FW: Deepa Mehta's _Fire_

Paul Kekai Manansala kekai at JPS.NET
Tue Jan 12 01:38:46 UTC 1999


N. Ganesan wrote:
>

>
>   It makes a LOT of difference. We have in Tamil a tantra
>   text of 3000 poems in 5th century AD. Sanskrit does have
>   tantras. If one does not have Tantra texts from (mahA)China
>   of comparative dates, then I have a very hard time believing
>   what you say. That is, tantric tradition came to India
>   (Sanskrit or Tamil) from (mahA)China.

Mahacina does not necessarily refer to China.  However, I don't agree
with your theories regarding texts.  We don't even know if Tantra
practices were originally written or oral traditions. We don't have
Saivite texts from IVC, but there is good reason to believe a prototype
of some of the main forms of Siva came from that culture.

And the idea of Tantric influences from Mahacina is not what I say, but
what the Tantric texts themselves say.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala





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