Shaman Hatley, PhD

Shaman Hatley researches the literature, ritual, and social history of Esoteric or Tantric Śaivism in medieval India, and religion in premodern Bengal. Appointed at Concordia in 2007, his teaching spans Hindu Studies, religion in South Asia, ritual studies, religion and the performing arts, and Sanskrit. He completed his Ph.D. in Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania in 2007, under the direction of Harunaga Isaacson. He has authored several articles and book chapters concerning goddess cults and the history and practices of the tantric traditions, and is a contributor to the Tāntrikābhidhānakośa ("A Dictionary of Technical Terms from Hindu Tantric Literature"). Currently, he is preparing a monograph entitled Goddesses, Women, and Ritual: Yoginī Cults of Early Medieval India; and a multi-volume study and critical edition of the Brahmayāmalatantra, one of the earliest surviving works of Hindu tantric literature focused upon goddesses.

Educaton

PhD (University of Pennsylvania)

Research interests

Tantric Śaivism in medieval India
Indian Tantric Buddhism
Yoga
Religion in premodern Bengal
Hindu Goddesses
Ritual Studies

Traditions

Hinduism
Buddhism
Religions of South Asia

Field areas

Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Selected publications

“Converting the Ḍākinī: Goddess Cults and Tantras of the Yoginīs between Buddhism and Śaivism.” In Tantric Traditions on the Move: Their Development through Time, and Transmission through Cultural Space, edited by David Gray. Oxford University Press, forthcoming.

“Erotic Asceticism: The Knife’s Edge Observance (asidhārāvrata) and the Early History of Tantric Coital Ritual.” Tantric Studies 2 (Early Tantra special issue), forthcoming. 

“Śakti in Early Tantric Śaivism: Historical observations on goddesses, cosmology, and ritual in the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā.” In Goddesses in Tantric Hinduism: History, Doctrine, and Practice, edited by Bjarne Olesen. Routledge, forthcoming.

"Goddesses in Text and Stone: Temples of the Yoginīs in Light of Tantric and Purānic Literature." In Material Culture and Asian Religions: History, Textuality, Image, edited by Benjamin Fleming and Richard Mann. Routledge, 2014.

"What is a Yoginī? Towards a Polythetic Definition." In 'Yogini' in South Asia: Interdisciplinary Approaches, edited by István Keul. Routledge, forthcoming, 2013. 

"From Mātr to Yoginī: Continuity and Transformation in the South Asian Cults of the Mother Goddesses." In Transformations and Transfer of Tantra in Asia and Beyond, edited by István Keu, pp.99-129l. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2012.

"Tantric Śaivism in Early Medieval India: Recent Research and Future Directions." Religion Compass 4, 10 (2010): pp. 615-28.

"Mapping the Esoteric Body in the Islamic Yoga of Bengal." History of Religions 46 (2007): 351-68.

Tantric Traditions of South Asia (2014)
Krishna (2012-13)
Kashmir Shaivism (2011-12)
Ritual and the Body in Tantra, Taoism and Sufism (2010-11)
Bhakti: Devotional Traditions of Medieval India (2009-10)