Hugh B. Urban is Professor of Comparative Studies at Ohio State University. One of the leading Western scholars of Tantric religion, Professor Urban is the author of several books which include Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism (2006), Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics and Power in the Study of Religion (2003), and Songs of Ecstasy: Tantric and Devotional Songs from Bengal (2001).

“The Power of Tantra is a major scholarly treatment of a much misconstrued esoteric tradition and a well-written and illustrated guide to a dimension of Hinduism that deserves the careful research Hugh B. Urban has given it. An impressive achievement.”

– Paul B. Courtright, Professor of Religion and Asian Studies, Emory University

“Building on his extraordinary knowledge of the Sanskrit, Bangla, and Assamese sources, Hugh B. Urban flies straight into the heart of the raging controversy over the sex and violence of Tantra: Is this an Orientalist fantasy, or a Hindu nightmare, or a profound religious phenomenon? Drawing richly upon previously untapped texts and new fieldwork, Urban boldly and creatively takes the arguments about Tantra in an entirely new direction, revealing aspects of the worship of the goddess that have deep meaning for Hindus and great potential power even for the heirs of Orientalism.”

– Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions, University of Chicago

“Once again, Hugh B. Urban has given us a sophisticated, reflexive, mind-bending study of a specific set of Tantric traditions. In the process, we are taken down what he aptly calls “a path of desire and power” whose paradoxical energies center on the goddess, flow through the human body and its fluids, the social order, and the body politic (all at once), are unleashed through esoteric ritual practices, experienced as a source of supernatural powers, and put in the service of kingship, political rule, even ultra-modern forms of a new embodied spirituality. Writing against and beyond all the old East–West dualisms, tired anti-intellectualisms, and easy idealizations, Urban has become one of our most able, artful, and careful guides.”

– Jeffrey J. Kripal, J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Religious Studies, Rice University