Tantra - Tantric Civilization Of India

Tantric Civilization is a term used to describe a society that is Tantric texts and ideas became increasingly influential from the early common era through their expansion in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, and while these traditions were largely attenuated due to Muslim polities in South Asia, their influence was felt well into the nineteenth century and later modernity.

We might even talk of a 'tantric civilization' blooming throughout the medieval era, prior to the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate's rule, and continuing thereafter in the South and Nepal.

While the notion of civilization originated with the formation of historical awareness in the West, it is a word that can be usefully applied elsewhere, and we may use it simply as a shorthand for macro-cultural forces at work.

While the focus is on the micro rather than the macro level of culture, when considering texts and their expression in practice, we must consider the broader historical contexts in which these texts and practices arose, as well as propose ways in which the micro-structure of tantric revelation internalization articulates with broader social and political forces.

We can consider 'civilization' to be a broader concept than 'society,' in that a civilization may contain multiple social systems and, unlike a social system, is not teleological:

A civilization is not functional in the way that a society is in directly maintaining the specificity of power relations such as kinship and family dynamics.

A civilization, unlike 'culture,' may include a polity or structural politics that articulates with culture and social structure and is physically situated across a specific geographic region.

In earlier literature, there are Sanskrit equivalents for the word 'civilization,' such as Aryavarta, the homeland of the Aryans, a region to the north of the Vindhya mountains, which is contrasted to the country of 'barbarians,' mleccha) outside of this.

Aryavarta is the realm of karmabhumi (ritual activity), where liberation is attainable and dharma is upheld.

There are other words for 'civilization' that imply refinement, politeness, and sophistication, such as sabhya, which means 'to be at court' or polished and courteous, and suslla, which means 'cultured.'

'Tantric civilization' does not have a literal translation, but it does communicate the essential notion that tantric traditions have historical depth, textual semantic richness, and ideals represented in art and politics.

The Tantras and their traditions are concerned not only with individual practice leading to personal objectives of power and/or liberation, but also with larger cultural and political developments, especially temple construction and, closely linked to this, monarch legitimization.

Tantric civilization arose within the 'Sanskrit cosmopolis,' a transcultural formation centered on Sanskrit as a written, literary language of culture articulated in 'literature' (kavya) and the 'praise poem' (prasasti) found particularly in inscriptions issued from the courts of kings.

Imperial forms adopted into the idea that a righteous monarch is one who encourages proper language (sadhusabda) , which helped legitimize their power, but it cannot be reduced to this.

However, although there was the growth of vernacular languages as the preferred medium for expressing identity and ethnicity from approximately 1000 to 1500 CE, there was also the formation of a Sanskrit cosmopolis across South and Southeast Asia throughout the early years of the common period.

These deliberately defined themselves in reference to the Sanskritic model; one has done it in regard to Kannada, while the other has done so in connection to Malayalam literature development.

The development of the Tantras must be understood within this cultural-linguistic backdrop, especially given that they were written in Sanskrit at a period when regional vernaculars were forming.

This Sanskrit is not polished and highly literate in many texts, a characteristic referred to as 'divine' (aim), implying that the authors and redactors of these texts were not entirely at ease in this environment but saw it as necessary to situate these texts and traditions within the larger, 'high' literary culture of the Sanskrit cosmopolis.

While the great edifice of Sanskrit literature and traditions cannot be reduced to a means of articulating and legitimizing political authority in medieval India, it did express and legitimize a kingship ideology that sees polity as the expression of divine power, with that power being expressed in the construction of temples. This structure is influenced by the Tantras.

Despite the fact that legitimizing monarchs is not their primary purpose, they have come to be utilized in this manner.

The tantric writings are part of the Sanskrit cosmopolis, and as such, they must be considered alongside literature that reflects ideals contained in the 'goals of life' (purusartha), on the one hand, and the development of vernaculars, on the other.

Tantrism did have an effect on popular devotionalism (bhakti), particularly in its sexual, Vaisnava forms, and tantric civilization is seen at the village level, where tantric deities, particularly fierce goddesses and guardians, become essential for the community's existence.