Editing Tantra (section)

=====Rig Veda=====
The Keśin hymn of the ''[[Rig Veda]]'' (10.136) describes the "wild loner" who, states Karel Werner, "carrying within oneself fire and poison, heaven and earth, ranging from enthusiasm and creativity to depression and agony, from the heights of spiritual bliss to the heaviness of earth-bound labor".<ref name="Werner">{{harvp|Werner|1977|pp=289–302}}</ref> The Rigveda uses words of admiration for these loners,<ref name="Werner" /> and whether it is related to Tantra or not, has been variously interpreted. According to David Lorenzen, it describes ''munis'' (sages) experiencing Tantra-like "ecstatic, altered states of consciousness" and gaining the ability "to fly on the wind".{{sfnp|Lorenzen|2002|p=27}} In contrast, Werner suggests that these are early [[Yoga]] pioneers and accomplished yogis of the ancient pre-Buddhist Indian tradition, and that this Vedic hymn is speaking of those "lost in thoughts" whose "personalities are not bound to earth, for they follow the path of the mysterious wind".<ref name="Werner"/> However, Patrick Olivelle suggests that in the early Vedic-Brahmanical texts, some of which predate the 3rd-century BCE ruler Ashoka, Brahmana and Śramaṇa (ascetics) were neither distinct nor opposed. The later distinctions were semantic developments possibly influenced by the appropriation of the term Śramaṇa by Buddhism and Jainism.{{sfn|Olivelle|1993|p=12}}