Tantra in Bengal: A Study in Its Origin, Development and Influence

Bengal Tantra reshapes understanding of religion by revealing its social and literary transformation.

The work, the first of its kind, is a systematic historical study of Bengal Tantra and aims at giving a connected and sustained account of the origin, development and influence of Bengal Tantra. Besides a general account of the Tantra literature, the work contains description of the contents of the Tantras of Bengal. It deals, in considerable detail, with the deep and wide influence of Tantra on the life and literature of Bengal. The work brings into bold relief, the liberalisation of the conventional Brahmanical codes of conduct, and shows how the basic human rights to religion, denied through centuries, to women and so-called low-class people particularly the Sudras, were recognised by Tantra. The book studies the literature against the social and religious background of Bengal and brings out the judicious curbs placed by Bengal Tantra on self-indulgence?that?disfigures?many?Tantric?rites.

The appendices contain inter alia useful information about unpublished Tantras of Bengal, Tantras mentioned in the Sanskrit works on Bengal Vaisnavism, Mudras, Yantras and Mandalas mentioned in Bengal Tantra, profiles of Tantric devotees and Buddhist Tantric works of Bengal. The work contains an informative glossary of the technical Tantric terms, and a useful bibliography of not only the original Tantric texts but also of noteworthy studies on different aspects of this vast literature.

The first edition of the book was published in 1978 and this reprint of the revised and enlarged edition of 1992 incorporates a lot of fresh information on the?subject.