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As for those who tum to the materialism of modem industrial societies to the detriment of their personal psychic health, (see S.C. Malik), when, historically, have these types accomodated to new trends and changing perceptions wilhin their own lifetime? Creative, life-assuring insights become, without a by-you-leave, the conventions of second and third generations, so no one need be unhappy that genius and new ways of perception take time to be recognized.

If there is any quarrel with the contents of a dedicatory volume to Kapila Vatsyayan it is that, even though she and many of the contributors have had long, intimate confrontations with the rural and tribal populations, there is only slight reference to the hundreds of millions of those of the second India who indeed do experience what Keshav Malik and S.C. Malik would have us all be in touch with. Separation from the source, without fluid interpenelralion, is hazardous for our own psychic survival. This is in no way a sentimentalism or romanticism in regard to the ‘folk’, but a reference to the energy source at the heart of India whcre there are passions, intuitions conceming the numinous inflnite immensity, an understanding of the need for silence and for worship, a sense of wonder, awe and humility. Who has not basked in the peace and elementality of the Indian village, without need for exchange of language, common religion, race or nationality ? Perhaps the opportunities readily available to come into contact with this fotce tremcndum are being ncglected. There is indeed no cause for dismay; on the contrary, shouldn’t we rejoice at the plenitude that is India? There are good prospects, if industrialized societies (which must now include India) do not destroy themselves, that we can place our hopes on the collective unconscious of the people, with its compulsive drive towards life and, in our educated youth, whcrcver they may be in this global world. The confluence of science, ancient Indian philosophy and the life force of village and tribal Indians is the generative matrix. Kapila Vatsyayan knows this.

Carmel Bcrkson

RTTUAL AND SPECULATION IN EARLY TANTRISM, Studies in Honor of Andrć Padoux, ed. by TEUN GOUDRIAAN, State University of New York Press, Albany, 1992, pages xv + 359, price not mentioned.

This scholarly voIume lclicitates the eminent French Indologist Andrć Padoux, who is a wcll-known authority on Tantrism. Systematically conceived by its editor Teun Goudriaan, himself leamcd in Tantric studies, the book differs from hosls of felicitalion volumes produced in recent times in its having a central focus dcfining the articles. The central theme of the volume, viz, ritual and doctrine, as its editor States in the Preface, is “expressive of one of the most intriguing characteristics of Hindu tradition: the conviction