands of developments and possibilities and I failed to grasp what some of these mean. But I always love it when a book surprises me, and this is one of those that has actually opened up my mindscape to explore further in future.
It is not going to be easy to write a review of this book, given the multiple and complex strands of developments over the course of a a very long period of 3000 to 4000 years, and over a vast area that included not just South Asia but Southeast Asia and East Asia. The developments of the local beliefs in different parts of South Asia are also closely intertwined with the development of the main Indic religions such as Vedic Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism – which turn influence each other over the course of time. The second half of the book was also rather heavy going for me given how the different tantric elements evolved differently for different areas and across the main Indic religions.
So I am not able to give justice to this book because I am unable to give a detailed or intellectual review at all, but will only share my personal key take-aways after reading as I try to connect and update my existing understanding of the world. I will certainly read this book again to better understand the topic.
(1) My First Key Take-Away: study multiple historical sources and treat each source tentatively
The first important context that Professor Samuel set out is that we need to approach sources of information with tentativeness. This is because there are still a lot of uncertainties when it comes to the sources, dating, authorship, attribution and location especially for sources before the common era.
Prof Samuel pointed out a very good example in the introduction chapter which he cited a couple of “seals” found in the Harrapan or Indus Valley Civilisation (2600 to 1900 BCE) which some claim and named as “proto Siva” seals but this is actually highly speculatively and highly contested as there is no other information that can link these to the Siva cult that developed only much later. In fact, based on available information, very little is know about the religious life of the Harrapan Civilisation (although a lot is known about their urban life). It is very natural that some segments of modern day religion want to claim that their tradition goes very, very far back. But Professor Samuel warns against the danger of looking at the past and trying to re-engineer it with present day eyes.
So, there is a need to rely on multiples sources for information, and not just rely on textual information (orthogenetic approach) since textual records are usually the domain of the educated elite in a society and may symbolise an ideal that may not accurately represent the actual lived experiences and practises of the general society. Taking a more heterogenetic approach including archaeological, iconographical, epigraphical, and numismatic will be more useful.
(2) My Second Key Take-Away: The two different worlds from the second urbanisation of South Asia
After the Harappan/Indus Valley Civilisation dissolved (this is known as the first urbanisation), there was a gradual evaluation of 2 broad areas of culture during the second known phase of urbanisation in South Asia. One is in the north west which we can call the Kuru-Pancala area (around modern day Haryana, Punjab, and parts of Pakistan). The other is in the Central Gangetic Plain area (around modern day Bihar, West Bengal).
While these 2 worlds were broadly different, they were also bound by commonalities – they were both using Indo-European languages from the long and gradual periods of settlement of Indo-European peoples. (So the term “Aryan invasion” is a misnomer and a myth since there wasn’t an invasion as such. I know this has been politicised both by past European scholars during colonial times and rejected by Indian nationalist scholars who either say the Aryans never existed or that they were Indians all along. But the historical reality is that these people existed, and were different from the Harappan Civilisation which largely moved to the south and were using Dravidian languages. Those in the northwest that came after the Harappan Civilisation referred to themselves as living in the “land of the Aryas”, and they see everything outside this land as polluting and Brahmins has to purify themselves when they return from outside of the land of the Aryas. And they were the people who claimed the Rigveda as their heritage). The evidence points to gradual migration and settlements of Indo-European tribes over long history, and that any difference is only cultural and not racial.
The Kuru-Pancala world is more Vedic leaning, pastoral, see themselves as a lunar dynasty (Candravamsa - their myths trace their descent from a marriage of their mythological king with the moon goddess), has a warrior-kind orientation, was more conservatively Brahmanical, worship mostly male deities.
The world of the Central Gangetic Plain in contrast is non-Vedic, more agrarian, see themselves as a solar dynasty (Suryavamsa – their myths trace their geneaology to the sun), has a wisdom/ascetic/philosophical king orientation, has a more sramana-leaning orientation (that is, ascetic and renunciates), and is more oriented towards female fertility deities (for auspiciousness).
(3) My Third Key Take-Away: The substrate cultures that may have influenced the development of ascetism, transgressive acts and tantra (a) beliefs in yakshas, and (b) sub-culture of vratyas
Ok, after setting the broader contexts, here comes another layer of context that is pretty complicating but no less fascinating. We are not looking at cause and effect here, but looking at the various contexts that may have influenced the development of the complex world of tantra and yoga. And among them are the yakshas and the vratyas.
Before, during and after the development of the separate worlds of Kuru-Pancala and Central Gangetic Plains, is the world of ordinary folks and their relationship with the local deities – known as yakshas. These are not Vedic gods in the Rigveda (major Vedic gods are Indra, Agni, Mithra, Varuna, Soma). Yakshas are sometimes seen as fierce, sometimes less so, but often invoked for protection.
These can be male and female eg Siva and his wife Kali which were deities of destruction and chaos so were seen as powerful. So the invocation of such deities was a common folk practise, but gained more traction later when adopted by war-like kings who hungered for victory as they expanded their kingdoms, especially after the collapse of the Mauryan empire when there was more chaos and jostling for power and territories.
So invoking and identifying with a deity is one of the tantric elements. Professor Samuel said that it in general, the Buddhist-Jaina world has a parallel existence with the yaksha world. That in many Buddhist societies now, Buddhists also pray to deities but will place the Buddha and Buddhist goals higher in the hierarchy.
However, in the Brahmanical (and now Hindu) world, they have a remarkable inventiveness to absorb all the local deities into their pantheon, and claims these them Vedic gods under different names!
Tibetan Buddhism however, falls in between these two.
I observe that even today, yogis practise yoga to be “yoked” with Brahma or the cosmic consciousness. Also, the development of the the practise of invoking the Bodhisattva becomes more popular when Mahayana Buddhism developed from early Buddhism and began to deify the Buddha (which is different from the early Buddhist texts which depicted Buddha more like a human figure).
And I find it interesting that Siva, the Adi-Yogi of modern day, was not even mentioned in the Rigveda. Some later claim that Siva was Rudra in the Rigveda, so I just wonder if this is another act of reverse engineering. Actually, Rudra was just a minor god in the Rigveda.
Then there is the vratyas from the ancient times. Young celibate males were often sent to the forests to live with other celibate males to live and hunt perhaps as part of a rite of passage. This seems like a form of mystical fellowship, of a life of austerity, wandering ascetic and esoteric rite (eg sexual intercourse with prostitutes) that were performed to protect the rest of the community. Some of these males may not have progressed to householder life for various reasons, but remained as outcasts of mainstream society, and may perhaps formed the basis of renunciates who lived outside the bounds of normal society later - who are scary yet have powers that can be tapped for pragmatic purposes. This may have contributed in part to the culture of ascetics, especially those who have extreme practises such as the kapalikas (something like those ascetics you see in modern day India living in charnel grounds, holding a skull).
(4) My Fourth Take-away: Transgressive sexual practises were part of the deal in tantric practises in the past, but have evolved over time to more subtle internal practises.
Over time, tantric practises became more marginal in South Asia and Southeast Asia. This may be due to various reasons: Muslim invasion, growth of Bhakti movement (more devotional than “invoking” and “identifying” with deeties), growth of Theraveda Buddhist in Southeast Asia.
There was also a gradual shift from external to more subtle internal practises. The use of actual transgressive acts like sacrifice of potent materials such as sexual excretions, tapping on the powers of actual sexual acts, and invoking of deities like a shaman – all for pragmatic purposes such as protection and gains in war.... gradually gave way to self-control, tapping on internal energies and prana for liberating insight and to merge with the cosmic consciousness or Brahma.
Tantric elements were gradually no longer known overtly as “tantra”, and became less mainstream and later seen as secret practises reserved only for the selected and highly evolved, and passed down by a teacher.
I can see this in yogic literature such as the 15th century Hatha Yoga Pradipika and also in Tibetan culture. There were places where certain practises were mentioned as secret. Also, I read in an article somewhere that trataka (eye yoga) is a “secret” practise.
But my sense is that Buddhism would have influenced how tantric elements and yoga developed. Patanjali yoga sutras came after the historical Buddha, and you can see that the 8 limbs of yoga closely parallels in some way to the noble 8 fold path of Buddhism. Accordingly to Prof Samuel, these “technologies of the self” came more from Buddhism, which introduced a a more systematic self-cultivation available to everyone, compared to Vedic religion which was more of a religion of “revelation” to the selected.
Ok, I think I shall stop here or I will be at risk of saying something not accurate. These are just my personal take-aways as as novice. This book is so rich with information and sources, I cannot pretend to be able understand everything. I appreciate it very much because I love books that expands the landscape of my mind, and which surprises me. This book, just as Prof Johannes Bronkhorst’s Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism, has opened up my mindscape.
This is a solid piece of scholarly work, well-referenced (over 50 pages of references in not-senior- friendly print) and appropriately caveated. The author, Professor Geoffrey Samuel is emeritus professor of religious studies at Cardiff University. He is known for his ethnographic studies of Tibetan and other Indic religions, investigating topics such as yoga, tantra, and the subtle body.
This is a fascinating read and I appreciate the author’s constant and careful qualifications for many statements, since many of sources of information and views are speculative and still widely contested, especially for sources before the common era. He tries to present as many views as possible and attempts to highlight the most plausible perspectives based on available sources at this point in time (archaeological, iconographic, epigraphical, numismatic and textual). His position is that being open and tentative gives us more room to shift our understanding when new information or technologies are available to help us better decipher the past.
And indeed, it is important to try to better understand this particular past given the global interest in yoga and meditation in the last 50 years (with its related tantric elements, albeit in modernised and transformed permutations without the word "tantra" attached). To lock ourselves into a position is not very helpful to the process of scholarship and understanding. And a crude understanding of the complexity of the past can lead to fundamentalist and destructive stances (including re-engineering of the past) which can lead to dreadful consequences to community and society.
I highly recommend this read. Eventhough I struggled with the second half of the book because there are just so many different strands of developments and possibilities and I failed to grasp what some of these mean. But I always love it when a book surprises me, and this is one of those that has actually opened up my mindscape to explore further in future.
It is not going to be easy to write a review of this book, given the multiple and complex strands of developments over the course of a a very long period of 3000 to 4000 years, and over a vast area that included not just South Asia but Southeast Asia and East Asia. The developments of the local beliefs in different parts of South Asia are also closely intertwined with the development of the main Indic religions such as Vedic Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism – which turn influence each other over the course of time. The second half of the book was also rather heavy going for me given how the different tantric elements evolved differently for different areas and across the main Indic religions.
So I am not able to give justice to this book because I am unable to give a detailed or intellectual review at all, but will only share my personal key take-aways after reading as I try to connect and update my existing understanding of the world. I will certainly read this book again to better understand the topic.
(1) My First Key Take-Away: study multiple historical sources and treat each source tentatively
The first important context that Professor Samuel set out is that we need to approach sources of information with tentativeness. This is because there are still a lot of uncertainties when it comes to the sources, dating, authorship, attribution and location especially for sources before the common era.
Prof Samuel pointed out a very good example in the introduction chapter which he cited a couple of “seals” found in the Harrapan or Indus Valley Civilisation (2600 to 1900 BCE) which some claim and named as “proto Siva” seals but this is actually highly speculatively and highly contested as there is no other information that can link these to the Siva cult that developed only much later. In fact, based on available information, very little is know about the religious life of the Harrapan Civilisation (although a lot is known about their urban life). It is very natural that some segments of modern day religion want to claim that their tradition goes very, very far back. But Professor Samuel warns against the danger of looking at the past and trying to re-engineer it with present day eyes.
So, there is a need to rely on multiples sources for information, and not just rely on textual information (orthogenetic approach) since textual records are usually the domain of the educated elite in a society and may symbolise an ideal that may not accurately represent the actual lived experiences and practises of the general society. Taking a more heterogenetic approach including archaeological, iconographical, epigraphical, and numismatic will be more useful.
(2) My Second Key Take-Away: The two different worlds from the second urbanisation of South Asia
After the Harappan/Indus Valley Civilisation dissolved (this is known as the first urbanisation), there was a gradual evaluation of 2 broad areas of culture during the second known phase of urbanisation in South Asia. One is in the north west which we can call the Kuru-Pancala area (around modern day Haryana, Punjab, and parts of Pakistan). The other is in the Central Gangetic Plain area (around modern day Bihar, West Bengal).
While these 2 worlds were broadly different, they were also bound by commonalities – they were both using Indo-European languages from the long and gradual periods of settlement of Indo-European peoples. (So the term “Aryan invasion” is a misnomer and a myth since there wasn’t an invasion as such. I know this has been politicised both by past European scholars during colonial times and rejected by Indian nationalist scholars who either say the Aryans never existed or that they were Indians all along. But the historical reality is that these people existed, and were different from the Harappan Civilisation which largely moved to the south and were using Dravidian languages. Those in the northwest that came after the Harappan Civilisation referred to themselves as living in the “land of the Aryas”, and they see everything outside this land as polluting and Brahmins has to purify themselves when they return from outside of the land of the Aryas. And they were the people who claimed the Rigveda as their heritage). The evidence points to gradual migration and settlements of Indo-European tribes over long history, and that any difference is only cultural and not racial.
The Kuru-Pancala world is more Vedic leaning, pastoral, see themselves as a lunar dynasty (Candravamsa - their myths trace their descent from a marriage of their mythological king with the moon goddess), has a warrior-kind orientation, was more conservatively Brahmanical, worship mostly male deities.
The world of the Central Gangetic Plain in contrast is non-Vedic, more agrarian, see themselves as a solar dynasty (Suryavamsa – their myths trace their geneaology to the sun), has a wisdom/ascetic/philosophical king orientation, has a more sramana-leaning orientation (that is, ascetic and renunciates), and is more oriented towards female fertility deities (for auspiciousness).
(3) My Third Key Take-Away: The substrate cultures that may have influenced the development of ascetism, transgressive acts and tantra (a) beliefs in yakshas, and (b) sub-culture of vratyas
Ok, after setting the broader contexts, here comes another layer of context that is pretty complicating but no less fascinating. We are not looking at cause and effect here, but looking at the various contexts that may have influenced the development of the complex world of tantra and yoga. And among them are the yakshas and the vratyas.
Before, during and after the development of the separate worlds of Kuru-Pancala and Central Gangetic Plains, is the world of ordinary folks and their relationship with the local deities – known as yakshas. These are not Vedic gods in the Rigveda (major Vedic gods are Indra, Agni, Mithra, Varuna, Soma). Yakshas are sometimes seen as fierce, sometimes less so, but often invoked for protection.
These can be male and female eg Siva and his wife Kali which were deities of destruction and chaos so were seen as powerful. So the invocation of such deities was a common folk practise, but gained more traction later when adopted by war-like kings who hungered for victory as they expanded their kingdoms, especially after the collapse of the Mauryan empire when there was more chaos and jostling for power and territories.
So invoking and identifying with a deity is one of the tantric elements. Professor Samuel said that it in general, the Buddhist-Jaina world has a parallel existence with the yaksha world. That in many Buddhist societies now, Buddhists also pray to deities but will place the Buddha and Buddhist goals higher in the hierarchy.
However, in the Brahmanical (and now Hindu) world, they have a remarkable inventiveness to absorb all the local deities into their pantheon, and claims these them Vedic gods under different names!
Tibetan Buddhism however, falls in between these two.
I observe that even today, yogis practise yoga to be “yoked” with Brahma or the cosmic consciousness. Also, the development of the the practise of invoking the Bodhisattva becomes more popular when Mahayana Buddhism developed from early Buddhism and began to deify the Buddha (which is different from the early Buddhist texts which depicted Buddha more like a human figure).
And I find it interesting that Siva, the Adi-Yogi of modern day, was not even mentioned in the Rigveda. Some later claim that Siva was Rudra in the Rigveda, so I just wonder if this is another act of reverse engineering. Actually, Rudra was just a minor god in the Rigveda.
Then there is the vratyas from the ancient times. Young celibate males were often sent to the forests to live with other celibate males to live and hunt perhaps as part of a rite of passage. This seems like a form of mystical fellowship, of a life of austerity, wandering ascetic and esoteric rite (eg sexual intercourse with prostitutes) that were performed to protect the rest of the community. Some of these males may not have progressed to householder life for various reasons, but remained as outcasts of mainstream society, and may perhaps formed the basis of renunciates who lived outside the bounds of normal society later - who are scary yet have powers that can be tapped for pragmatic purposes. This may have contributed in part to the culture of ascetics, especially those who have extreme practises such as the kapalikas (something like those ascetics you see in modern day India living in charnel grounds, holding a skull).
(4) My Fourth Take-away: Transgressive sexual practises were part of the deal in tantric practises in the past, but have evolved over time to more subtle internal practises.
Over time, tantric practises became more marginal in South Asia and Southeast Asia. This may be due to various reasons: Muslim invasion, growth of Bhakti movement (more devotional than “invoking” and “identifying” with deeties), growth of Theraveda Buddhist in Southeast Asia.
There was also a gradual shift from external to more subtle internal practises. The use of actual transgressive acts like sacrifice of potent materials such as sexual excretions, tapping on the powers of actual sexual acts, and invoking of deities like a shaman – all for pragmatic purposes such as protection and gains in war.... gradually gave way to self-control, tapping on internal energies and prana for liberating insight and to merge with the cosmic consciousness or Brahma.
Tantric elements were gradually no longer known overtly as “tantra”, and became less mainstream and later seen as secret practises reserved only for the selected and highly evolved, and passed down by a teacher.
I can see this in yogic literature such as the 15th century Hatha Yoga Pradipika and also in Tibetan culture. There were places where certain practises were mentioned as secret. Also, I read in an article somewhere that trataka (eye yoga) is a “secret” practise.
But my sense is that Buddhism would have influenced how tantric elements and yoga developed. Patanjali yoga sutras came after the historical Buddha, and you can see that the 8 limbs of yoga closely parallels in some way to the noble 8 fold path of Buddhism. Accordingly to Prof Samuel, these “technologies of the self” came more from Buddhism, which introduced a a more systematic self-cultivation available to everyone, compared to Vedic religion which was more of a religion of “revelation” to the selected.
Ok, I think I shall stop here or I will be at risk of saying something not accurate. These are just my personal take-aways as as novice. This book is so rich with information and sources, I cannot pretend to be able understand everything. I appreciate it very much because I love books that expands the landscape of my mind, and which surprises me. This book, just as Prof Johannes Bronkhorst’s Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism, has opened up my mindscape.
Read
March 31, 2023This is fascinating stuff! Not to be all hindu nationalist, but people in south asia and other areas under the south asian cultural sphere were doing world changing innovations in the millennium before last, and I am glad I learned these through a book like this. What impressed me a lot was how important it was for the author to qualify every statement with how certain we are of it, what the method by which we have arrived at these conclusions. I think I've not read these things presented with this much clarity in any other pop history book I've read. Plus there is 60 whole pages of references!
The book says Yoga and Tantra, and I know a bit about the former, as a reimport of a set of practices that were first exported to the west. The latter I had even vaguer notions of, I definitely did not think of it as the sort of black magic shown in south indian female deity films, (which is apparently the popular imagination of tantra). But these are are a tiny part of these intellectual and religious traditions. Yoga is a set of "technologies of the self", techniques used to alter your mind-body complex, sexual and otherwise, to achieve liberating knowledge. This it was after a complex evolution. Tantra is even more complicating, with some chilling aspects to it, but as a result even more morbidly fascinating. A big part of it is because how much sense all the bizarre rituals made to me, and this is definitely credit due to the author.
The Tantric rituals were patronised by states for a brief time in south asia, longer in south east asia, and eventually marginalised after islamic invasions of india, when the bhakti traditions took over. So the narrative of the book stops by around the 13th century. The beginning of course had to be the mature indus valley civilisation, to trace the ideas that transform into yoga and tantra through their complex evolution. In this process, there is an excellent introduction to Indology in the beginning, and to history of indic religions starting from the aryan pastoralists of kuru panchala and the lower caste ritualists around the tamil kings (pre-sangam era, i think?). There's also a discussion the dichotomy of the warrior king tradition and the ascetic king tradition, that the two epics mahabharata and ramayana represent respectively to some extent.
I honestly love everything about this book.
The book says Yoga and Tantra, and I know a bit about the former, as a reimport of a set of practices that were first exported to the west. The latter I had even vaguer notions of, I definitely did not think of it as the sort of black magic shown in south indian female deity films, (which is apparently the popular imagination of tantra). But these are are a tiny part of these intellectual and religious traditions. Yoga is a set of "technologies of the self", techniques used to alter your mind-body complex, sexual and otherwise, to achieve liberating knowledge. This it was after a complex evolution. Tantra is even more complicating, with some chilling aspects to it, but as a result even more morbidly fascinating. A big part of it is because how much sense all the bizarre rituals made to me, and this is definitely credit due to the author.
The Tantric rituals were patronised by states for a brief time in south asia, longer in south east asia, and eventually marginalised after islamic invasions of india, when the bhakti traditions took over. So the narrative of the book stops by around the 13th century. The beginning of course had to be the mature indus valley civilisation, to trace the ideas that transform into yoga and tantra through their complex evolution. In this process, there is an excellent introduction to Indology in the beginning, and to history of indic religions starting from the aryan pastoralists of kuru panchala and the lower caste ritualists around the tamil kings (pre-sangam era, i think?). There's also a discussion the dichotomy of the warrior king tradition and the ascetic king tradition, that the two epics mahabharata and ramayana represent respectively to some extent.
I honestly love everything about this book.
May 2, 2022
This is a very engaging and well-researched book on the social history behind the esoteric practices of Indic religions. I really liked how Samuel brings attention to a large assortment of religious movements within India's history and demonstrates how they dialectically inform and play off each other. Samuel does a great job of showing how yoga and the evolution of tantra are a co-creation of many movements overlapping within the shared geographic milieu.
Although an academic book published by a university press, Samual tends to avoid getting stuck in the minutia of trying to catalog and overwhelm the reader on every little detail related to the subject and instead keeps the chapters moving along at a good pace. It is an academic book written for other academics that reads as though it was targeting a broader audience of laypeople.
Although an academic book published by a university press, Samual tends to avoid getting stuck in the minutia of trying to catalog and overwhelm the reader on every little detail related to the subject and instead keeps the chapters moving along at a good pace. It is an academic book written for other academics that reads as though it was targeting a broader audience of laypeople.
August 12, 2016
Let me start with two negatives, which explain the 4 (rather than 5) star rating:
First of all, the academic practise of inserting credits to authors mid-sentence is immensely irritating, and this is a constant sin in this book. A typical, not the worst, example: "Certainly such practitioners have been important in more recent times in most Theravadin countries (Tambiah 1984; Carrithers 1983; Taylor 1993; Tiyaranich 1997, 2004; see also Keyes 1987; Lehman 1987; Tambiah 1987)." -- Editors and publishers, please, when you have academic authors, insist that they put these references either at the bottom of the page or as end notes. These constant interruptions only detract from the key messages. Readers are not on a Ph.D. committee and do not need the constant credential reminders.
I also felt that the author kept hedging on issues--'it could be this, it could be that' positioning. A word count on 'seems', 'appears' 'has suggested' would have been a useful exercise. Samuel is an expert; he should voice and support his own position. Put conflicting views in the footnotes.
But to turn to the content, the sections on the central relationship in Brahmanical thought between celibacy, religion and male identity, were illuminating and helpful in understanding the rise of tantra in Indic religions.
Also excellent was the entire 'story' of the role of Siva and how Siva (and such forms as Bhairava) became associated with yogic and Tantric practices as "he became the first and supreme example of a fundamental principle of Indian religious life; the power of disorder, destruction and transgression...the need to come to terms and worship the things that can go wrong and create misfortune" (p. 114). The subsequent section on Saiva Tantra and the Yogini cults, which begins with the statement that "the Saiva ascetics were consciously positioning themselves outside of respectable society" was also one of those 'ah ha!' moments for me.
If you can sustain patience through the constant academic referrals and fence-walking, the rewards are many.
First of all, the academic practise of inserting credits to authors mid-sentence is immensely irritating, and this is a constant sin in this book. A typical, not the worst, example: "Certainly such practitioners have been important in more recent times in most Theravadin countries (Tambiah 1984; Carrithers 1983; Taylor 1993; Tiyaranich 1997, 2004; see also Keyes 1987; Lehman 1987; Tambiah 1987)." -- Editors and publishers, please, when you have academic authors, insist that they put these references either at the bottom of the page or as end notes. These constant interruptions only detract from the key messages. Readers are not on a Ph.D. committee and do not need the constant credential reminders.
I also felt that the author kept hedging on issues--'it could be this, it could be that' positioning. A word count on 'seems', 'appears' 'has suggested' would have been a useful exercise. Samuel is an expert; he should voice and support his own position. Put conflicting views in the footnotes.
But to turn to the content, the sections on the central relationship in Brahmanical thought between celibacy, religion and male identity, were illuminating and helpful in understanding the rise of tantra in Indic religions.
Also excellent was the entire 'story' of the role of Siva and how Siva (and such forms as Bhairava) became associated with yogic and Tantric practices as "he became the first and supreme example of a fundamental principle of Indian religious life; the power of disorder, destruction and transgression...the need to come to terms and worship the things that can go wrong and create misfortune" (p. 114). The subsequent section on Saiva Tantra and the Yogini cults, which begins with the statement that "the Saiva ascetics were consciously positioning themselves outside of respectable society" was also one of those 'ah ha!' moments for me.
If you can sustain patience through the constant academic referrals and fence-walking, the rewards are many.
May 21, 2016
Let me begin with the note that the title & cover imagery is more or less misleading. The book uses a methodology of finding the logical beginning of customs, rituals & beliefs which can't be dated accurately. So, it is meant to disappoint a lot of people in its attempt to delve into an objective truth which may or may not exist.
The historical analysis of Indic religions is hardly enriching for any theological discussion because of the enormous irregularities. In many ways it paints & disrobes so called Vedic & Brahmanical belief systems as per the need of chapter.
And, in the end credits whatever innovation which Hinduism introduced as adoption from China. Ah!
That being said these innovations might not be innovation but a part of milieu from a long time before that.
In the end, it washes all its sins with last 3 pages of crediting the Indic religions with scientific acclaim & credit.
The historical analysis of Indic religions is hardly enriching for any theological discussion because of the enormous irregularities. In many ways it paints & disrobes so called Vedic & Brahmanical belief systems as per the need of chapter.
And, in the end credits whatever innovation which Hinduism introduced as adoption from China. Ah!
That being said these innovations might not be innovation but a part of milieu from a long time before that.
In the end, it washes all its sins with last 3 pages of crediting the Indic religions with scientific acclaim & credit.
July 5, 2024
Geoffrey Samuel decides to take up the challenge to explain the bizarre and mysterious rise of Tantric practice where so little scriptural and archaeological evident exists.
Samuel sets the tone in the introduction with a simple exercise of showing a picture sculpted into a rock face that could be read in a multitude of ways. This instructs the reader not to leap to conclusions about what any historical evidence might mean, but rather to take a more spherical observation which leads to a more unbiased understanding. This will mean that by the end of the book, there will not be any one clear answer to what caused Tantric practices to form and rise to fame but multiple implied possibilities that the reader patches together from all the information presented in this book.
Samuel covers all bases by including various religious practices in and out of India that may explain why Tantra took off as a practice around the 9th to the 12th centuries. What makes building a clear and concise origin story to the Tantric practices known today, is that Tantra is a multi-faceted phenomenon. They include meditations on Mandalas, belief of Chakras, sexual practices, graphic mental and artistic images, levels of consciousness and the idea of "bringing the future result into the present moment".
Samuel has really given himself challenging task, which he accomplishes in this incredibly concentrated 400+ page book. Images are provided which are helpful to illustrate specific points as well breaking up the monotony of densely packed tiny fonts that are printed throughout the book.
Samuel begins his investigation as far back as archaeological and scriptural history can take us in ancient India to see if any beliefs could be the seed of what would later develop to be Tantra. No stone is left unturned including areas that well interesting I do not think relate to emergence of Tantra seen centuries later. Nevertheless, such a heterogenetic approach is appreciated over an orthogenetic one, as this gives the fullest picture needed to help explain the mystery. He ends with the later history of yoga and Tantra, leaving the reader cobble together their own hypothesis on the origins of such a uniquely radical spiritual practice that people have discovered.
TLDR: A highly in-depth and diverse look at all the possible reasons on why and how Tantra emerged and spread throughout spiritual India. Rather than tutoring us on one preferred story, Geoffrey Samuel in his spherical look at ancient and medieval India will leave the reader to come to their own conclusions to rise of this bizarre yet profound spiritual practice.
Samuel sets the tone in the introduction with a simple exercise of showing a picture sculpted into a rock face that could be read in a multitude of ways. This instructs the reader not to leap to conclusions about what any historical evidence might mean, but rather to take a more spherical observation which leads to a more unbiased understanding. This will mean that by the end of the book, there will not be any one clear answer to what caused Tantric practices to form and rise to fame but multiple implied possibilities that the reader patches together from all the information presented in this book.
Samuel covers all bases by including various religious practices in and out of India that may explain why Tantra took off as a practice around the 9th to the 12th centuries. What makes building a clear and concise origin story to the Tantric practices known today, is that Tantra is a multi-faceted phenomenon. They include meditations on Mandalas, belief of Chakras, sexual practices, graphic mental and artistic images, levels of consciousness and the idea of "bringing the future result into the present moment".
Samuel has really given himself challenging task, which he accomplishes in this incredibly concentrated 400+ page book. Images are provided which are helpful to illustrate specific points as well breaking up the monotony of densely packed tiny fonts that are printed throughout the book.
Samuel begins his investigation as far back as archaeological and scriptural history can take us in ancient India to see if any beliefs could be the seed of what would later develop to be Tantra. No stone is left unturned including areas that well interesting I do not think relate to emergence of Tantra seen centuries later. Nevertheless, such a heterogenetic approach is appreciated over an orthogenetic one, as this gives the fullest picture needed to help explain the mystery. He ends with the later history of yoga and Tantra, leaving the reader cobble together their own hypothesis on the origins of such a uniquely radical spiritual practice that people have discovered.
TLDR: A highly in-depth and diverse look at all the possible reasons on why and how Tantra emerged and spread throughout spiritual India. Rather than tutoring us on one preferred story, Geoffrey Samuel in his spherical look at ancient and medieval India will leave the reader to come to their own conclusions to rise of this bizarre yet profound spiritual practice.
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