TANTRIC images, and yantras


In general, tantra relies on an analogy between the microcosm (the physical body) and the macrocosm (the universe). Magical incantantations, proper meditation (often on suitable yantras) and ritualized bodily behavior can thus have powerful effects in the larger world. 
Tantric techniques have included the sexual: the union of purusha and shakti, two yang-yin halves of the cosmos, may be either imagined or acted out. Thus tantra gave a great fillip to the worship of goddesses.
Meditative attention-focusing diagrams called "yantras" ("devices, instruments") have been widely used in tantric practices
Sometimes yantras were made small and plain, for convenience and portability, or were combined with deity images
Each of the ten Mahavidyas, or goddesses of (secret) knowledge, is equipped with her own yantra
Many tantric images show not only macro/microcosms, but also deceptive, confusing, or paradoxical forms
Tantric imagery is often oblique, obscure, and multivalent
Sometimes tantric imagery seems to be deliberately pushed to a kind of transgressive limit
Other examples of modern tantric paintings


Bengal has had a particularly strong tradition of (tantric and other) goddess-worship
Durga, as Mahishasura-mardini, the "Slayer of the buffalo-demon," tends to be depicted more violently but less erotically then Kali; she's also treated as the chief of the "Nine Durgas"



 
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