It would be a poor service to India to palliate the evils and
extravagances of Saktism, but still it must be made clear that it is
not a mere survival of barbaric practices. The writers of the Tantras
are good Hindus and declare that their object is to teach liberation
and union with the Supreme Spirit. The ecstasies induced by tantric
rites produce this here in a preliminary form to be made perfect in
the liberated soul. This is not the craze of a few hysterical
devotees, but the faith of millions among whom many are well educated.
In some aspects Saktism is similar to the erotic Vishnuite sects, but
there is little real analogy in their ways of thinking. For the
essence of Vishnuism is passionate devotion and self-surrender to a
deity and this idea is not prominent in the Tantras. The strange
inconsistencies of Saktism are of the kind which are characteristic of
Hinduism as a whole, but the contrasts are more violent and the
monstrosities more conspicuous than elsewhere; wild legends and
metaphysics are mixed together, and the peace that passes all
understanding is to be obtained by orgies and offerings of blood.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 680: See also chap. XXIV. as to Saktism and Tantrism in
Buddhism. Copious materials for the study of Saktism and Tantrism are
being made available in the series of tantric texts edited in Sanskrit
and Tibetan, and in some cases translated by the author who uses the
pseudonym A. Avalon.]

[Footnote 681: See _Annales du Musee Guimet_, Tome VIII.
Si-Do-In-Dzon. Gestes de l'officiant dans les ceremonies mystiques des
sectes Tendai et Singon, 1899.]

[Footnote 682: See Underhill, _Mysticism_, chaps. VI. and VII.]

[Footnote 683: See Dhalla, _Zoroastrian Theology_, p. 116.]

[Footnote 684: Specially Ath. Veda, XII. 1.]

[Footnote 685: Village deities in south India at the present day are
usually female. See Whitehead, _Village Gods_, p. 21.]

[Footnote 686: Thus Candi is considered as identical with the wood
goddess Basuli, worshipped in the jungles of Bengal and Orissa. See
_J.A._ 1873, p. 187.]

[Footnote 687: Vaj. Sanh. 3. 57 and Taittir. Br. I. 6. 10. 4.]

[Footnote 688: Crooke, _Popular Religion of Northern India_, I. 63.
Monier Williams, _Brahm. and Hinduism_, p. 57 gives an interesting
account of the shrine of Kali at Vindhyacal said to have been formerly
frequented by Thugs.]

[Footnote 689: This idea that deities have different aspects in which
they practically bec