Where is the tantric mainstream? Discussions with a Bengali Brahmin god-maker in Kolkata

Abstract

The idea of Hindu Tantra as an esoteric, transgressive, or otherwise fringe practice has been revised to account for a ‘tantric mainstream’ in Indian religious life. However, this tantric mainstream has been faintly reflected in the ethnographic record, which would be otherwise well--suited to explore how religious categories are formed in broader social contexts. The religious world of the Bhattacharyas, a Śākta Brahmin family from East Bengal that now lives in suburban Kolkata, evinces some of the challenges in identifying ‘the tantric’ while suggesting alternative framings of ritual practices. Tapan Bhattacharya, a member of the family in his sixties, not only conducted pūjās to the tantric goddess Dakṣiṇā Kālī in their household shrine; he also sculpted the clay statues of deities (pratimā) that were used in local community rituals. Tapan’s nephew, Souvik, drew upon tantric classifications to explain the relations between mainstream household and community pūjās on one hand, and transgressive rituals on the other. Tantra, as understood by members of this household, encompassed a much wider set of relations than conventional binaries of tantra/not-tantra have allowed for. Taking their cue, I locate mainstream Śākta Tantra within the broader contexts of their religious world and the categories that make sense therein, while ultimately recognising that this family’s framings of contemporary religious culture will be matched by other, competing perspectives.