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This book is an historical exploration into the origins of the the Kāmasūtra, a treatise on sexual-erotic pleasure, and the Nātyaśāstra, a treatise on theater, music, dance, and aesthetic pleasure in classical India in engagement with Michel Foucault. It argues that the courtesan together with her two closest male companions, her patron the dandy consort, and her teacher and advisor the dandy guru were at the very origins of these texts universally recognized as two of the mainsprings of culture in classical India. The courtesan, more than her two male associates, embodied in her singular persona the highest and grandest symbols of both erotic and aesthetic pleasure. She holds the historical key to the secrets of how erotics and aesthetics came to be so deeply and abidingly intertwined in classical India. The book takes its start form the contrast between ars erotica or erotic arts and scientia sexualis or the science of sexuality that Foucault placed at the center of his first volume of the History of Sexuality. The Kāmasūtra and its twin, the Natyasastra, are located within the intellectual horizon opened up by this contrast. The book argues that contrary to the common assumption that the discourse erotic-aesthetic pleasure (Kāma) failed to give birth to a larger vision of society, in the Kāmasūtra there is embedded a vision of the city based on art and aesthetic pleasure grounded in love as the necessary historical condition for the possibility of a discourse of erotics.

Tantra occupies a unique position in Western understandings of Hindu spirituality. Its carnal dimension has made its name instantly recognizable, but this popular fascination with sex has obscured its philosophical depth and ritual practices, to say nothing of its overall importance to Hinduism. This book offers a clear, well-grounded overview of Tantra that offers substantial new insights for scholars and practitioners. The book opens by detailing the history of Tantra, beginning with its origins, founding texts, and major beliefs. The second part of the book delves more deeply into key concepts relating to the tantric body, mysticism, sex, mantras, sacred geography, and iconography, while the final part considers the practice of Tantra today, both in India and in the West. The result is an authoritative account of Tantra's history and present place in the world.

“Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field.” With those words in Genesis, God condemns the serpent for tempting Adam and Eve, and the serpent has shouldered the blame ever since. But how would the study of religion change if we looked at the Fall from the snake's point of view? Would he appear as a bringer of wisdom, more generous than the God who wishes to keep his creation ignorant? Inspired by the early Gnostics who took that view, this book uses the serpent as a starting point for a reconsideration of religious studies and its methods. In a series of related essays, the author moves beyond both rational and faith-based approaches to religion, exploring the erotics of the gospels and the sexualities of Jesus, John, and Mary Magdalene. He considers Feuerbach's Gnosticism, the untapped mystical potential of comparative religion, and even the modern mythology of the X-Men. Ultimately, the book is a call for a complete reorientation of religious studies, aimed at a larger understanding of the world, the self, and the divine.

Since the 1960s, yoga has become a billion-dollar industry in the West, attracting housewives and hipsters, New Agers and the old-aged. But our modern conception of yoga derives much from nineteenth-century European spirituality, and the true story of yoga's origins in South Asia is far richer, stranger, and more entertaining than most of us realize. To uncover this history, the book focuses on yoga's practitioners. Combing through millennia of South Asia's vast and diverse literature, it discovers that yogis are usually portrayed as wonder-workers or sorcerers who use their dangerous supernatural abilities—which can include raising the dead, possession, and levitation—to acquire power, wealth, and sexual gratification. As the book shows, even those yogis who are not downright villainous bear little resemblance to Western assumptions about them. At turns rollicking and sophisticated, this book tears down the image of yogis as detached, contemplative teachers, placing them in their proper context.