"Tantrism In Assam"

    

    Assam has been one of the strongholds of the Tantric tradition in India. Since the first flowering of this tradition in the early-medieval period, it has expressed, and influenced, the culture of this part of the country. I use the term “culture” in its anthropological sense and therefore, under the “cultural” implications of this cult I shall subsume philosophical, sociological and religious considerations also.

    To recapitulate, Tantrism is a distinctive technique of mysticism, by which we mean union with the theologically or otherwise defined ground of being. Tantrism uses the traditional mantra and laya-yoga (i.e. Kundalini-yoga) methods, but adds the ‘heretical’ element of ritualized union with female initiates. The goal is the accepted one of moksha, i.e. theologically defined emancipation from samsara, but the means are so antinomian that Tantrism has always attracted the opprobrium of Indian society.

    Tantra has flourished in the matrifocal areas of India, viz. Assam, Bengal, Orissa and Kerala. This is not too surprising, because in these matrifocal societies the position of women is better than in the other Indian societies, where the male world-view is dominant. These societies are more open, and more amenable to hedonistic experimentation than the other, more puritan Indian societies.

    At any rate, Shaktism is still a very potent sub-stratum of Assamese culture. In the Sipajhar area of  Darrang district the worship of the Goddess Maroi or Manasa is so common that some Muslim people there also take part in the celebrations. Muslim villager of that locality who could fluently recite from the ballad of Beula and Lakhinder, which is sung during the worship. 

    One of the reasons perhaps why the Tantric tradition thus still survives in Assam is that it came under British hegemony rather late. It, therefore, escaped the deadlier effects of Victorianism. Other Indian societies were not so lucky, and they became puritanical and alienated from the hedonistic-aesthetic heritage of classical India.

    Another reason why Assamese society is m6re open, and hence more hospitable to Tantrism, is that it is also less Sanskritized. Caste is doubtless a powerful factor in social relations, but not as much as in the rest of India. Relations between the generations are less strained than in the other, more authoritarian, Indian societies. Male female interaction is much freer than in other parts of India. All this is incidentally even truer in the case of the tribal societies of North-Eastern India, which are perhaps even more open than Assamese society. In such open societies, innovativeness has more positive value than in mainland India, where the regard for the orthodox parampara stifles individual freedom.

    Like all Indian societies, Assamese society also suffers from the male anxiety-syndrome about the loss of the semen virile. This fear is magical because the loss of semen is believed to impede the achievement of moksha. This is to be viewed in the context of the fact that in India a secular world-view is non-existent, and thus the achievement of the salient religious goals is of paramount importance. Still, this fear is probably less acute in Assam, as in the other matrifocal society of Kerala, in which coitus is not ritually polluting to the Nayars whereas cooked food taken from the wrong hands can be.

    Since Assamese society is not yet so alienated from its roots in the Indian tradition, religious anxiety, i.e. anxiety about not attaining the salient religious goals, is perhaps less prevalent among the incipient middle-class. The people as a whole are thus more cheerful and extroverted than other Indians. This is perhaps also due to the Mongoloid heritage of this society. Thus, this is perhaps one of the very few Indian societies today where there is large-scale singing and dancing, that too for days on end, during the Bihu spring-festival. During this festival, as during Holi previously in other parts of India, the entire populace gives itself over to merriment. Other Indian societies are more inhibited, and less able to let go. As of now, when alienation in Assamese society has only just begun, the folk art forms are also still vigorous. Folk drama, music and dance are still enjoyed without the embarrassment with which modem Indians view their traditional culture. All this is in crass contrast to values in the rest of India, where it would seem that to enjoy life is unforgivable !

    The modern Indian attitude towards the enjoyment of life is mirrored by modem (urban) Indians’ aesthetic attitudes. The sophisticated aesthetics of Mahabalipuram, the Chola bronzes, Bharata Natyam and the Mughal miniatures have given way to the philistine, Victorian worldview of the British administrators and missionaries. As a result, we have a prominent aesthetic monstrosity like the Birla Temple in New Delhi, which few educated Indians see as appalling architecture. This is, of course, partly due to the overweening importance of religion in Indian society, where everything has a “other-world” referent, as a result of which modem aesthetical or other secular criticism has a difficult entrée.

    In connection with modem Indian aesthetic values, let us also recall Gandhi’s attitude towards the magnificent art and architecture of Khajuraho, which he saw as obscene and would have liked to pull down ! Of course, there are silver linings in this black cloud of modern Indian puritanism, like the modern Indian re-discovery of Bharata Natyam, and Ravi Shankar, and Ali Akbar Khan.

    In pleasant contrast to the above polemic, Assamese aesthetic values are reflected in the white mekhala-chador and red-blouse combination worn by the women, which colour combination is coincidentally the same as that of the ida-pingala system of yogic and Tantric symbolism. This brings us back to our starting point. Assamese society today is still much less puritanical than other Indian societies. The Tantric tradition has been one contributory factor, partly because it has brought in liberal influences (like perhaps Vajrayana) from trans-Indian Mongoloid societies like Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan. On the other hand, the Tantric tradition is itself an expression of the native Assamese genius.