Chapters 10–13 address possession in Tantra and Āyurveda, discourses that must be examined together to some extent because they increasingly share the same intellectual context. It is here, for the most part, that the notion of possession as “grasping” or “seizing” (grahaṇa) is highlighted, “negative” possession brought on by a malevolent spirit (the influence of the Mahābhārata is also felt here). But this is only a part of the story, as it shares conceptual territory with the “positive” possession most often associated with deities, as well as with interpersonal possession found in texts ranging from the Ṛgveda to the Upaniṣads, the Mahābhārata (again), the Purāṇas, the texts of classical Yoga, and most other texts encountered in the earlier chapters.
It is important that the Tantras feature oracular possession as an active practice. +++(5)+++This is dealt with in Chapters 10 and 11, which cover the ground of normative brahmanical possession and possession found in Buddhist Tantras.
Chapter 11 addresses a single topic, the practice of using children as agents of oracular possession and the dissemination of this practice from North India to Tibet, China, and South India.+++(4)+++