Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

SHAKTI AND SHARKTA

Muller, who, in order to acclimatize the study of Sanskrit, was compelled to study in the Vedas the worship of a moral God—that is to say, the religion of Paley and Addison.’ Whether that beso or not I will not inquire my purpose being merely to illustrate how Europeans impose their notions either consciously or unconsciously on us, And thus their incomparable zeal and great labour is often lost. Mr. Avalon, however, has not so done. He did not begin his study with any preconceived notions, but in the true spirit of a searcher after truth. He has carefully examined the Shistra w.th Indian eyes, Abstaining from abuse, he has endeavoured to unders‘and it. . . . I do not wish to discuss whether the Mahinirvina Tantra is good or bad, or adapted to the present age or not. What I have to say is that the way A, Avalon has dealt with it is best, . . . Praise or blame the Shistra if you like, but first try to understand the subject before expressing your opinion,” —Pratibha (Sj. Upendra Chandra Guha),

” Tt is quite true that hitherto the Tantra Shastra, or body of treatises dealing with the rites, ceremonies, and practices and doctrine of what we may venture to call Hindu nature-worship, has hitherto been practically a closed book to Western scholars, and that Mr. Avalon is doing a very great service for students of comparative religion by making small part of it accessible. But itis a most difficult and dangerous subject in every way, and confronts us with endless problems, religious, psychical and moral, that are almost undreamed of to-day in the West... Pandit Battacharyya’s treatise is a very able polemic filled with outbursts of high rhetorical beauty in.defence of the Tantra, in which he skilfully avoids the abuses that cluster so thickly round the subject, and dexterously makes the high ideas of Indian philosophy subservient to his purpose... The treatise, of which the present volume represents Part I. only, is the most’ remarkable pronouncement on the subject which has yet appeared, and Mr. Avalon is to be thanked for making it accessible to Western readers. It is full of points of very great interest.’-—The Ouest.

“Tt is strange that, though Hinduism and its sacred writing have been critically studied by Western scholars for nearly a century, this Tantrik phase and its Scriptures have been hitherto neglected, with result that very little is known of them, and that little, too, is full of misconception, To the ordinary mind the Tantra is associated with all that is abominable in-Hinduism, and its very mention is enough to provoke disgust... This work of Mr. Avalon is a generous as well as a courageous task, and if at the end of his Jabours he succeeds in removing even

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