The comment about ‘jailbait’ reminded me that I was going to write something that expanded on the theme of Tantra. The main point is that Tantra arose in a culture that had quite a radically different understanding of sex to that of the Judeo-Christians and colonial and post-colonial Aryans of India.
Even though modern Aryans are rather prudish they do understand that ‘kama’ is one of the four aims (purusharthas) of life they are somewhat squeamish about sex. This is not the way it used to be at all and it’s hard to understand how this attitude arose. In Tantra the aim of spiritual practice is both bhoga and yoga, pleasure and discipline.
Indigenous India seems to have been predominantly sex positive. One of the consequences of this is that there is no shame or sin attached to choosing sex as a trade or skill. In India this is called a jati and some jatis have become sub-castes. This means that in times past women chose to become consorts or devidasi. They were trained in dance, music, poetry, conversation and the erotic arts. They did not marry and were free to have lovers. As the profession became established the daughters of devidasi wouyld themselves become devidasi. In times past the devidasi was an honoured jati and some devidasi became famous and were able to sit alongside the Rani. It became a way for lower caste women to increase their status. Some devidasi were valued for their diplomatic skills.
Of course the Judeo-Christian tradition condemns any type of sex outside church approved marriage. The Old Testament is quite scathing about what they called Qadishtu. The modern term is the decidely pejorative ‘prostitute’ or even worse, whore. But the reality is that the goddess religions of the time included forms of sacred prostitution. In Egypt young female devotees of Hathor would travel around Egypt and sing and dance and offer their bodies to ensure later fertility. Similar practices occured in the religions of Astarte/Ishtar. At the temple to Artemis in Ephestus young menstruating females (of whatever age) would offer themselves to men who came to the temple. The men would toss a coin into their laps and then go off to have sex. This rite was performed as a sacrifice to ensure fertility.
Of course there has been considerable speculation that Mary Magdalene may have been a Qadishtu, but there is no such speculation about Helene, the companion of Simon Magus. There is a very direct suggestion she was a sacred prostitute and Simon Magus even claimed she was the reincarnation of Helen of Troy. This is actually an important clue because Helen came from Sparta, which worshipped her as a form of Artemis. Of course we all know the story of how the Catholic Church and Pope Gregory declared that Mary Magdalene was a common prostitute, a slur that has now been officially retracted.
But to return to India – a similar slur had been aimed at the devidasi by a coalition of conservative Aryans and the British. Under the anti-nautch laws of the late 19th century the jati of the devidasi was banned as common prostitution. The word nautch is a derivation of naccha, a northern word for devidasi, particularly as a dancing girl. One of the ironies and hypocrisies of this morally driven repression is that the much celebrated national dance, the Bharatanatyam, is derived from the arts of the devidasi. Of course the modern, nationalist Aryan is proud of the traditional arts, but they are embarrassed about its origins. The anti-nautch laws nearly saw the other devidasi arts disappear, but a few struggled to preserve them, particularly (and perhaps oddly) the Theosophical society.
But here I want to stress that modern Bharatanatyam is a much modified and sanitised version of the original. To begin with sculptures and artwork of precolonial India show that dancers wore very little and often performed topless. Today’s dancers are well covered. The other thing is that some of the original dances were very erotic and the dancer would and could work herself to the point of orgasm. When we go into the theory of Indian aesthetics first expounded by Bharata (whose work the Bharatanatyam is named after) and expanded on by Abhinavagupta we note that the erotic sentiment (shringara rasa) was particularly connected to dance.
Now what is interesting about the hypocrisy is that in the West we have no trouble in understanding that female dancers, singers and actors should be paid for their skills. The difference between the East and the West is that in the East these dancers has also amstered the erotic arts and were highly valued as a result. In the West any suggestion of accepting money for sexual skill is condemned. A side note to this is that the Japanese Geisha may very well have been a form of devidasi, a tradition that travelled to Japan through Buddhism (although I would need to verify this). The modern Geisha does not give sexual favours but the traditional Geisha certainly did.
Sadly the modern prostitute in India is a greatly abused and degraded figure. The traditional consort and devidasi might choose just a few clients and act more like a high class escort. But the common prostitute is often part of the endentured labor/sex slave trade run by criminal networks. She has no choice over customers and is forced to service many in the one night. Naturally this is highly destructive to body, mind and soul and many girls become HIV positive by the time they are in their early twenties. The devidasi system has also been corrupted by the Aryans, both priests and high caste landowners. They are not taught the traditional arts but instead are used by corrupt priests to raise revenues for temples.
What has this to do with Tantra? The devidasi would also function as consorts to Tantric adepts and some became quite famous as adepts in their own right.
Now I don’t want to suggest that this was a role that only women can perform, there were male devadasa and we cannot forget the famous third sex, the hijra.
What I wanted to say is this – Tantra arose in a culture that valued the erotic as a legitimate art form, as ‘kama’ and ‘bhoga’. Tantra represents perhaps the highest expression of sex as an art and skill and I don’t believe that true Tantra can be achieved in the West, not whilst it denigrates the erotic sentiment and the erotic arts.
As a side note, the dance forms of Flamenco, ME Belly Dancing, etc, all derive from Gypsy or Roma culture. The Roma are descended from Indians who were forced into slavery with the Muslim invasions. Both Flamenco and Belly Dancing are notable for their passion and eroticism – but then there has always been an assumed connection between dancing, acting, Gypsies and immorality (and we could take a diversion into burlesque and Gypsy Rose Lee).
What I favour is a reintroduction of the erotic as an art and a skill. It’s not going to happen anytime soon but I’d like to see Bharatanatyam performed as it was originally intended (with the musicians being women as well – there is a fresco that shows a group of women musicians and scantilly clad dancers in one of Giti Thadani’s books).
Forgot to mention that some tribes of India (Bhedia, etc) have the tradition that the eldest daughter sell herself to help the family. They are called highway girls. No shame is attached to this. It is seen as a way to make money. However, the Judeo-Christians only have contempt for any form of prostitution.