Kritik am Buch „The Shadow Of The Dalai Lama ... - Neues von Shi De

(Bhattacharya, 1982, p. 116, note 41; Tiwari 1985). The native inhabitants of the first pre-Aryan
agricultural societies were followers of the “great goddess”. Ritual objects from excavations of the
ancient towns of Mohenjodaro and Harappa (c. 2500 B.C.E.) indicate that matriarchal cults were
practiced there. Astounding parallels to the Babylonian goddesses of the Fertile Crescent have been
drawn.
Only following the violent intrusion of patriarchal pastoral peoples from the north (around 1500 B.C.
E.) was the native religion of India systematically displaced. From now on the Aryan caste system
with its sacrificial priests (Brahmans) and warriors (Kshatriyas) at its peak determined social religious
politics. Nor did the first phase of Buddhism show any essential change in the androcentric pattern. At
the time of the Maurya and Gupta periods (around 300 C.E.) this experienced a decisive
transformation. The ascetic doctrine of early Buddhism (Hinayana) gave way to the ideal of the
compassionate Bodhisattva (Mahayana). Hinduism’s colorful lineage of gods developed — often
represented as great mythical couples. But the archeologists have also excavated numerous clay
figures from this epoch, which depict the Great Mother deity. Her figure even appears on coins. The
submerged “feminine principle” of the earliest times thus reappeared between the third and seventh
centuries C.E. in India.
Starting among the rural population it gained access to even the highest strata. “ The mass strength
behind it,” Bhattacharyya informs us, “placed goddesses by the side of gods of all religions, but even
by doing so the entire emotion centering round the Female Principle could not be channelised. So the
need was felt for a new religion, entirely female dominated, a religion in which even the great gods
like Visnu or Shiva would remain subordinated to the goddess. This new religion came to be known
as Shaktism” (Bhattacharyya, 1982, p. 207).
The Buddhists were also not in a position to remain completely untouched by this renaissance of
ancient female cults. This can be detected, for example, in the famous collection of poems,
Therigatha, where Buddhist nuns sing of their liberation from the slavery of everyday family life. But
there was never a real emancipation movement of female Buddhists. In contrast the followers of the
Buddha Shakyamuni were successful in their epochal attempt to gain control of the “new women”,
through integration and manipulation, without needing to combat or suppress the emergent “woman
power” directly: the monks discovered Vajrayana.
There is much to be said for the suggestion the tantric practices, or at least similar rites, were
originally part of the cult of worship of the great goddess, which in contrast to early Buddhism had a
completely free and open attitude towards sexuality. This is also admitted implicitly by the Buddhist
yogis when they project all the forces of the universes into a female archetype. Since they were
convinced they possessed a technique (upaya) which in the final instance placed absolute power over
the goddess in their hands, the could maintain this apparent omnipotence of the feminine without risk.
One almost has the impression that they deliberately adopted the omnipotent matriarchal image.
Yet as soon as women actually grasped for power, this was seen by all the androcentric cults of India
as a great disaster and much feared. The woman then appears as a bestial horror god or a bloodthirsty
tigress who kills her lover, performs bizarre dances upon his corpse or places the still-aroused penis of
the dead in her vulva. She is depicted as a being with a gaping maw and bloody canines. Numerous
variants of such macabre portraits are known. In the light of such images of horror the fears of the
men were thoroughly justified and man-destroying cult sacrifices were then no rarity in the vicinity of