Global Tantra
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ISBN:
9780197667521
Publication date:
24/08/2022
Hardback
360 pages
277x203mm
Price: 1150.00 INR
We sell our titles through other companies
Disclaimer :You will be redirected to a third party website.The sole responsibility of supplies, condition of the product, availability of stock, date of delivery, mode of payment will be as promised by the said third party only. Prices and specifications may vary from the OUP India site.
ISBN:
9780197667521
Publication date:
24/08/2022
Hardback
360 pages
Julian Strube
Tantra has formed an integral part of Asian religious history for centuries, but since ""Arthur Avalon"" introduced the concept to a global readership in the early twentieth century, Tantric traditions have exploded in popularity. While it was long believed that Sir John Woodroffe stood behind Avalon, it was in fact mainly a collaboration between learned South Asians. Julian Strube considers Tantra from the Indian perspective, offering rare insight into the active roles that Indians have played in its globalization and re-negotiation in local Indian contexts.
Rights: OUP USA (INDIAN TERRITORY)
Julian Strube
Description
Tantra has formed an integral part of Asian religious history for centuries, but since ""Arthur Avalon"" introduced the concept to a global readership in the early twentieth century, Tantric traditions have exploded in popularity. While it was long believed that Sir John Woodroffe stood behind Avalon, it was in fact mainly a collaboration between learned South Asians. Julian Strube considers Tantra from the Indian perspective, offering rare insight into the active roles that Indians have played in its globalization and re-negotiation in local Indian contexts.
In the early twentieth century, Avalon's publications were crucial to Tantra's visibility in academia and the recognition of Tantra's vital role in South Asian culture. South Asian religious, social, and political life is inexorably intertwined with various Tantric scriptures and traditions, especially in Shaiva and Shakta contexts. In Bengal, Tantra was central to cultural dynamics including Vaishnava and Muslim currents, as well as universalist tendencies incorporating Christianity and esoteric movements such as New Thought, Spiritualism, and Theosophy.
Global Tantra contextualizes struggles about orthodoxy and reform in Bengal, and explores the global connections that shaped them. The study elides boundaries between academic disciplines as well as historical and regional contexts, providing insights into global debates about religion, science, esotericism, race, and national identity.
About the author
Julian Strube is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Vienna. His work focuses on the relationship between religion, science, and politics since the nineteenth century from a global history perspective, concentrating on exchanges between Indian and Western intellectuals. His publications include Socialism, Catholicism, and Occultism in Nineteenth Century France, New Approaches to the Study of Esotericism (with Egil Asprem), and Theosophy across Boundaries (with Hans Martin Krämer).
Julian Strube
Table of contents
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration
Introduction: Why a Global Religious History?
1. The Bengali Intervention
2. Theosophy in Bengal
3. The Contested Science of Yoga
4. Reformism and Spiritualist Perspectives on Tantra
5. Revivalism and Theosophy
6. Shivachandra Vidyarnava
7. Tantra and Nationalism
8. Arthur Avalon and Tantrik Occultism
9. Conclusion: What Global Religious History Could Offer
Bibliography
Julian Strube
Review
"Global Tantra is an important and original book that shows the complex exchanges and entanglements between East and West that helped shape the modern category of "Tantra." Strube sheds new light on the key role played by movements such as the Theosophical Society and authors such as John Woodroffe and his Indian collaborators. The book should be of real interest both to general readers and to scholars of religious studies, South Asian studies, globalization studies, and other disciplines." - Hugh B. Urban, Distinguished Professor, Department of Comparative Studies, The Ohio State University,"In Julian Strube's delightful book, the modern manifestations of Tantra shimmer like beads of dew on a sun-drenched spiderweb; the critical eye wanders and wonders in turn. Here are the Theosophists, there are the Spiritualists; now the Orientalists, then the Brahmos; look at the Mesmerists and the Aryas, the nationalists and the feminist emancipators; Oxford comparativists and their neglected counterparts in Bengal's district towns. But wait, Global Tantra also reminds us that Indra's Net is an illusion. To look for modern Tantra you will have to look elsewhere, again and again." - Brian A. Hatcher, author of Hinduism Before Reform,"Julian Strube's reconstruction of Tantra in colonial Bengal offers fascinating new vistas of the recent religious history of the Indian subcontinent. It places the debates on Tantra in a global context by thoroughly investigating Bengali and English sources side by side with all their internal implications and international ramifications. Further throwing open the black box called Arthur Avalon, Strube redistributes agency among Bengali and international players, making the story more Bengali and more global at the same time. This book, in its unpretentious and appealing style, has the potential to lift the state of the art in the colonial history of Tantra to a new level." - Hans Harder, Professor of Modern South Asian Languages and Literatures, South Asia Institute at Heidelberg University, Germany,"Strube's intervention fits precisely in this vein in its focus on global "historical actors and their agency", and will certainly be a valuable resource for global generations to come." - Keith Edward Cantú, Aries - Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism
Julian Strube
Description
Tantra has formed an integral part of Asian religious history for centuries, but since ""Arthur Avalon"" introduced the concept to a global readership in the early twentieth century, Tantric traditions have exploded in popularity. While it was long believed that Sir John Woodroffe stood behind Avalon, it was in fact mainly a collaboration between learned South Asians. Julian Strube considers Tantra from the Indian perspective, offering rare insight into the active roles that Indians have played in its globalization and re-negotiation in local Indian contexts.
In the early twentieth century, Avalon's publications were crucial to Tantra's visibility in academia and the recognition of Tantra's vital role in South Asian culture. South Asian religious, social, and political life is inexorably intertwined with various Tantric scriptures and traditions, especially in Shaiva and Shakta contexts. In Bengal, Tantra was central to cultural dynamics including Vaishnava and Muslim currents, as well as universalist tendencies incorporating Christianity and esoteric movements such as New Thought, Spiritualism, and Theosophy.
Global Tantra contextualizes struggles about orthodoxy and reform in Bengal, and explores the global connections that shaped them. The study elides boundaries between academic disciplines as well as historical and regional contexts, providing insights into global debates about religion, science, esotericism, race, and national identity.
About the author
Julian Strube is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Vienna. His work focuses on the relationship between religion, science, and politics since the nineteenth century from a global history perspective, concentrating on exchanges between Indian and Western intellectuals. His publications include Socialism, Catholicism, and Occultism in Nineteenth Century France, New Approaches to the Study of Esotericism (with Egil Asprem), and Theosophy across Boundaries (with Hans Martin Krämer).
Table of contents
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration
Introduction: Why a Global Religious History?
1. The Bengali Intervention
2. Theosophy in Bengal
3. The Contested Science of Yoga
4. Reformism and Spiritualist Perspectives on Tantra
5. Revivalism and Theosophy
6. Shivachandra Vidyarnava
7. Tantra and Nationalism
8. Arthur Avalon and Tantrik Occultism
9. Conclusion: What Global Religious History Could Offer
Bibliography
Richard Bauckham
Bahudha and the Post 9-11 World
Balmiki Prasad Singh
Jason Brennan
Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar, Brian A. Hatcher
Adam J. Silverstein
History, Literature, and Identity
J.S. Grewal
The Oxford History of Hinduism: Hindu Practice
Gavin Flood
Bharati Puri
Nancy M. Martin
E. P. Sanders
