An Indian Soul in a European Body?
In the early part
of the twentieth century a series of works on Hindu Tantrism appeared
under the name of Arthur Avalon. These were notable for two reasons. Firstly,
they challenged the dominant Western understanding of Tantra as a primitive
and demonic cult and, secondly, they raised the question of how their
previously unknown author had acquired such an apparently deep knowledge
of this previously obscure branch of Hinduism. His emphasis on the philosophical
aspects of Tantra and his conclusion that textual descriptions of antinomian
rites were actually to be read as a deeply spiritual symbolism laid the
path for new approaches to the subject. While it became known that 'Arthur
Avalon' was a pseudonym for Sir John Woodroffe (1865-1936), a High Court
Judge in Bengal, the question of how a British judge came to be qualified
to represent Tantra to the English reader has only now been fully resolved.
* By ALEX MCKAY
Kathleen Taylor's new work traces
both Woodroffe's life and that of Atal Bihari Ghose, 'the two personalities
whose distinctive gifts merged to form Arthur Avalon.' Whereas Woodroffe
used his own name in later commentaries and articles, Taylor reveals that
Avalon was the alias which Wood- roffe originally used in those of his
works which were principally translations from the Sanskrit, such as the
Mahanirvanatantra (itself
now considered to be a relatively modern and 'sanitized' Tantric text).
For these translations, the judge actually relied on Ghose, whose background
role meant that Woodroffe never explicitly revealed that he was not himself
a Sanskritist. Ghose, a Calcutta classmate of Swami Vivekananda, was not
a traditional pundit, but he was a practising Tantric, and there is strong
evidence for his having been joined in this by Woodroffe, whose published
works supported Vivekananda's idea that India had a spiritual gift for
the world. The complex relationship between these two men lies at the
heart of this work. 
Kathleen Taylor provides us with a well-researched and highly
readable enquiry set against the background of the intellectual climate
of colonial Bengal in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Avalon's
writings had immediate social and political implications which earned
Woodroffe a circle of Indian admirers. He was known as a patron of Indian
arts and culture, and his published work on Tantra increased Indian national
self-esteem, for 'The prestigious image of European Orientalism was harnessed
to an Indian agenda: the propagation of an updated and purified; Hindu
Tantrism, and a reversal of Western valuations of it.' This aspect of
his work produced certain tensions between Woodroffe's public identity
as a judge and his private, half-secret Indian identity. At this time,
the Swadeshi movement was in full swing and the symbols of Tantra
especially the idea of the divine feminine power, Sakti were appropriated
by Bengal revolutionaries.
Woodroffe displayed a certain ambivalence towards the changes
taking place around him, urging Indians not to take on Western ways while
he himself was taking on Indian ways; personal contradictions which lead
the author to describe his 'chameleon-like quality.' Woodroffe does not
seem to have been influenced by the then prevalent interest in Theosophy
among those Westerners interested in the 'Eastern spirituality' and indeed
he died a Catholic in January 1936 (just four days after Ghose had died).
'Avalon', the author concludes, was 'a completely new type
of Indian scholar' and, in many ways, a precursor of the ideas associated
with Said. He recognized that the Western understanding of Hinduism was
a 'construction' and that Tantra was actually an integral part of the
complex systems that the West had classified as 'Hinduism'. In the wider
context, his work was part of the 'domestication' of Tantra's 'horrific
symbolism and transgressive rituals'. 'His aim was to distance what he
called '... the Religion of the Saktas', from the notoriety implied by
the word 'Tantra', while still defending the distinct ritual and doctrinal
elements which are commonly associated with the Tantras.' In doing so,
he clearly played a major role in shaping the future Western understanding
of Tantra, though it remains a subject of debate whether his representation
was itself a construct. Taylor's fascinating work, the research for which
led the author into the back streets of Calcutta and family archives,
is a sophisticated contribution to that debate. It is a work relevant
to all of those working in South Asian Studies, or interested in a well-grounded
analysis of the encounter between 'East and West' that goes beyond the
one-dimensional. *
Taylor, Kathleen, Sir
John Woodroffe, Tantra and Bengal: 'An Indian Soul in a European Body?',
Richmond: Curzon Press (2001), 319 pp., ill., 8 plates, ISBN 0 7007 1345
x (cloth)
Dr Alex McKay
has a PhD in South Asian History from the School of Oriental and African
Studies in London where he currently holds a research fellowship, in addition
to an affiliated fellowship at the IIAS. E-mail:
AM50@soas.ac.uk