NAKED ASCETIC By Victor Dane Mr. Victor Dane appears to
have really studied some of the less known but undeniably important methods of the Yogis at first hand, but it is also obvious from his book (Naked Ascetic, Rider, 7s. 6d.) that he has only a cursory acquaint- ance with the languages and customs of the Indian people, and that he did not succeed in meeting many of the serious exponents of Yoga. He has some amusing, and several frankly scandalous stories about the holy men of India, and he recounts a very old and horrible practice of certain Tantriks, which has brought the whole sect into disrepute amongst Indians themselves. But the casual reader is left to suppose that an orgiastic ceremony in a burial ground is a central and characteristic feature of the Tantra, which it is not, and that the devotees of that philosophy are a pack of ash-smeared, libidinous charlatans, which is a gross and ignorant libel on many eminent gurus of Puri, Benares and Srinagar. Mr. Dane has lighted on many half-truths, and expressed them with a good deal of cleverness, but his information is ill-digested, and the manner in which it is conveyed is likely to do harm.
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