The Antiquity of the Goddess in India

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

Most text books will tell you things like, "passages about...Durga

were relegated to the appendices, as post-AD 300 interpolations"

[Ratnagar, 'Understanding Harappa (2001)], suggesting that the

worship of the Goddess of India [shaktism; Tantra] has been a

comparatively recent event.

 

This is very convenient for the Vedic theorist, since it is but a

small step from such assumptions to assume that Shaktism is but a

late, lateral development from the over-arching, patriarchal faith of

the ancient Vedas.

 

However, there are those who hold an alternative view. At the

following link, the author suggests that Tantra has come down to us

from the pre-neolithic, Dravidian peoples of India, who now mostly

reside in southern India -

 

http://www.tantraworks.com/Ancient_Tantra.html#india

 

This is a theory which appeals to me. It is illogical to suddenly

find 'goddess worship' in the Common Era, with no apparent history or

backround to it - unless Mother Worship had been a folk-survival in

India, an oral tradition, with no texts to embellish it, until rites

and rituals were set down, in comparatively recent times?

 

I don't know. I would be extremely grateful if anyone could point me

in the direction of publications they may know of, on this subject,

since it is something I would like to develop a greater understanding

of.

 

Thank you.

 

Happy Diwali to all!

 

m6