The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2431 page)

(Skt.,
tantra
, ‘extension’, ‘warp on a loom’). A major current in Indian religious thought, in tension with the orthodox
Vedic
tradition. It emphasizes the feminine aspect of a bipolar reality and advocates a practice (
s
dhana
) to unite these polarities and so attain freedom (
mok
a
).
The origins of Tantrism are obscure. Its roots may go back to autochthonous magic and fertility cults of pre- or non-
Aryan
India, and certainly Tantrism arose on the edges of Aryan influence in N. India, Bengal, and Assam. In Hinduism, Tantra pervades the theistic traditions of
aivism
,
aktism
, and
Vai
avism
. Tantrism also exerted considerable influence on Jainism. In a narrower sense Tantrism refers to doctrines and practices embodied in specific
aiva and
kta texts called Tantras.
Tantrism is multilevelled and Tantric texts range from crude magic to the sophisticated metaphysics of theologians such as
Abhinavagupta
. Certain concepts, however, are common in Tantrism, for instance, the male-female polarity in which
iva is passive and
akti active. (Tantric Buddhism reverses this polarity with passive female
prajñ
and active male
upaya
.) Tantrism maintains that the cosmos is hierarchical, created through a transformation of
akti who manifests herself in the form of the