Overview

A provocative study of contemporary Tantra as a dynamic living tradition. Tantra, one of the most important religious currents in South Asia, is often misrepresented as little more than ritualized sex. Through a mixture of ethnography and history, Hugh B. Urban reveals a dynamic living tradition behind the sensationalist stories. Urban shows that Tantric desire goes beyond the erotic, encompassing such quotidian experiences as childbearing and healing. He traces these holistic desires through a series of unique practices: institutional Tantra centered on gurus and esoteric rituals; public Tantra marked by performance and festival; folk Tantra focused on magic and personal well-being; and popular Tantra imagined in fiction, film, and digital media. The result is a provocative new description of Hindu Tantra that challenges us to approach religion as something always entwined with politics and culture, thoroughly entangled with ordinary needs and desires.

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9780226831107

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Reviews

“Set in the lush hills of northeast India among Hindu communities that practice diverse and sometimes transgressive rituals, this book is about desire, but it’s also about the path that may lead us through tangled webs of experience into well-being and beyond. Through well-crafted narrative and patient attention to daily life, Urban contributes a rich and detailed analysis of texts, histories, rituals, and sensibilities.” -- Paul Courtright, Emory University “This engaging book opens new vistas in the study of living Tantric traditions. It shows how Tantra is embedded in concrete social realities, especially in Assam. A must-read for those interested in contemporary religion in India.” -- Gavin Flood, Oxford University “Urban skillfully combines historiography and ethnography to reveal the remarkably complex dimensions of Tantra in northeast India, including a brilliant analysis of the many aspects of desire. He also explores ongoing developments in Tantra in the larger contexts of globalization and the influences of nationalism, neoliberalism, and popular culture.” -- Glen A. Hayes, Bloomfield College “The Path of Desire is a skillfully crafted and readable ethnography of ‘living Tantra’ in the twenty-first century. In this powerful account, Urban refuses to simplify complex entanglements surrounding female sexual agency, menstruation, and indigenous identities that endure—and thrive—despite confrontations with nationalism, tourism, neoliberalism, and globalization.” -- Amanda Lucia, University of California, Riverside

Author Information

Hugh B. Urban is College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor at the Ohio State University. He is the author of numerous books including Secrecy: Silence, Power, and Religion, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

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