Erotic asceticism: the razor's edge observance (asidhārāvrata) and the early history of tantric coital ritual

Abstract

Abstract This essay examines shifting representations of theasidhārāvrata(lit. “sword's edge observance”) across a range of Sanskrit literary and religious texts. Originally a Brāhmaṇical ascetic discipline, an observance (vrata) by this name is the earliest ritual involving sexual contact documented in the corpus of Śaivatantras. In its tantric adaptation, an orthodox practice for the cultivation of sensory restraint was transformed into a means for supernatural attainment (siddhi). Diachronic study of the observance in three early Śaiva texts – theNiśvāsatattvasaṃhitā, Mataṅgapārameśvara, andBrahmayāmala– reveals changes in ritual emphases, women's roles, and the nature of engagement in eroticism. Analysis of theasidhārāvratathus sheds light on the early history of tantric sexual rituals, which by the end of the first millennium had become highly diverse. It is argued that the observance became increasingly obsolete with the rise of Śaiva sexual practices more magical, ecstatic, or gnostic in orientation.

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