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As an aside from my series on armed yogis, I thought I’d take a look at some examples of Indian satirical plays that feature ascetics – particularly the so-called heterodox religions, such as the Jainas and Buddhists, but also some tantric (or at least proto-tantric) practitioners.
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Who, or what, are the Kaula traditions? It’s a question that has bedeviled me ever since I read the teasing footnote references to “Kaula comment” in Kenneth Grant’s Typhonian trilogies back in the early 1980s. In Cults of the Shadow (Frederick Muller, 1975) for example, Grant made several references to the “Kaula Cult of the Vama Marg”, its secret rites and esoteric sexual practices. It seemed to be all very secret, hush-hush, and confusing. Over the years, I’d occasionally find people throwing the term Kaula about in various forums, and would ask them what the “Kaula Cult” actually was. It was hard to get a straight answer, and I often came away with the impression that these folk didn’t really have much of a sense of what the Kaulas actually consisted of, much less be able to point to a particular historical tradition or scripture. Continue reading »
Elizabeth Sharpe (1888-1941) is one of the “forgotten” writers on India of the early twentieth century. Born in Bangalore in 1888, she seems to have spent most of her life in India, with a brief trip to England in the 1930s. She wrote several books concerning aspects of Indian life, including at least one work on tantra; translated sanskrit texts such as the Siva Sahasranama; and had a passionate interest in the education of women in India. She is best-known for her 1936 novella, The Secrets of the Kaula Circle – a tale of black magic and left-hand tantric “orgies” which featured a recognisably unflattering portrayal of Aleister Crowley. Continue reading »