The Path of Desire

The Path of Desire Living Tantra in Northeast India

Paperback (19 Apr 2024)

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Publisher's Synopsis

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.

Book information

ISBN: 9780226831121
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Imprint: The University of Chicago Press
Pub date:
DEWEY: 294.55140954162
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Number of pages: 280
Weight: 414g
Height: 152mm
Width: 229mm
Spine width: 18mm