A History of Sanskrit Literature c33.s4.18

c33.s4.18

Of no philosophical importance, but of great interest to the history of superstition, are the Tantras, the essence of which is to clothe in the garments of mysticism, the union of the soul with God or the absolute, the tenets of eroticism. That the Tantra literature is reasonably old is proved in all probability by the existence of manuscripts from 609 onwards, but the exact dates of the extant texts are hard in each case to determine; they include the *Kulacūḍāmaṇi Tantra*, the *Kulārṇava*, *Jñānārṇava*, *Tantrarāja*, *Mahānirvāṇa*, and so on. The Liṅgāyats of the south have a *Vīramaheçvara Tantra*. High claims have been raised for the cultural interest of these works, but there remains the essential fact that, so far as they contain philosophy, that is better given in other texts, and, so far as they are original, in addition to inculcating all sorts of magic practices they teach the doctrine of the eating of meat, the drinking of spirits, and promiscuous sexual intercourse, the deity being supposed to be present in the shape of the female devotee, as a means to the end of union with the highest principle of the system. In form also they lack attraction; the original texts seem to have been composed in rather barbarous Sanskrit, while the later are compilations badly arranged and collected. It is, however, true that the Tantric cult has had, and still possesses, an enormous power over the minds of Indians even in high ranks of society and of superior culture.¹