Description MEDIEVAL “Hinduism” was, as its successor, modern Indian orthodoxy, largely Tantric. The Tantra was then, as it is now, the great Mantra and Sadhana’s Sastra (Scripture), and the main, if not the sole, source of some of the most fundamental concepts still prevalent as regards worship, images, initiation, yoga, the supremacy of the Guru, and so forth. This, however, does not mean that all the injunctions that are to be found in the Sastra are of universal acceptance, as is pointed out in the Introduction that follows. This introduction, however, is but a mere sketch of that which to develop in a future volume after the ritual (in its widest sense) has been dealt with in detail. What is wanted in this matter is an accurate statement of the facts, whereas up to now, such cursory accounts of the Tantra, as have appeared, are, as a rule, mere general statements by way of condemnation of it.
