Dear Friends and Colleagues,

 

I am happy to announce that we have just published the International Journal of Tantric Studies (IJTS) vol. 10, n. 1: http://asiatica.org/ijts/10-1/

 

In this issue

Editorial Note: The IJTS in Print and Kindle

Papers: India Elections 2014: The End of “Caste and Politics” by Alessandro Cisilin ; “The Emergence of the Nāthyogī Order in the Light of Vernacular Sources” by Monika Horstmann.

Abstracts

India Elections 2014: The End of “Caste and Politics”

by Alessandro Cisilin

 

This paper analyzes the correlation between caste and voting behavior. Cisilin attempts to demonstrate that, like in most democracies, basic material aspects such as poverty and inequality, and not the continuing intellectual discourse on castes are the deciding factor in India’s political process.

 

The Emergence of the Nāthyogī Order in the Light of Vernacular Sources

by Monika Horstmann

 

Mainly on the basis of Sanskrit sources, the consolidation of the Nāthyogīs’ tradition into the Nāth sampradāya, a religious order that came to express its identity also by a distinct set of sectarian marks, has been tentatively dated around the eighteenth century. Vernacular sources allow for pushing back to at least the beginning of the sixteenth century the emergence of those marks, as well as the existence of branches of what from some point in history would constitute the Nāth sampradāya.

 

Enjoy!