Tantra in Hinduism: Agamas, Initiation and Temple Worship

In Hinduism, Tantra is the body of revealed scriptures, called Tantras, Agamas or Samhitas, and the religious systems based on them, that from about the fifth or sixth century CE taught initiation by a guru, the use of mantras, worship of deities in images and diagrams, and yogic visualisation as the means to liberation and power. Far from being a marginal or purely sexual cult, Tantra shaped the ritual of almost every Hindu temple and much of everyday Hindu worship, alongside the older Vedic tradition. This article treats Tantra as part of Hindu religion; its esoteric practices and its Buddhist forms are covered in Tantra: History and Practice.

What Hindu Tantra Is: Scripture and Revelation§

The word tantra means "loom" or "warp," and by extension a system or treatise. In the religious sense it refers to scriptures presented as revealed by Shiva, Vishnu or the Goddess, often as a dialogue between the god and his consort. Their followers regarded them as a higher or more effective revelation than the Veda, suited to the present dark age, while orthodox critics regarded them as outside or even opposed to Vedic norms.

Scholars generally date the oldest surviving Shaiva Tantras to the fifth to seventh centuries, with an earlier, now lost, prehistory. Over the following centuries tantric systems became so widespread that, as the historian Alexis Sanderson has argued, Shaivism in its tantric form was for several centuries the dominant religion of Indian kings. Hindu Tantra developed in close interaction with Buddhist and Jain Tantra, sharing ritual techniques, deities and vocabulary.

The Three Great Bodies of Tantric Scripture§

The Shaiva Agamas and Tantras§

The Shaiva scriptures were classified into several "streams." The Shaiva Siddhanta tradition recognises twenty-eight principal Agamas, such as the Kamika, with numerous subsidiary texts; these became the basis of temple ritual in south India, and their theology is explained in Shaivism. The "Bhairava Tantras," worshipping fierce forms of Shiva and his goddesses, and the Kaula scriptures that grew from them, developed more esoteric and transgressive practices and fed the non-dual Shaivism of Kashmir.

The Pancharatra Samhitas§

The Vaishnava tantric tradition is the Pancharatra, whose texts are called samhitas; the Jayakhya, Sattvata and Pauskara Samhitas are often grouped as its oldest core. The Pancharatra teaches the five-fold manifestation of Vishnu, culminating in the consecrated temple image, and provides detailed rules for temple worship, festivals and initiation. Together with the parallel Vaikhanasa tradition, it governs ritual in many Vaishnava temples today, including the great temple of Srirangam, as described in Vaishnavism.

The Shakta Tantras§

Shakta Tantras centre on the Goddess. They include texts of the Kali-kula, the Shri Vidya tradition of Lalita Tripurasundari, and late compilations such as the Kularnava Tantra. The Mahanirvana Tantra, much used by early European interpreters, is now generally regarded as a late composition, probably of the eighteenth century. Their teachings are discussed in Shaktism and the Hindu Goddess.

Initiation, Mantra and the Divine Body§

The gateway to every tantric system is initiation (diksha) by a qualified guru. In the Shaiva model, initiation itself is a ritual that destroys the bonds of the soul and makes final liberation certain at death, provided the initiate keeps the rules of the tradition. Initiation confers the right to worship with particular mantras, which are regarded not as mere words but as the deity itself in the form of sound. The guru is accordingly honoured as a living manifestation of God.

Tantric worship transforms the worshipper before honouring the deity. The practitioner ritually purifies the elements of his body (bhuta-shuddhi), dissolving it in imagination and re-creating it as a divine body, and then installs mantras on its limbs (nyasa). Only one who has become divine, says a frequently quoted principle, can worship the divine. The deity is then invoked into an image, a pot, a diagram (yantra or mandala) or the worshipper's heart, honoured with offerings and finally dismissed. Tantric yoga added the visualisation of the subtle body, its channels and centres, and the rising of the goddess power known as kundalini; their later history is told in The History of the Chakras and Kundalini Yoga.

How Tantra Shaped Hindu Temples and Puja§

Much of what is now considered ordinary Hinduism is tantric in origin. Vedic religion knew no temples and no image worship; it is the Agamas and Samhitas, together with related treatises on architecture and iconography, that lay down how to choose a site, build a temple, carve and consecrate an image and conduct its daily and festival worship. The familiar sequence of puja, in which the deity is invoked and then offered a seat, water, a bath, clothes, ornaments, perfume, flowers, incense, a lamp and food, before being praised and honoured, follows tantric ritual manuals. In Kerala the chief priest who holds authority over a temple's rituals is still called the tantri.

Orthodox Brahmins absorbed these forms while keeping Vedic recitation. Much medieval ritual literature blends Vedic and tantric elements, and many temple priests use both Vedic mantras and tantric procedures. Royal courts patronised tantric gurus as ritual protectors of the king and kingdom; in Nepal the goddess Taleju, a tantric form of Durga, was the guardian deity of the Malla and later Shah kings. These continuities are explored further in Hindu Temples, Rituals and Festivals.

Right-Hand and Left-Hand Paths in Hindu Context§

Tantric traditions distinguished between more conventional, "right-hand" (dakshinachara) forms of practice and "left-hand" (vamachara) forms that deliberately used substances and acts forbidden to orthodox Brahmins, such as alcohol, meat and ritualised sexual union, in order to transcend the distinction between pure and impure. Historians emphasise that these practices were usually confined to small circles of initiates and were reinterpreted symbolically by many later writers. The respectable, householder forms of tantric worship, including much of Shri Vidya in south India, are firmly right-handed. The tantra article's section on right- and left-hand paths treats this subject in more detail.

Ritual Power and Popular "Tantra"§

Tantric scriptures also taught rites for worldly ends, traditionally six "acts" (shatkarma) ranging from pacifying illness and calamity to attracting, immobilising, dividing, driving away and killing enemies. In popular speech across South Asia a tantrik often means a ritual specialist who offers exorcism, protective amulets or curses, comparable to the practitioners discussed in Maleficium, Curses and Protective Magic. Such practices have provoked concern about exploitation and violence, and in 2013 the Indian state of Maharashtra passed a law against harmful "black magic" practices, following the murder of the rationalist campaigner Narendra Dabholkar.

Tantra, Reform and Modern Hinduism§

Nineteenth-century missionaries and Hindu reformers alike often condemned Tantra as degenerate, and the word became associated with sorcery and licentiousness. Sir John Woodroffe, writing as Arthur Avalon in the early twentieth century, published translations and studies that presented Tantra as a coherent and profound philosophy. Within Hinduism, the Bengali mystic Ramakrishna undertook tantric practice under a female guru, the Bhairavi Brahmani, before his followers presented him chiefly as a Vedantin. Today tantric lineages continue in Kashmir, Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Nepal, while the global "neo-tantra" of sexual self-help has only a loose relationship to these historical traditions.

Frequently asked questions§

Is Tantra part of Hinduism?§

Yes. Tantra is a major strand of Hinduism, with Shaiva, Vaishnava and Shakta forms, and has shaped temple worship, initiation and yoga. It also exists in Buddhism and, to a lesser extent, Jainism.

What is the difference between Vedic and tantric worship?§

Vedic worship centres on the fire sacrifice and the recitation of the Veda, traditionally restricted to the upper classes. Tantric worship centres on initiation, mantra and the worship of deities in images, diagrams and the body, and in principle was open to initiates of any class and, in some traditions, to women.

What are the Agamas?§

The Agamas are scriptures, mainly Shaiva but also Vaishnava and Shakta, that teach theology, yoga, initiation and above all the construction of temples and the rules of image worship. In south India they still govern the rituals of most major temples.

Sources and further reading§

• Hindu Tantrism — Sanjukta Gupta, Dirk Jan Hoens & Teun Goudriaan, 1979
• Hindu Tantric and Śākta Literature — Teun Goudriaan & Sanjukta Gupta, 1981
• The Hindu Tantric World: An Overview — André Padoux, 2017
• The Roots of Tantra — Katherine Anne Harper & Robert L. Brown (eds.), 2002
• The Tantric Body: The Secret Tradition of Hindu Religion — Gavin Flood, 2006
• Tantra in Practice — David Gordon White (ed.), 2000
• Introduction to Tantra Sastra — Sir John Woodroffe, 1913