THE PLACE OF WOMEN IN TANTRA AND ‘HINDUISM’
From ‘Genocide of Women in Hinduism’ by Sita Agarwal
According to Sita
Agarwal, Vedic-Brahmanic religion was misogynistic in the extreme. Widow
immolation, wife burning, mass rape and mass burning of women, female
infanticide and enforced incense, were all religiously justified as a
form of ‘ethnic cleansing’ - designed to remove the last traces of the
pre-Aryan, dark-skinned Dravidian race and religion.
“In order to permanently destroy the genetic stock of the non-Brahmin
races the Brahmins enforced the depravities of child-marriage and incest
upon the non-Brahmins … Hence, incest is more common in Aryan Hindu
society than in any other part of the world.”
“Even to this day incest of varying degrees (cross-cousin,
father-daughter, mother-son, brother-sister, etc.) is extremely common
amongst the Indo-Aryans. No other race on earth has ever recorded such a
prevalence of this practice.”
“Vaishnavism [Vishnu worship] is the religion that grew out of the Vedic
religion and became the dominant Brahmanic faith after obliterating
Buddhism and Jainism … It hence inherited the Aryan male-chauvinist
dogmas of the Vedic religion. It is now the dominant form of the six
‘Astika’ schools of Brahmanism in existence, for 75 % of all `Hindus'
are Vaishnavites. Hence, the Vaishnava literature (Puranas, Smrtis,
etc.) pour venom and hatred against women. Women are generally termed as
thieves, dacoits, pirates, thirsty tigresses and hypocrite cats …”
“Lecherous Brahmin men transformed Vedism into Vaishnavism (which
represents 75 % of all ‘Hindus’) and abrogated to themselves the right
to sexual enjouyment of all races, while other men were forbidden access
to Brahmin women.”
Vaishnavist temples became brothels for Brahmins serviced by black
aboriginal Sudra women.
“One of the main examples of this wonderful treatment of aboriginal
women is the ‘great’ God Krishna himself. He raped the Black Sudra
women, namely the low-caste cowherdesses or Gopis on a massive scale.
These ghastly deeds were later distorted into a benign love story by the
fraud Brahmins in order to whitewash Krishna's crimes.”
In contrast to Vishnu, ‘Shiva’ was originally a Dravidian
god and Agarwal herself refers to the complexly different attitude to
women expressed through both ‘Sudra’ Shaivism, Shakta and Tantric
religious traditions:
“There were exceptions to the rule, even during the Vedic Dark Ages
following the collapse of the Indus civilization. Eastern India (Purvadesha),
including Bengal, with its majority Mon-Khmer population, was only
slightly Aryanized. The Shakti cult (mother-goddess) predominated …
Worship of mother-goddesses was prevalent, and inculculated a spirit of
independence amongst Shakta and Tantric women. By contrast, Brahmanic
Hindu goddesses were designed to inculculate obedience and subservience
to men.”
“However, Aryanisation in the 6-7th centuries led to the extermination
of the indigenous Tantra and Shakta faiths. The arrival of Brahmanism …
led to a consequent decline in the status of women. The Dravidian women
were also freer. Malabar was a centre of the Tantric form of the
Shiva-Shakti cult, and matriarchal customs still prevail.”
Yet “the Shiva-Shakti cult”
also flourished and survived until recently through the liberal culture
and religion of Kashmir, based on the unique Tantric religion of
Shiva-Shakti known as ‘Kashmir Shaivism’.
Misogynism however, was perpetuated in both Jainism and Buddhism:
“Buddha is said to have induced his disciples not to look at a woman or
even talk to her” [Sacred Books of the East,XI p.91 cited in Bhatt p.44
]