intellect and the profound theological comprehensions and
practices of the Kashmiri Shaivite tantras.
In contrast to Rajneesh (1931-1990) the Marxist scholar
Narendra Nath Battacharya (1887-1954) found in the
history of the tantras “evidence for an archaic, class-free
society, based on matriarchy and the power of the
labouring classes – a system that would eventually be
replaced by Brahmanical Hinduism and its patriarchal,
class-based social order.” (Urban) Battacharya emphasised
that “Throughout the ages, the Female Principle stood for
the oppressed peoples, symbolising all the liberating
potentialities in the class-divided, patriarchal and
authoritarian social set up of India ... the success of
Shaktism could not be checked because it had its roots
among the masses.”
His view was that India’s primordial matriarchal culture
was akin in nature to Marx’s notion of an archaic form of
communism. Within it ‘tantra’ was, according to
Bhattacharya, more than a system of spiritual knowledge, for it
also or above all offered the masses worldly knowledge in a
broad range of areas of life and productive activity. Yet the
very division between spiritual and worldly knowledge is a
false dualism. For expanded awareness is the common
source of both ‘spiritual’ inspiration, insights and intellectual
comprehensions on the one hand, and intellectual
intuitions related to practical ‘worldly’ activities and