Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction: Diagnosing the "Disease" of Tantra 1. The Golden Age of the Vedas and the Dark Age of Kali: Tantrism, Orientalism, and the Bengal Renaissance 2. Sacrificing White Goats to the Goddess: Tantra and Political Violence in Colonial India 3. India's Darkest Heart: Tantra in the Literary Imagination 4. Deodorized Tantra: Sex, Scandal, Secrecy, and Censorship in the Works of John Woodroffe and Swami Vivekananda 5. Religion for the Age of Darkness: Tantra and the History of Religions in the Twentieth Century 6. The Cult of Ecstasy: Meldings of East and West in a New Age of Tantra Conclusion: Reimagining Tantra in Contemporary Discourse Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author

Hugh B. Urban is Assistant Professor of Religion and Comparative Studies at Ohio State University. He is the author of The Economics of Ecstasy: Tantra, Secrecy, and Power in Colonial Bengal (2001) and Songs of Ecstasy: Tantric and Devotional Songs from Colonial Bengal (2001).