WHAT IS HINDUISM?
“... the purity of the race was soiled by marriage with
native women ... and the creed with foul Dravidian
worships of Shiva and Kali, and the adoration of the
lingam.”
Isaac Taylor, The Origin of the Aryans, 1889
Such a view contrasted radically with the tantras
revered in medieval India itself, not least the Kulanarva
Tantra, whose hierarchical synthesis of religious doctrines
and practices would later be adopted and crowned by
Abhinavagupta with the Trika school of Kashmir Shaivism.
“Vedic worship is greater than all others. But greater than
that is Vaishnava worship; and greater than that is Shaiva
worship; and greater than that is Dakshinachara. Greater
than Dakshinachara is Vamachara; and greater than Vama
is Siddhanta; greater than Siddhanta is Kaula. Devi, this
Kula is more secret than secret, more essential than the
essence, greater than the supreme, given directly by Shiva,
proceeding from ear to ear.”
Kulanarva Tantra
What a contrast also with the words of Sir John
Woodroffe:
“The full inclusion of the feminine element in public life
will be the great fight of the immediate future ... These
circumstances, and the manner in which they are capable of
being met by Tantra Shastra [Tantric Teachings] give