aders with a Munda or
Dravidian race, leavened by a little Aryan blood in the higher castes.
In all this region we hear of no ancient Brahmanic settlements, no
ancient centres of Vedic or even Puranic learning[694] and when
Buddhism decayed no body of Brahmanic tradition such as existed in
other parts of India imposed its authority on the writers of the
Tantras. Even at the present day the worship of female spirits, only
half acknowledged by the Brahmans, prevails among these people, and in
the past the national deities of many tribes were goddesses who were
propitiated with human sacrifices. Thus the Chutiyas of Sadiya used to
adore a goddess, called Kesai Khati--the eater of raw flesh. The rites
of these deities were originally performed by tribal priests, but as
Hindu influence spread, the Brahmans gradually took charge of them
without modifying their character in essentials. Popular Bengali
poetry represents these goddesses as desiring worship and feeling
that they are slighted: they persecute those who ignore them, but
shower blessings on their worshippers, even on the obdurate who are at
last compelled to do them homage. The language of mythology could not
describe more clearly the endeavours of a plebeian cult to obtain
recognition.[695]

The Mahabharata contains hymns to Durga in which she is said to love
offerings of flesh and wine,[696] but it is not likely that Saktism or
Tantrism--that is a system with special scriptures and doctrines--was
prevalent before the seventh century A.D. for the Tantras are not
mentioned by the Chinese pilgrims and the lexicon _Amara Kosha_
(perhaps _c_. 500 A.D.) does not recognize the word as a designation
of religious books. Bana (_c_. 630) gives more than once in his
romances lists of sectaries but though he mentions Bhagavatas and
Pasupatas, he does not speak of Saktas.[697] On the other hand
Tantrism infected Buddhism soon after this period. The earlier Tibetan
translations of the Tantras are attributed to the ninth century. MSS.
of the Kubjikamata and other Tantras are said to date from the ninth
and even from the seventh century and tradition represents
Sankaracarya as having contests with Saktas.[698] But many Tantras
were written in the fifteenth century and even later, for the Yogini
Tantra alludes to the Koch king Bishwa Singh (1515-1540) and the Meru
Tantra mentions London and the English.

From the twelfth to the sixteenth century, when Buddhism, itself
deeply infe