Erotic asceticism: the razor's edge observance (asidharavrata) and the early history of tantric coital ritual

Erotic asceticism: the razor's edge observance (asidharavrata) and the early history of tantric coital ritual

Author: 
Hatley, Shaman
Publisher: 
Cambridge University Press
Date published: 
2016
Record type: 
Journal Title: 
Bulletin of the school of Oriental and African studies
Source: 
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 79, No. 2, June 2016, pp. 329-345
Abstract: 

This essay examines shifting representations of the asidharavrata (lit. "sword's edge observance") across a range of Sanskrit literary and religious texts. Originally a Brahma ical ascetic discipline, an observance (vrata) by this name is the earliest ritual involving sexual contact documented in the corpus of Saiva tantras. In its tantric adaptation, an orthodox practice for the cultivation of sensory restraint was transformed into a means for supernatural attainment (siddhi). Diachronic study of the observance in three early Saiva texts - the Nisvasatattvasa hita, Mata gaparamesvara, and Brahmayamala - reveals changes in ritual emphases, women's roles, and the nature of engagement in eroticism. Analysis of the asidharavrata thus sheds light on the early history of tantric sexual rituals, which by the end of the first millennium had become highly diverse. It is argued that the observance became increasingly obsolete with the rise of Saiva sexual practices more magical, ecstatic, or gnostic in orientation.

Language: 

CITATION: Hatley, Shaman. Erotic asceticism: the razor's edge observance (asidharavrata) and the early history of tantric coital ritual . : Cambridge University Press , 2016. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 79, No. 2, June 2016, pp. 329-345 - Available at: https://library.au.int/erotic-asceticism-razors-edge-observance-asidharavrata-and-early-history-tantric-coital-ritual-0