Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics, and Power in the Study of Religion

Contents

Contents List of Illustrations ix Preface and Acknowledgments xi List of Abbreviations xv Introduction: Diagnosing the “Disease” of Tantra 1 1. The Golden Age of the Vedas and the Dark Age of Kàlí: Tantrism, Orientalism, and the Bengal Renaissance 44 2. Sacrificing White Goats to the Goddess: Tantra and Political Violence in Colonial India 73 3. India’s Darkest Heart: Tantra in the Literary Imagination 106 4. Deodorized Tantra: Sex, Scandal, Secrecy, and Censorship in the Works of John Woodroffe and Swami Vivekananda 134 5. Religion for the Age of Darkness: Tantra and the History of Religions in the Twentieth Century 165 6. The Cult of Ecstasy: Meldings of East and West in a New Age of Tantra 203 Conclusion: Reimagining Tantra in Contemporary Discourse 264 Notes 283 Bibliography 337 Index 367 This page intentionally left blank ...