Woodroffe, Sir John

(1865–1936) Calcutta High Court Justice
who also, under the pseudonym of
Arthur Avalon, translated and published
works on tantra, a secret, ritually based
religious practice. Woodroffe was one of
the earliest European exponents of
tantra as a coherent religious path and
served as an apologist for the seemingly
“impure” or “immoral” ritual acts
described in the texts. In his expositions
of the tantras, Woodroffe was trying to
convince a dual audience, both of whom
were horrified at the licentiousness
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Woodroffe, Sir John
described in the tantric texts, which
involve violating deeply embedded
taboos on nonvegetarian food, consumption of alcohol, and illicit sexuality.
On the one hand, Woodroffe was
addressing the British, who were the
political masters of the time, and on the
other, educated Indians, many of whom
would have preferred to dismiss the
tantras as an aberration. His publications and lectures were instrumental in
helping make tantrism respectable,
although more careful scholarly work
has been done since that time.