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Posts tagged ‘Aryans’

  1. Tantra’s Primordial Past: The Aryan Invasion Theory – I

    As a follow-up to the series of essays on Theosophy and Race, and the Red Flags posts, I will now turn to a more complex and contentious subject, generally known as the ‘Aryan Invasion Theory’ (AIT). How does this relate to the tantras? The origins of the tantras, according to some authors, can be traced to an ancient people, peaceful, agrarian, and goddess-worshipping, who were invaded and suppressed by patriarchal, warlike Aryans. Their cities were destroyed, and their tantric practices were driven underground or preserved, in secret by occult adepts. This narrative draws on the Aryan Invasion Theory.

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    June 30th 2023

    Posted by in History, tantra

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  2. The Puzzle of the Pasupati Seal

    Back in 2020, I briefly discussed the notion sometimes encountered that Tantra is thousands of years old – that it predates the Vedas, Buddhism, and Jainism. To illustrate the post, I used an image of the infamous Pasupati Seal that is often pointed to as evidence of Tantra’s antediluvian origins. So for this post, I’m going to take a closer look at the Seal and its tangle of interpretations.

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    April 3rd 2023

    Posted by in History, tantra

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  3. Theosophy and Race IV – India’s Aryans – II

    “We place ourselves under your instruction. Perhaps, we may directly and indirectly aid you to hasten the accomplishment of the holy mission, in which you are now engaged; for our battle-field extends to India: from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin there is work that we can do.
    You venerable man, who have learned to pierce the disguises and masks of your fellow-creatures. Look into our hearts and see that we speak the truth. See that we approach you not in pride but humility, that we are prepared to receive your counsel, and do our duty as it may be shown to us. If you will write us a letter, you will know just what we wish to know, and will give us what we need.”

    Colonel Olcott, letter to Dayānand Saraswatī, February 18, 1878

    In the previous post in this series, I gave a brief examination of one of nineteenth-century India’s reform movements – the Brāhmo Samāj, founded by Raja Rammohun Roy. For this post, I’m going to examine the Ārya Samāj, founded in 1875 by Dayānand Saraswatī. It is here that the Theosophical Society enters the picture – as the TS briefly allied itself with the Ārya Samāj, and it is arguable that Dayānand Saraswatī played a key role in the Society’s eastward turn.

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    April 5th 2022

    Posted by in History, Occult

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  4. Theosophy and Race – III: India’s Aryans – I

    “We see a reunion of parted cousins, the descendants of two different families of the ancient Aryan race.”

    Kenshub Chandra Sen, 1877

    In the opening part of this series, I examined the roots of the notion of the Aryans in the work of Sir William Jones and Freidrich Max Müller. In the second post, I briefly outlined the emergence of nineteenth-century racial science, and how the concept of Aryans became associated with white supremacy and racial hierarchies.

    Aryan racial theory, as it developed, seemed to raise as many issues as it purported to solve. If Indians and the British shared a common ancestry, this threatened the belief that Indians were inferior to Europeans. The answer, for some, lay in a Darwinian notion of racial degeneration. This led to the notion that whilst the European Aryans had maintained their vitality, the Indian Aryans had degenerated, by intermingling with the aboriginal natives – weakening their bloodlines and adopting superstitions and primitive practices. In the pens of the European racial theorists, India’s Aryan past became a kind of golden age, from which India had sadly declined into superstition and idolatry. These ‘explanations’ had far-reaching consequences.

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    March 8th 2022

    Posted by in History

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  5. Theosophy and Race – II: Nordic Aryans

    In the previous post in this series, I briefly examined the influence of Sir William Jones, then followed through with Max Müller’s two-race theory of India, and his popularization (much to his later chagrin) of the term “Aryan” as a racial category. Continuing from where I left off, I will now turn to a brief discussion of how nineteenth-century race science deployed the concept of the Aryan.

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    September 16th 2021

    Posted by in History

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  6. Theosophy and Race – I: Orientalists and Aryans

    The East, formerly a land of dreams, of fables, and fairies, has become to us a land of unmistakeable reality; the curtain between the West and the East has been lifted, and our old forgotten home stands before us again in bright colours and definite outlines.

    Max Müller, 1874

    It’s frequently asserted that Nazi racial ideology came directly out of nineteenth-century esoteric movements – in particular, the writings of H.P. Blavatsky and other members of the Theosophical Society. This is an over-simplification of a complex subject, and one worth examining in detail. In order to do this comprehensively, I will first take a look at some of the background context – the ideas about race that were circulating prior to the advent of the Theosophical Society. I’ll begin with a brief examination of the term “Aryan” and its tangled historical trajectory prior to its adoption by Theosophists, focusing on the influence of two orientalist scholars, Sir William Jones, and Max Müller.

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    August 23rd 2021

    Posted by in History

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