The history of Tantra is like a large puzzle with many missing pieces.
What Is the Main Problem?
Many Tantric texts have survived only in later manuscript copies. Texts could be recopied, edited, and supplemented with new commentaries, making it difficult to determine exactly when they were originally composed.
In addition, the category of Tantra itself was not always used in the same way that modern scholars use it today. Some traditions now described as Tantric may historically have used different names for themselves.
What Other Challenges Are There?
The sources are spread across different regions, languages, and religious traditions. Hindu Tantra and Buddhist Tantra did not develop in exactly the same way, and many practices may have existed before they were described in detail in written texts.
For this reason, historians can rarely point to a single moment and say, “This is exactly when it all began.”
Instead, they compare manuscripts, texts, inscriptions, and other forms of evidence, gradually reconstructing a picture of the past.
The history of Tantra is difficult to reconstruct not because it was necessarily secret, but because its sources are fragmented, diverse, and require careful interpretation.
In the next article: medieval India and the flourishing of Tantra.