Bibhuti Baruah
According to several scholars, Tantra was in foreign origin. H P Shastri believed that Tantra came from outside India. Most probably it came with the Magi-priests of the Scythians. Bhattacharya opines that the introduction of Shakti worship in religion is so un-Indian that we are constrained to admit it as an external or foreign influence. P C Bagchi also points out to some possible foreign elements, especially Tibetan, in the Tantras. He feels that the mystics of India used to have regular communication with Tibet; it is for this reason that we find in the Tantras vestiges of Lamaist doctrines. In recent years, Alex Wayman has attempted to prove the existence of some Graeco-Roman concepts in the Buddhist Tantras.
But most of the scholars generally trace the origin of Tantra to the pre-Buddhist religion of India. According to John Woodroffe, Tantra is that development of the Vaidika Karmakāṇḍa which under the name of Tantra śāstra is the scripture of the Kaliyuga. According to Charles Eliot, Tantra is a species of religious magic, rather than principle. Monier-Williams sees the origin of Tantra in the popularity of the Sāmkhya theory of Puruṣa and Prakr̥ti. Gopinath Kaviraj believes that the mantra śāstra is rooted in Vedic religion. According to G C Pande, the earliest religion of man was more or less Tantric in nature. He has pointed out that a large number of Tantric elements may be traced in the pre-Buddhist religion of India. L M Joshi follows him closely.
It has rightly been pointed out by modern scholars that the most important aspect of Tantra is the dogma of śaktisāhacarya which has always been closely related to the cult of the Mother Goddess on the one hand and the linga worship and the Shaiva cult, on the other. As we have seen, both these elements were present in the Indus religion which consisted of the cult of the Mother Goddess, worship of linga and yoni, the concept of the duality of the Male and Female principles of creation, and the practice of Yoga. All these elements were components of an undifferentiated religious and ritualistic complex, which subsequently came to be known as Tantra, already existed, many others were successfully absorbed and some others unsuccessfully tried to become legitimized by the sacred texts. Numerous rituals mainly sexual in character, designed to secure the fertility of fields, are recognized in the Vedas. For them, ingenious explanations were offered later on. Practices like māraṇa, vaśīkaraṇa, etc. are distinctly mentioned in the different parts of the Vedic literature. Many of the ātharvaṇika practices of witchcraft are almost identical with similar practices of the Tantras.
The Vedic texts prescribe Sōmayajñas and Haviryajñas which included libations and intoxicating drinks. The rite of Homa was itself adopted by esoteric Buddhism with some modification. The ritual of purifying the body by uttering some mantras as bījas while meditating the divinities on a certain part of the body and touching those parts as prescribed in the Vedic texts corresponds to the Tantric idea of nyāsa. The use of apparently meaningless mystic sounds like khaṭ, phaṭ, huṁ, etc. are also found in Vedic texts.
The Vedic literature shows that both worships of linga and of Mother Goddess had acquired increasingly greater acceptance in the Vedic society itself. A large number of Tantric elements such as mantras, sacrifice, priestly magical charms, worship of semi-divine, and demoniac beings were known to the Vedic people. About a dozen hymns of the Rgveda itself are concerned with magic. In the Taittiriya Upanishad, the entire universe or macrocosm is equated with the human body or microcosm. In the Br̥hadāraṇyaka Upanishad, the sacrificial horse is compared with the universe. A similar symbolic account of the human body is given in the Chāndōgya Upanishad while the Shvētāśvatara presupposes a Siddha body. The Pañcavidyā described in the Upanishads also has obvious Tantric significance.
From these facts, it is apparent that a large number of elements of Tantra, both theoretical and practical, had an early indigenous origin, though in its evolved from it was certainly a later development. Although later Tantric writers wanted to base their doctrines on the Vedas, the orthodox followers of the Vedic tradition invariably stressed their anti-Vedic character. The common obsession of many modern educated people, both foreign and Indian, is also that the Tantras should be evaluated apart from a general scheme of values to which Hinduism subscribes.
Further, in the popular mind, Shaktism and Tantra have become so much identified that the word Tantra is almost reserved for the literature of the śāktas while the term āgama is confined to that of the Shaivas and Samhitā or Rātra to that of the Vaiṣṇavas. It has also been argued that the conventional division of the Brahmanical religious literature was into Veda, Smr̥ti, Purāṇa, and Tantra, arranged in chronological order and assigned to the four ages of the world. Against this view, it has rightly been pointed out by scholars like John Woodroffe, Gopinath Kaviraj, G C Pande, and a host of others that:
A. The Tantras regard themselves as Veda, śruti, or āgama, revelation as opposed to smr̥ti, nigama or tradition. They are usually defined as shrutiśākhāviśēṣaḥ, a particular branch of the Vedas. One of the oldest Tantras available in manuscript form, Niḥśvāsa Tattva Samhitā, holds that the Tantra is the culmination of the esoteric science of the Vedanta and the Sāmkhya. The Piṅgalāmata, which is an equally old Tantric text, says that Tantra, first communicated by Shiva, came down through tradition; it is āgama with the characteristics of Chandas (Vedas). The Prapañcasāra and other works cite Vaidika Mahāvākyas and mantras; and as mantras are a part of the Vedas, says the Meru Tantra, the Tantra is a part of the Vedas. The Niruttara Tantra calls Tantra the fifth Veda. The Matsyasūkta Mahātantra says that the disciple must be of pure soul and a knower of the Vedas. He who is devoid of Vaidika kriyā is disqualified for Tantra. The Kulārṇava Tantra describes Tantra as vēdātmaka and says that there is no knowledge higher than that of the Vedas and no doctrine equal to the Kaula. According to the Rudrayāmala, the Tantra of the Supreme Goddess is of the Atharva-Vedic group. Bhāskararāya considers the Tantras to be supplements of the Upanishads. Naṭanānandanātha in his commentary on the Kāmakalāvilāsa has attempted o trace the origin of the Tantric mantras to the Vedas. Lakṣmīdharācārya has quoted extracts from the Taittirīya Samhitā and explained them as having reference to śrīvidyā. The use of the Vedic mantras in the Tantric practices suggests the same. We also come across Tantric adaptation of the Vedic Gāyatrī mantra for the invocation of different deities.
B. The division of Brahmanical literature into Veda, Smr̥ti, Purāṇa, and Tantra does not mean that these different types have nothing in common between them. While some Tantras are modeled after Purāṇas, some portions of the Purāṇa literature read almost like a Tantra manual. It means that the Tantric forms existed during if not before, the Purāṇas. Therefore the theory that the Tantric age followed the Paurāṇika age is not wholly correct.
C. The attitude in the Tantras is basically similar to that of the Vedas. The religion of the Vedic Samhitās was ritualistic. In course of time, it developed into a highly mystical ritual, as a sort of magical operation, independent of the gods, efficacious by its own force, and capable of producing good as well as bad effects. Correct recitation of the mantras was its most important aspect. The Tantric Sadhana also seeks attainment of ascendancy over the forces of nature by an esoteric ritual of the Vedic type. As well as by esoteric Yogic practices, its aim is the union of Shiva and Shakti. The beginning of this type of esoteric ritual is found as early as the Brāhmaṇas and the Upanishads. Kullukabhaṭṭa in his commentary on Manu (II.I) divided traditional knowledge into Vedic and Tantric, and this division was not baseless. But in course of time, this double framework ceased to be double and was assimilated into one organic whole.
D. The ‘left-handed’ practices or Vāmācāra do not exhaust the whole content of Tantra. The Kulārṇava Tantra, for instance, describes as many as seven paths or ācāras, starting with Vēdācāra. Actually, the word Tantra is as wide as it is varied and embraces not only the śākta but the Shaiva, Vaiṣṇava, Saura, Gāṇapatya, and Buddhist forms also. That being so, it will not do to look upon the Tantra simply as a gift of China, Tibet, or some other foreign source.