Tantra has generally been approached as a highly cloistered and mysterious discipline of higher spiritual level and no attempt has been made to trace its indigenous roots at folk-level. According to the Agamic literature, Tantra is a discipline that deals with tattva and mantra. It implies that Tantra pertains to the domain of speculative discipline, generally related to the essential nature of entities and their relation with the mystic sounds. It is “a class of work teaching magical and mystical formularies,” according to the modern Sanskrit lexicons. Tantra is also understood to mean a religious system or science (shastra) dealing with the means (sadhana) of attaining success (siddhi) in secular or religious efforts. But all these definitions fall too short of explaining the true nature of Tantra and are circumscribed by the limitation of looking at it with the view of explaining only specific aspects or implications. Tantra is not a religious system, but a metaphysical discipline in which all religions implicitly or explicitly have felt interested. It is also not science that may be explained in empirical terminology. It is something beyond the ambit of religion and science, yet both these systems have felt interested in it.
Generally, Tantra has been classified as a religious discipline, which has made the objective contemplation of this highly abstruse subject further confounded. The fact is that Tantra by itself is not a religion by any stretch of the imagination but belongs to a realm of metaphysics to which orthodox religions may also belong. It is because of this identity that Tantra has vaguely been classified as a religion. On the other hand, it is because of this inherent identity that most of the orthodox oriental religions have been afflicted by Tantra. In fact in the orthodox religious books of the Hindus, it has been branded as an unreligious discipline so much so that Charvakas, Buddhists, Yavanas and Kapalikas, all have been classified as belonging to the unreligious sects due to their Tantric affiliations.
According to another school of thought, Tantra is a term especially applied to the worship of Shakti or female energy, in conjunction with male energy. It is true that considerable emphasis on the male-female conjunction aimed at the idealized state of androgyne-purusha is revealed in various Tantra texts yet, there are many other aspects where such rites are least called for. Some other scholars are of the view that Tantra is essentially a worship of Shakti and may not necessarily involve conjunctive elements. What. Therefore, what emerges out of various scholastic opinions is that Tantra essentially developed around the primordial dynamic energy identified with Shakti under the influence of the ancient universal concept of Mother Goddess or its innumerable primitive manifestations. But, when the male element is added to it, conjunctional urge also creeps in. This explains the fact that in Shaiva and Buddhist tantra, the female element is essentiality, while in Shakti tantra, the male element is either grossly suppressed or is absent. Tantra may, therefore, be defined as an invocatory metaphysical or parapsychic discipline which deals with spiritual and abstract entities through esoteric practice for sub-spiritual and secular attainments. It literally means a bond that integrates different components in a definite pattern as the warp does in textile. Tantra is, thus, an active component that correlates the mantra with yantra and activates the whole system. While the mantra provides a formula and an equation in the form of sound syllables, the yantra forms a diagram and a pattern. And what coalesces them together is Tantra. It is, an invisible electrifying link between the audible and formal patterns.
Tantra in its most primitive form has been a universal phenomenon which fact may even be revealed from the prehistoric cave drawings in which hunting scenes have been depicted. Those drawings are considered to be totems by which the primitive man could ensure success in hunting. Evidence of esoteric practices have been found in magic, sorcery and secret rites among all the ancient cultures of the world and such diabolic practices may still be found not only among the primitive and tribal communities but also in the highly civilized societies, only the methods differ and dependence on them varies in degrees. In Himachal Pradesh, Tantra in its primitive form and in a highly classical state still holds sway. In fact in this region, there has remained a very active tradition of esotericism from the earliest times and its innumerable manifestations, centered around the native deities, are current even today. It was because of such indigenous esoteric traditions that Tantra could find rots and flourish in this region and spread in the rest of the subcontinent. The terrific disposition of all the tantric deities may also be due to the reason that Tantra owes much to the indigenous tradition of this region where all the local deities are of terrific or malevolent nature.
There has been a very influential school of thought holding the view that Shakti cult had been prevalent among the Indus civilization for which discovery of seals carrying female figures of the famous Harappan Mother Goddess are cited as examples in support, and many scholars opine that there should have been a tradition of Tantra in that culture. But such views can at best be termed as extremely suggestive and indirect ones for, the discovery of male and female figurines cannot be construed to be the tantric objects without other associated finds. The male deity on the Harappan seals appears to be a meditating sage and the female figures are considered to be the representations either of the Mother Goddess or of the dancing girl by the majority of scholars. None of these exhibit tantric bias. The yoni and phallus motifs found in the Indus excavations also stand for fertility, fecundity, and plentitude rather than for Tantra. It would, therefore, appear to be a far stretched conclusion if those artifacts are given tantric interpretation. In fact, it has been a paradox of history that the Indus finds have been used as evidence to establish the antiquity of different traditions and movements in disregard to the associated or circumstantial corroborations. Tantric interpretation of the Harappan relics may be one of such conclusions.
In the Vedic literature, we do find references suggesting the use and efficacy of the mantra for the attainment of material benefit, yet the practitioners of sorcery (abhichrikas) were not looked upon kindly in that age also. It is significant that the role of the female deity in all those invocatory mantras is subordinate or incidental. It would, however, be ridiculous to interpret those Vedic mantras as Tantra although those mantras were later adopted in the tantric rites. The mystic syllable of the Yajurveda: svaha, svadha, vet, phat, vashat, shraushat, hring, etc are commonly used in Tantric mantras.
From the above discussion, it is revealed that no direct evidence of the existence of Tantra is found either among the Indus people or in the Vedic tradition, yet vague and suggestive evidence may be seen not only in the Indus relics but also in the Vedic evocative mantras. On the other hand, the widespread and influential vogue of magic, sorcery, etc. has been found in the native traditions of the Western Himalayan region since the earliest time. It is also amply well-known that early Buddhism was entirely free from the esoteric practices and tantra despite the claims made in Buddhist tantric treatises about the antiquity of the Buddhist tantra going back to the age of Buddha Dipankara of the Past Epoch. It may be true that there have existed certain recitative mantras since the early times in the Buddhist movement in which glorification of abstract entities such as dhamma and sangha were emphasized upon, and the Karandavyuha attributes a dharani to the Buddha. But what is important in all those claims, is not that the credibility of the abstract entities like dhamma and sangha or dharanis is at stake, but the fact whether those were considered in the spirit of Tantra as some of the modern scholars interpret them to be, or not? On the strength of Buddha’s way of thinking and working recorded in the canons, it can be said beyond doubt that the world is yet to find a rationalist of his caliber. He was firmly opposed to superstitions and heresy, and always exhorted his disciples not to be swayed by blind faith even in his (Buddha’s) words. Atma dipobhava was the watchword which he wanted every bhikku to imbibe in his personality. It is, therefore, ridiculous to find traces of Tantra in his preachings. In fact, Tantra did not have any place in the Buddha’s scheme of thought.
It is now amply clear that we do not find the origin of classical Tantra in the indigenous traditions – classical or folk. Most of the scholars are now of the opinion that Tantra was introduced in India from outside (N N Vasu, H P Shastri, P C Bagchi), and most probably with the Magi priests of the Scythians. But the two questions about the emergence of Tantra have so far remained unresolved: (1) the chronological problem about its emergence in India, and (2) the religious sect who adopted it first, Shaivism or Buddhism.
Regarding the probable period of the emergence of the Tantra in India, different views have been expressed. M. Winternitz is of the view that Tantra, associated with Shakti, should not be of period earlier than 7th century A.D., which view has effectively been controverted by Joshi who cites instances about the earlier origin of the Shakti cult. Another group of scholars including Bhattacharya, Tucci, Gopinath Kaviraj, and Pande assign 4th century A.D., as the probable date of the rise of esoteric Buddhism. Yet, considering all the evidence, direct or indirect, and taking a broader view about the rise of Tantra, such later dates as the 4th and 7th century do not seem probable on the fact of the fact that evidence of esotericism is revealed even in the works of Nagarjuna who lived around 1st-2nd century A.D., and tantric aspects of Shiva and Buddha, the Dhyani Buddhas, appeared during the reign of Kanishka. As the tradition has it, Nagarjuna learned the esoteric doctrine from the Nagas who possessed mastery in that discipline. Nagas are known to have remained dominant in this region up to the Kushana age. It would, therefore, be in conformity with the historical logic to assume that the Tantra had found roots in the Western Himalayan region much before Nagarjuna when it was introduced here by the Magi priests of the Scythians as H.P. Shastri also holds. In Milindapanha, a work of 1st century B.C., there are references about parittas and dharanis which may suggest esoteric use of mantra. It may, therefore, be assumed that the native traditions of magic and sorcery, centered around the female terrific deities, and the alien esoteric traditions interfused together to transform the concept of Mother Goddess into Shakti. And, such interfusion must have been complete much before 2nd century B.C.
Now comes the second question – who adopted the Tantra first, Shaivism or Buddhism. For this, we may be required to go back to the Harappan Mother Goddess which was adopted into Brahminism as Ambika under the influence of Tantra. This would explain the evolutionary process under which the indigenous terrific deities of the region were also devolved into Ambika. It was this goddess which, with all her primitive furiousness, emerged as the all-powerful Shakti in the latter Brahminical tantra.
Perhaps almost contemporaneously, when the austere tenets of Buddhism were confronted with the dominating influence of Tantra, the Buddhist thinkers adopted Mother Goddess as Sarvatathagata Mata and deified her as the goddess Prajnaparamita. The Harappan Mother Goddess may, therefore, be considered as the true prototype of Brahminic Ambika and Buddhist Satvatathagata Mata who, under the heightened sway of Tantra, emerged dominant in their respective domains as Shakti and Prajna. This should have happened around 200 B.C, or earlier. It may, therefore, follow that the Brahminical tantra and Buddhist tantra initially developed simultaneously in two distinctively separate directions. But later, they were so intimately involved in each other that one finds liberal interfusion of deities – Brahminical and Buddhist – in each other and both are found eager to adopt en-masse the primitive practices of magic, sorcery, exorcism, and the associated deities in their esoteric disciplines.