ABSTRACT
Gripped by a Victorian sensibility, Bengali religious reformers in the late nineteenth century, especially vaiṣṇavas, decried the practices of certain small, mostly rural religious communities, which were considered transgressive of acceptable social norms. The notoriety of such groups as the kartābhajās, sahajiyās, and later bāuls, precipitated strong public responses which ironically romanticized their activities in an “open secret” commonly thought to centre on sexual intercourse and the ingestion of intoxicants, that is, religion as an excuse for debauchery. Starting in the early twentieth century, scholars trained their sights on the philosophical rationales for these practices as interest in what was popularly styled Tantrism grew. On the surface, the transgressive practices seemed to generate most of the popular interest, but this chapter argues that it was the secrecy surrounding these practices that was the underlying source of allure. Attempts to uncover those secrets—both then and now—generate intractable epistemological knots. Veracity proves nearly completely elusive, for when a scholar discovers and shares this insider “knowledge” from communities dedicated to secrecy, whatever is revealed is automatically suspect. But of equal import—and issues that have not factored into much of the speculation—are the ethical problems of trying to learn and then reveal other peoples’ secrets.
