Urban, Hugh B. <br/><br/>
The Path of Desire: Living tantra in Northeast India 
Urban, Hugh B. 
 - 60th 
 - Chicago and London  The University of Chicago Press  2024 
 - viii, 272p.  Includes notes, bibliography and index 
<br/><br/> Tantra, one of the most important religious currents in South Asia, is often misrepresented as little more than ritualized sex. Through a mixture of ethnography and history, Hugh B. Urban reveals a dynamic living tradition behind the sensationalist stories. Urban shows that Tantric desire goes beyond the erotic, encompassing such quotidian experiences as childbearing and healing. He traces these holistic desires through a series of unique practices: institutional Tantra centered on gurus and esoteric rituals; public Tantra marked by performance and festival; folk Tantra focused on magic and personal well-being; and popular Tantra imagined in fiction, film, and digital media. The result is a provocative new description of Hindu Tantra that challenges us to approach religion as something always entwined with politics and culture, thoroughly entangled with ordinary needs and desires. 
<br/><br/><label>ISBN: </label>9780226831121 
<br/><br/><label>Source: </label> Textual 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>Desire -- Religious aspects -- Hinduism<br/>Folk religion -- India -- Assam<br/>Tantrism -- India -- Assam