historically it appears
to be a compound of Hinduism with un-Aryan beliefs. It acquired great
influence both in the courts and among the people of north-eastern
India but without producing personalities of much eminence as teachers
or writers.

It would be convenient to distinguish Saktism and Tantrism, as I have
already suggested. The former means the worship of a goddess or
goddesses, especially those who are regarded as forms of Siva's
consort. Vishnuites sometimes worship female deities, but though the
worship of Lakshmi, Radha and others may be coloured by imitation of
Saktist practices, it is less conspicuous and seems to have a
different origin. Tantrism is a system of magical or sacramental
ritual, which professes to attain the highest aims of religion by such
methods as spells, diagrams, gestures and other physical exercises.
One of its bases is the assumption that man and the universe
correspond as microcosm and macrocosm and that both are subject to the
mysterious power of words and letters.

These ideas are not modern nor peculiar to any Indian sect. They are
present in the Vedic ceremonial, in the practices of the Yoga and even
in the teaching of the quasi-mussulman sect of Kabir, which attaches
great importance to the letters of the divine name. They harmonize
with the common Indian view that some form of discipline or physical
training is essential to the religious life. They are found in a
highly developed form among the Nambuthiris and other Brahmans of
southern India who try to observe the Vedic rules and in the Far East
among Buddhists of the Shingon or Chen-yen sect.[681] As a rule they
receive the name of Tantrism only when they are elaborated into a
system which claims to be a special dispensation for this age and to
supersede more arduous methods which are politely set aside as
practicable only for the hero-saints of happier times. Tantrism, like
salvation by faith, is a simplification of religion but on mechanical
rather than emotional lines, though its deficiency in emotion often
finds strange compensations.

But Tantrism is analogous not so much to justification by faith as to
sacramental ritual. The parallel may seem shocking, but most tantric
ceremonies are similar in idea to Christian sacraments and may be
called sacramental as correctly as magical. Even in the Anglican
Church baptism includes sprinkling with water (abhisheka), the sign of
the cross (nyasa) and a formula (mantra), and if