À propos de la conférence
The complex histories and diversity of tantric traditions challenge even the most careful definitional efforts. Taken as a whole, tantric traditions can appear simultaneously radical and mainstream, esoteric and exoteric, ascetic and erotic, ritualistic and gnostic. With these paradoxes in mind, this presentation reviews evidence for the emergence and diversification of ‘Hindu’ tantric traditions, especially the Mantramārga (“Way of Mantras”) or Tantric Śaivism. Scriptures (tantras) of esoteric Śaivism come into evidence around the sixth century CE, and by the ninth century, Mantramārga Śaivism was influential throughout South and Southeast Asia, vying with Buddhist and Vaiṣṇava tantric traditions as well as Hindu orthodoxy. The final section of this presentation examines a single ritual object, the skull-staff (khaṭvāṅga), whose history and symbolism provide a surprisingly rich lens for thinking about the historical interactions and common ground of the tantric traditions.
Zoom : https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/j/81677433694 - ID de réunion : 816 7743 3694
À propos du conférencier : Shaman Hatley
Shaman Hatley is an associate professor of Asian Studies and Religious Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and Chair of the Department of Asian Studies. He completed an interdisciplinary liberal arts degree at Goddard College in 1998, and then studied Indology and Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. His doctoral thesis on the Brahmayāmala and Śaiva yoginī cults was completed in 2007, under the direction of Harunaga Isaacson, after which he taught at Concordia University (2007–2015). His research mainly concerns early Tantric Śaivism, the history of yoga, and goddess cults. Recent publications include The Brahmayāmalatantra or Picumata, Volume I: Chapters 1–2, 39–40, & 83. Revelation, Ritual, and Material Culture in an Early Śaiva Tantra (Pondicherry, 2018). Current projects include a monograph on the figure of the yoginī in early medieval India, and studies and critical editions of the Brahmayāmala, Devīpurāṇa, and Kaulajñānanirṇaya.
