Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism: Rhetoric and Reality in the History and Interpretation of the Indian Esoteric Traditions

FAIN: FA-55575-10

Christian K. Wedemeyer
University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637-5418)

In this project, I address pivotal problems in the history and interpretation of the esoteric Buddhist traditions of 8th to 11th centuries India. Integrating traditional study of manuscripts with methods drawn from contemporary theory, the work addresses five contested topics: their origins, their history, the interpretation of their scriptures, their ritual practices, and the social contexts within which they flourished. In this regard, the book intervenes specifically in scholarship on one major, albeit poorly understood, tradition of Indian Buddhism. In its innovative application of contemporary critical method, however, this work makes a broader contribution to discussions of method in the history of religions and the interpretation of cultures. In particular, this work exemplifies the ways in which contemporary advances in historical and semiotical theory and traditional philological/textual study (two areas that rarely communicate) may form an integrated method in the humanities.

Associated Products

Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism: History, Semiology and Transgression in the Indian Traditions (Book)
Title: Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism: History, Semiology and Transgression in the Indian Traditions
Author: Christian K. Wedemeyer
Abstract: Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism fundamentally rethinks the nature of the transgressive theories and practices of the Buddhist Tantric traditions, challenging the notion that the Tantras were "marginal" or primitive and situating them instead?both ideologically and institutionally?within larger trends in mainstream Buddhist and Indian culture. Critically surveying prior scholarship, Wedemeyer exposes the fallacies of attributing Tantric transgression to either the passions of lusty monks, primitive tribal rites, or slavish imitation of Saiva traditions. Through comparative analysis of modern historical narratives?that depict Tantrism as a degenerate form of Buddhism, a primal religious undercurrent, or medieval ritualism?he likewise demonstrates these to be stock patterns in the European historical imagination. Through close analysis of primary sources, Wedemeyer reveals the lived world of Tantric Buddhism as largely continuous with the Indian religious mainstream and deploys contemporary methods of semiotic and structural analysis to make sense of its seemingly repellent and immoral injunctions. Innovative, semiological readings of the influential Guhyasamaja Tantra underscore the text's overriding concern with purity, pollution, and transcendent insight?issues shared by all Indic religions?and a large-scale, quantitative study of Tantric literature shows its radical antinomianism to be a highly managed ritual observance restricted to a sacerdotal elite. These insights into Tantric scripture and ritual clarify the continuities between South Asian Tantrism and broader currents in Indian religion, illustrating how thoroughly these "radical" communities were integrated into the intellectual, institutional, and social structures of South Asian Buddhism.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/making-sense-of-tantric-buddhism-history-semiology-and-transgression-in-the-indian-traditions/oclc/777002274&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: Worldcat.org page
Secondary URL: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/making-sense-of-tantric-buddhism/9780231162401
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's page
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 978-0231162418
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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