Tantra — Origins, Philosophy, and Practice
The word tantra (Sanskrit: तन्त्र) is derived from Tantu, meaning the thread or the connecting element in the body. The connecting element is God himself, who acts as the uniting aspect of the whole creation as the bearer of the thread (sutradhari). Tantra may also mean the spiritual practice related to the body (tan) as opposed to mantra, which is the practice associated with the mind.
Tantra also refers to any systematic "text, theory, system, method, instrument, technique, or practice." Just as Sutra literature constitutes a body of spiritual knowledge, Tantra literature constitutes knowledge of liberation. Literally the word means weaving — a reference to the transformation and purification of the mind and body into a perfect vehicle of pure consciousness through the weaving of esoteric scriptural knowledge.
The word appears in the hymns of the Rigveda in 10.71 with the meaning of "warp (weaving)." In Vedic era texts and post-Vedic literature, the contextual meaning of Tantra is "principal or essential part, main point, model, framework, feature." In the Smritis and epics of Hinduism and Jainism, the term means "doctrine, rule, theory, method, technique or chapter."
Tantra as a system of spiritual practice might have originated in ancient India along with the development of ascetic and contemplative practices and the internalization of Vedic rituals, gaining momentum in the Gupta and post-Gupta periods. The Atharva Veda, which contains many esoteric rituals, may be considered one of the earliest tantric texts. The rise of Tantra also coincided with the emergence of theistic traditions — Shaivism, Vaishnavism, and Shaktism. In Buddhism, Tantra gained importance with the rise of Vajrayana.
According to scholars, the earliest date for Tantra texts related to tantric practices is around AD 600, though most were probably composed after the 8th century onwards. By the 10th century an extensive body of knowledge existed, composed mainly in Kashmir and Nepal. These texts were called Agamas in Shaivism, Samhita or Pancaratra in Vaishnavism, and Tantras in Shaktism. For more information on Tantra, you may check the following links.1
Related Resources
Hinduwebsite.com and Saivism.net
External Resources
1. The introduction is adapted from Wikipedia with necessary modifications and improvements.
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