Vernacular Tantra?: An Analysis of the Bengali Text The Garland of Bones

The paper introduces the Middle Bengali text The Garland of Bones (Haramala) into Western scholarship, and poses the question of what milieu it was produced and transmitted in. The main subject matter of this work is Tantric yoga, particularly the concept of the body. Content analysis reveals that i...

Descrizione completa

Salvato in:  
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autore principale: Ondračka, Lubomír (Autore)
Tipo di documento: Elettronico Articolo
Lingua:Inglese
Verificare la disponibilità: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Caricamento...
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Pubblicazione: 2020
In: Religions of South Asia
Anno: 2020, Volume: 14, Fascicolo: 1/2, Pagine: 63–86
(sequenze di) soggetti normati:B Lingua bengali / Letteratura religiosa / Tantrismo / Identità regionale / Kaulācāra
Notazioni IxTheo:BK Induismo; Giainismo; Sikhismo
KBM Asia
Altre parole chiave:B Bengali Literature
B Hatha Yoga
B Naths
B Tantrism
B Jogis
B Yoga
Accesso online: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Descrizione
Riepilogo:The paper introduces the Middle Bengali text The Garland of Bones (Haramala) into Western scholarship, and poses the question of what milieu it was produced and transmitted in. The main subject matter of this work is Tantric yoga, particularly the concept of the body. Content analysis reveals that it draws from different known sources (East Indian Kaula Sanskrit Tantras and vernacular works), but also contains a substantial amount of material that seems to be unique. Although the study of this text is full of uncertainties, and several questions related to it remain unanswered, the paper concludes that The Garland of Bones was probably composed in seventeenth-century Chittagong in a vernacular Tantric milieu, which was separate from the mainstream Sanskrit-oriented Kaula tradition. Later, probably in the eighteenth century, the text was adopted by the householder Naths in the eastern parts of undivided Bengal, and became one of their most important scriptures.
ISSN:1751-2697
Comprende:Enthalten in: Religions of South Asia
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1558/rosa.19321