Recent articles by Hugh Urban
practice but also on the art, architecture, literature, and political life of these regions. Howe... more practice but also on the art, architecture, literature, and political life of these regions. However, when European Orientalist scholars, Christian missionaries, and colonial administrators first encountered these traditions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they initially had an intensely negative view of Tantra. Denounced as black magic of the crudest and filthiest kind, Tantra was typically regarded as a perverse mixture of superstition, sorcery, and sexuality. These negative perceptions of Tantra were often internalized and repeated by many South Asian authors of the colonial era, particularly by Hindu reformers such as Rammohun Roy, Swami Vivekananda, and many others. Beginning in the twentieth century, however, a growing number of authors in the United States, England, and Europe began to embrace Tantra in a more positive form, now re-imagining this as a liberated path that celebrates the human body and sexuality. Throughout the twentieth century, Tantra was also combined with a variety of occult practices emerging from European esoteric traditions, such as techniques of sexual magic and modern forms of Satanism. By the 1960s, Tantra had become an important part of the counterculture and sexual revolution, now reimagined as "neo-Tantra" by global gurus such as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (also known as Osho). Finally, by the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, Tantra had also become a part of modern global consumer culture, often mass-marketed as a "cult of ecstasy" and "yoga of sex" through a wide array of best-selling paperbacks, videos, and Tantric sexual products. While there is quite a lot of popular literature on Tantra and neo-Tantra, there are only a couple of good scholarly overviews that examine these phenomena from a critical historical perspective. Urban 2003 traces the genealogy of Tantra as a modern category as it developed through the crisscrossing play of representations and misrepresentations between Asia, Europe, and the United States over the last 200 years. Another good, though narrower, overview is Strube 2022, which examines the role of Tantra in the early twentieth century, particularly in relation to intellectual, religious, and political movements in northeast India. Urban 2012 and Urban 2024 also trace the modern development of Tantra in Europe, the United Kingdom, and United States, with particular emphasis on its role in the development of modern forms of magic, occultism, Satanism, and New Age spirituality. From an art historical perspective, Ramos 2020 provides an excellent historical overview of Tantra in visual representations as it evolved from traditional Asian contexts to popular cultural expressions in England, Europe, and the United States.
The Routledge History of U.S. Religion and Politics, 2025
Roundtable A contested study of religion: reflections on Sam Gill's The Proper Study of Religion ... more Roundtable A contested study of religion: reflections on Sam Gill's The Proper Study of Religion Hugh B. Urban I am flattered to be asked to contribute something to the discussion of Sam Gill's important book on the work and legacy of Jonathan Z. Smith. Like most of us working in the academic study of religion today, I have been deeply influenced by Smith's wide-ranging body of research, and I have also found Gill to be a provocative and inspiring theorist in his own right. Gill and I first met over 20 years ago at the University of Chicago at Boulder when I was a young graduate student and job candidate. We then had a spirited and (I think …) friendly exchange back in 2001, when I wrote an article that dealt in part with one of the chapters that has been republished in
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, 2023
Tantra is historically one of the most important but also most o en misunderstood, understudied, ... more Tantra is historically one of the most important but also most o en misunderstood, understudied, and poorly defined currents within the Hindu and Buddhist traditions of South Asia. Widely dismissed by European Orientalist scholars and Christian missionaries as a degenerate form of black magic and debauchery, Tantra has been embraced by contemporary popular and New Age audiences as a liberated path of sensual pleasure and sexual freedom. While it has been defined in many di erent ways by modern scholars, Tantra has played a central but o en ambivalent role in South Asian religious, social, and political history. In the 21st century, Tantra remains an important though o en misunderstood religious presence, both in the few surviving Tantric lineages of South Asia and in the various popular forms of tantra-mantra (in India) and "Neo-Tantra" (in Europe, England, and North America).
I can talk to the other side as easily as I can talk to you. I've always been able to do that. An... more I can talk to the other side as easily as I can talk to you. I've always been able to do that. Anybody can learn to communicate with spirits. As a matter of fact, I would say most people do it to some degree.-Reverend Joseph Mauriello (Interview with the author, 2013) Beginning in the 1840s, a powerful form of popular religiosity known as Spiritualism spread rapidly across the United States, England, and Europe. Focused primarily on communication with spirits of the dead, Spiritualism evolved as both a philosophical system with a complex metaphysics and a popular form of practice that could be engaged by anyone in the home (Braude 24; Cox 1-21; Gutierrez 3-10; Owen 1-17). While Spiritualism declined as a major religious practice in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, it is still very much alive and well in most parts of the United States, including my home city of Columbus, Ohio, where at least a dozen Spiritualist churches and a wide variety of mediums are active (Urban, New Age 67-89). This chapter explores the role of Spiritualism in contemporary America, with a special focus on three mediums in central Ohio. These include a Spiritualist reverend who claims to have been able to talk to ghosts since childhood, the head of a Christian Spiritualist church in downtown Columbus, and a medium who channels a variety of beings ranging from the Prophet Muhammad to Vishnu and Quetzalcoatl. From its origins in the nineteenth century in upstate New York, Spiritualism has largely been a "folk" practice, associated as much (if not more) with children, women, African-Americans, and other non-elite groups as with philosophers and intellectuals. Typically practiced in the home through simple technologies such as séances, planchettes, and Ouija boards, Spiritualism has always been and continues to be a popular and "domestic" religion (Braude 24; Urban, New Age 67-89).
This article examines the changing nature of Tantra in the digital era by focusing on three onlin... more This article examines the changing nature of Tantra in the digital era by focusing on three online tāntrik practitioners from Assam. The region of Assam has a long reputation as the quintessential "land of black magic," and this reputation has continued in the realm of the internet and online tāntrik services. The article argues that these Assamese cyber-tāntrikas reflect at least three key transformations in the practice and representation Tantra. First, they represent a profound challenge to traditional forms of tāntrik authority and a new kind of digital authority-what Heidi A. Campbell calls "alogorhythmic authority"-whereby one gains status and reputation not through established religious institutions but rather through the amplifying power of social media platforms. Second, they reflect the ways in which Tantra in the popular imagination has been largely identified with black magic and also combined with a wide variety of other magical practices from around the globe, most commonly with a (highly stereotyped) version of Voodoo. Finally, they reflect a kind of "Americanized" version of Tantra, which is defined primarily in terms of sex, love, and romance-though also with a uniquely Indian twist and a special focus on the dynamics of marriage, family, and caste relations.
Oxford Handbook of Tantric Studies, 2022
This chapter examines the complex transformations of Tantra in the context of modernity, globaliz... more This chapter examines the complex transformations of Tantra in the context of modernity, globalization, and capitalism since the early nineteenth century. In the eyes of most European Orientalist scholars, British colonial authorities, and Christian missionaries of the Victorian era, Tantra was seen as dark path of sexual deviance and black magic. Yet for many European and American authors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as Theodor Reuss and Pierre Bernard, Tantra was embraced as a much-needed path of sexual liberation and the celebration of the physical body. During the 1960s and 1970s, Tantra became a key part of the counterculture and sexual revolution, as global gurus such as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (aka Osho) began to promote the practice of "Neo-Tantra," now de ned primarily as a kind of "spiritual sexology." Finally, in our own era, Tantra has become a ubiquitous part of global popular culture, mass marketed through texts such as The Complete Idiot's Guide to Tantric Sex. To conclude, I discuss and reevaluate Agehananda Bharati's famous concept of the "pizza e ect" as a way of understanding the historical exchange between India and "the West." Instead, I suggest that something like a "curry e ect" is perhaps a more accurate metaphor to explain the di erent trajectories of Tantra in modern South Asia, Europe, and America. The representation, popular imagining, and practice of Tantra have changed dramatically over the last two hundred years, particularly in the context of modernity, globalization, and consumer capitalism. Once a highly esoteric tradition focused on awakening and harnessing the divine power that ows through the cosmos and human body, Tantra has increasingly become a popular path focused on the pursuit of sensual pleasure and sexual freedom. Today, we need only browse the pages of Amazon.com or the shelves of Barnes and Noble to nd a wide array of books, videos, and products such as The Complete Idiot's Guide to Tantric Sex (Kuriansky 2004) and The Art of Sexual Ecstasy (Anand 1990). At the same time, new forms of practice such as "Neo-Tantra" have been marketed by global gurus such as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (aka Osho), now combined with elements of post-Freudian psychoanalysis, the mysticism of George Gurdjie ,
Tantra and Tantric Studies by Hugh Urban
South Asia, 2019
This article examines the modern transformations of the temple of the goddess, K am akhy a, and h... more This article examines the modern transformations of the temple of the goddess, K am akhy a, and her most important festival, Ambuv acī Mel a, in Assam. Since at least the eighth century, K am akhy a has been revered as one of the most important 'seats of power' or centres of the goddess that dot the landscape of South Asia. However, during the last century, this temple and its festivals have undergone a series of profound transformations-first, in the context of Hindu nationalism and attempts to imagine a unified sacred landscape of 'Mother India', and second, in the context of spiritual tourism and efforts to develop the Northeast region as a new economic powerhouse for the twenty-first century.
This article examines the worship of the snake goddess Manas@ in Assam, with special attention to... more This article examines the worship of the snake goddess Manas@ in Assam, with special attention to the dynamics of gender, identity, and spirit possession. Specifically, the article focuses on two different forms of possession performance in honor of the goddess: the more ecstatic and bloody performed 10 by male dancers at K@m@khy@ temple and the more folklorized and domesticated performance by female dancers on urban stages. Borrowing some ideas from Judith Butler, the article argues that both possession dances enact a kind of " subversion of identity. " This includes not only a subversion of traditional gender identity, as male dancers are possessed by female deities and female 15 dancers enact masculine roles; rather it also involves a profound subversion of the boundaries between the " Hindu " and the " tribal, " between the " Sanskritic " and the " vernacular, " and, ultimately, between the human and the divine.
Weird Tales: Even now, every so often, there come weird tales from this, that or the other part o... more Weird Tales: Even now, every so often, there come weird tales from this, that or the other part of the country of startling occurrences and appalling consequences […] I am going to tell you many things […] of his love cult activities that have not, before, been brought to light.
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Recent articles by Hugh Urban
Tantra and Tantric Studies by Hugh Urban