the logic of the argument

[mhcrxlc at dir.manchester-computing-centre.ac.uk]

Rob Mayer:
>Perhaps the most comprehensive survey of Tantric
>literature written so far is the volume by
>Teun Goudriaan and Sanjukta Gupta, entitled
>Hindu Tantric and Sakta Literature, published
>in 1981 in the "orange series" edited by
>Jan Gonda. Goudriaan sums up his massive
>survey of tantric literature as follows:
>
>The early development of (tantric) literature
>was probably due to the need among Saiva
>religious thinkers for formulation....
>of esoteric truths...It was not based upon
>a popular movement, but was the outgrowth
>of the specialistic functionaries from
>the upper classes, as a rule Brahmans.
>
>The last sentence is very significant. Goudriaan's
>outlook is shared by Alexis Sanderson, now Professor
>of Sanskrit at All Soul's, Oxford (he recently
>won Bimal Matilal's old chair, the Spalding Chair).
>This is significant because Sanderson has dedicated
>the greater part of his professional life to
>reading Sanskrit tantric texts with a view to
>understanding problems of origins rather than
>metaphysics. So his even firmer insistence
>than Goudriaan's on Brahmanic origins in the
>not-so-distant past must carry some weight.

My impression is that Sanderson's arguments are decisive for the later
phases of Buddhist tantra which are clearly borrowed wholesale from Shaiva
sources (but their underlying philosophy is massively modified). I am not
sure that this is really proven for the earlier phases.
        Lance Cousins

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