Sophia, Vol. 43, No. 2, October 2004. Copyright 9 2004 Ashgate Publishing Limited.

OF YOGINIS AND TANTRIKSTERS: DONIGER

ON WHITE' S TANTRI C SE X- REFLECTIONS IN
THE SOUTH ASIAN CONTEXT
DAVID GORDON WHI TE, Ki ss o f t he YoginL ' Tantric Sex ' in its
Sout h Asi an Cont ext s
u~vl~srlY OF C~CAX) PIt~SS, 2003
Review by Jayant Bapat
Monash University, Australia
JBapat@optusnet. com. au
Even though there are notable writings on Tantra by authors such as
Padoux, Goudriaan, Gupta, Sanderson and others, a new serious, critical
and academic work on Tantra is always a welcome addition. White' s book
is one such work that makes a significant contribution to our understanding
and knowledge of Tantra. It has also raised a controversy, and it is this latter
aspect that prompts me to write this note.
As I was about to embark on writing a review on this book for the
Journal of South Asian Studies, Australia, I came across a glowing review
of it, accompanied by a diatribe against Hindutva [the Hindu Right], by
Wendy Doniger in the The Times Literary Supplement I and an extraordinary
repartee to it by Rajiv Malhotra of the Infinity Foundation on the Suklekha
webpage which was then re-posted on RISA-L network. In a nutshell,
Doniger sees White' s work as ' flying in the face of the revisionist Hindu
hermeneutic tradition' , which to her, and to White, began in the 1 lth century
with Abhinavagupta brahminising Tantra. Before that, according to her and
White, Tantra was essentially a subaltern protestant practice. Rajiv Malhotra's
scathing attack on both of them is based on the lack of adequate proof in
White' s assertions about the origin of Tantra and on the attempts by these two,
especially Doniger, to bring in current Hindu chauvinism into the discussion.
I believe it is appropriate, nay, essential, to mention my credentials
before I embark on my remarks. I arrived in Australia 40 years ago and
have taught Organic Chemistry at Monash University for over 30 years.
During this time I have also been a lay Hindu priest and hence a practitioner
of the right handed Tantra. I hold a doctorate in Religious Studies as well.
Currently I am engaged in understanding and extending an important work
on Lajjagauri by a Marathi scholar, Dr. R.C. Dhere. Iconized as a nude and
headless female figure in the birth giving position (uttanapada), Lajjagauri
has been identified by White as a Yogini in his book (pp. 115 and 116). My
interest in this area has made it incumbent upon me to read the literature on
goddess worship.
126 JAYANT BAPAT
White's main argument is embedded in chapter 8 of his work. In this
chapter, he hypothesizes the transformation of the Tantra from a folk based
ritual, which involved physically donating bodily substances to the chosen
goddesses in order to acquire supernatural powers, to an internalization,
aestheticization and semanticization of Kaula practice (a change from doing
to knowing) by Brahminic Hinduism. He argues that by doing this, which
he terms overcoding, Brahmins were able to marginalize Kaula practices
and transform them into a body of ritual and meditative techniques, which
permitted the average householders to use them as well. Yogini circles of
the folk tradition were internalized, transformed into chakras of Hathayogic
practice. Yoginis themselves were semanticized into seed mantras and
finally ritual substitutes were introduced for the bodily fluids. The main
theoreticians responsible for this change were Abhinavagupta and his
disciple Kshemaraja. White has titled this chapter ' The Sublimation of the
Yogini' and writes that the language of phonemes and photemes, mantras
and yantras made it possible for practitioners of high Hindu trantra to
discuss in abstract terms palatable to the higher tradition, what was and
remains at the bottom, a sexual body of practice. In other words, to White,
the original Tantra was little but sex and the consumption of bodily fluids in
order to acquire supernatural powers.
That White has done painstaking research in this esoteric and difficult
area, there is no doubt. I believe this is the first time someone has shown the
real significance behind the large mithuna sculptures that adorn the Tantric
Khajuraho temples. By translating many previously unknown works, White
has certainly made an original contribution to our knowledge of Tantra. By
a detailed study of these Sanskrit texts, and by use of historical evidence,
White has tried to support his main argument about the transformation of
Tantra.
However, I take issue with his conclusions. White's assertion that
there was 'an original Kaula tradition' prevalent only in the folk tradition
within India is speculative. As my colleague, John Dupuche, the author of
the important new work, The Kula Ri t ual , 2 comments, 'it has been only
a growing and changing tradition'. The branding of Abhinavagupta as
someone who packaged the tantric path for the consumption of a leisurely
Kashmiri populace shows a singular lack of understanding of the Brahmanic
scholarly tradition. An examination of chapter 29 of Abhinavagupta's
Tantaloka would leave no doubt in anyone's mind that he certainly did not
shy away from describing and using bodily fluids.
It is true that many Tantric practices were an anathema to some of the
writers of Dharmashastras and attempts were no doubt made to whitewash
Tantrism. However, like other examples in Hinduism, here also there is a
OF YOGINIS AND TANTRIKSTERS 127
measure of exchange between the folk tradition and the higher Brahmanic
tradition. Universalization and parochialization are not confi ned to India;
and so the paradigm of Brahmanic appropriation must be used with caution.
One must never forget that behind most rituals practised ever since the
beginning of Hindu ritualistic tradition in Brahmanic Hinduism, there is
necessarily a folk element. The Brahmins as ritualists have lived with it
and still pursued their ' Structuralist' scholarship. (It seems to me that the
Brahmin, M.N. Srinivas, has done a disservice by coining the culture-bound
term ' Sanskritization' .)
What concerns me and makes me distinctly unhappy are the efforts
by White and mainly by Doniger to bring the Hindutva debate into this
discussion. I am sure Doniger, no doubt a great scholar, certainly knows
that the wider Hindutva battle has not yet been won as can be seen from
the recent Indian elections. Although relevant to Indology and Sociology,
discussion about Hindutva needs to be kept in perspective. Extrapolating
Abhinavagupta' s work to level criticism at 19th century Indian scholars
and the current Hindutva advocates seems far-fetched. Also, I believe
Abhinavagupta as an insider, had every right to interpret whatever he
saw into Hindu religiosity. To me, he built Tantra elements together into a
metaphysical and rational system of thought. Imputing sociological motives
to an eleventh century scholar needs a thorough recreation of his life and
times.
One has to remember that despite the current efforts at Hinduizing the
educational system in India, Hinduism has no church and no apostles. All
said and done, Brahmins and the high castes are service providers to the
laity. The social location of the Brahmins within the secular context is not
as high as is taken for granted by most scholars. Sociological scholarship
in the last few decades has concentrated on Brahminic hegemony in the
intellectual sphere. However, Brahmins are not catholic priests who can
excommunicate. They, i f at all, have to work through public opinion, which
is governed by folk tradition.
Most importantly, by engaging in this kind of ' Vitandavada' , Doniger
may well be doing a disservice to White' s scholarship and may not be
answering the legitimate anxieties of all the Indian scholars. May I gently
remind her that it took a non-European scholar, Said, to point to an important
fact of enlightenment scholarship, Orientalism.
I found White' s book serious and interesting. What he fails to see however
is the fact that sex and metaphysics, i.e. Abhinavagupta' s interpretations,
do not have to be diametrically opposed. Drinking of sexual fluids has a
ritualistic but also a metaphysical and even philosophical element associated
with it. The fluids are certainly not foods.
128 JAYANT BAPAT
From a distance, while I can understand Malhotra' s eagerness to j oi n the
battle, I find it intemperate. Let us respond to White as he deserves. I fi nd
it strange that the TLS should publish Doniger' s review.
Endnotes
1. 'Tantricbodies',byWendyDoniger, TheEmesLitemrySupplement,20 May 2004,
http://www.the-tls.co.uk/this_week/story.aspx?story_id=2107312.
2. John R. Dupuche, Abhinavagupta: The Kula Ritual As Elaborated in Chapter
29 of the Tantraloka (Delhi, Motilal Banarasidass, 2003).