ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author shows that positing of the Great Energy changes the philosophical framework that associates corporeality with the features of a corpse - or to put it in simpler terms, lessens ontological gap between "death" and "body", thereby implying that a body is a corpse. He claims that the corpse of Sati, whose "death", however, cannot be seen as death, lies at the heart of the Shakta-tantric modes of worship, especially practices developed in the Eastern parts of India. The author also shows Shiva's affection towards Sati's limbs as embodying a greater epistemological significance, indicative of a noticeable distance from the Cartesian approach to the body. He argues that the tantras bring animality, physicality, sexuality and divinity together, thereby radically questioning the anthropocentric view of death as closure.
