The Economics of Ecstasy: Tantra, Secrecy and Power in Colonial Bengal

Abstract

This is a study of Bengali Kartabhaja sect and its place in broader movement of Tantrism, an Indian religious movement employing purposely shocking sexual language and rituals. Urban looks closely at relationship between rise of Kartabhajas, who flourished at turn of 19th century, and changing economic context of colonial Bengal. Made up of poor lower classes laboring in marketplaces and factories of Calcutta, Kartabhajas represent the underworld of imperial city. Urban shows that their esoteric poetry and songs are in fact saturated with language of marketplace and bazaar, which becomes for them key metaphor used to communicate secret knowledge and mystical teachings.

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