{ "model": { "rank": 3877, "code": "thing-q181510", "model_id": "vr.tr.tantra", "name": "Tantra", "purpose": "Let an agent explain Tantra as a family of religious traditions with scholarly attribution, describe Hindu and Buddhist forms, relay texts and practices in general terms, and distinguish scholarly understanding from popular Western usage, respectfully.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.ORG", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q181510/", "tier": 2, "score": 81, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Tantra Sangha", "Tantra in Hinduism", "Shaktism", "Hindu tantra in Bengal" ], "aliasCount": 4, "merged": 4, "knownIn": 81, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q181510", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q181510", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-13T02:38:36Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 3, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q181510", "registryId": "vr.tr.tantra", "name": "Tantra", "version": "0.2.0-wave.3", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.ORG" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q181510/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.tantra", "name": "Tantra", "purpose": "Let an agent explain Tantra as a family of religious traditions with scholarly attribution, describe Hindu and Buddhist forms, relay texts and practices in general terms, and distinguish scholarly understanding from popular Western usage, respectfully.", "definition": "A body of esoteric traditions, texts and practices that developed in India from the middle of the first millennium CE within Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, using ritual, mantra, mandala, yoga, visualisation and deity worship as means to liberation and power, including Hindu tantra in Shaiva and Shakta traditions such as Shaktism and the Bengal traditions, Buddhist Vajrayana, and modern movements such as the Tantra Sangha; in Western popular usage the word is often narrowed to sexual practices, which scholars regard as a small and often misunderstood part of the traditions.", "what_it_is_for": "Not applicable; religious traditions.", "affordances": [ "explain the traditions", "describe Hindu and Buddhist forms", "relay texts and practices", "distinguish scholarly and popular senses" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Esoteric practice", "Ritual and mantra", "Deity and energy focus", "Hindu and Buddhist forms" ], "appearance": "Not a visible object; texts, rituals, mandalas and iconography.", "visual_identification": [ "Esoteric Indian religious traditions", "Hindu tantra including Shaktism and Bengal traditions, Buddhist Vajrayana, modern movements", "Neo-tantra in the West focuses on sexuality; yoga and mantra are shared with other traditions" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "emergence", "typical_range": "about 5th to 9th century CE", "unit": "period", "note": "scholarly estimates" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "Hindu tantra: Shaiva, Shakta and Vaishnava traditions, including Shaktism and Hindu tantra in Bengal", "Buddhist tantra: Vajrayana in Tibet, Nepal, Japan and elsewhere", "Jain tantric elements", "modern movements such as the Tantra Sangha", "Western neo-tantra as a distinct phenomenon" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "Vajrayana", "why": "in registry terms, though Hindu tantra is a parallel tradition" }, { "relation": "is practised within", "target": "Hinduism", "why": "and Buddhism" }, { "relation": "includes", "target": "Shaktism", "why": "as a major Hindu form" }, { "relation": "uses", "target": "mantra", "why": "and mandala in practice" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "No regulation of religious traditions", "Consumer and safety rules affecting commercial neo-tantra workshops" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Reducing Tantra to sexuality", "Disrespectful presentation of living traditions", "Presenting contested scholarly positions as settled", "Exploitative commercial practices in neo-tantra, reported with attribution" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What Tantra is.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is Tantra, and how do scholars define it across Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about the traditions, a specific lineage or Western neo-tantra?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "forms", "name": "Forms", "description": "Forms.", "findings": [ { "id": "forms-finding", "name": "Forms", "description": "Forms.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the main forms, from Shaktism and Bengal tantra to Vajrayana?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific tradition?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "practice", "name": "Practice", "description": "Texts and practice.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "texts", "name": "Texts", "description": "Texts.", "findings": [ { "id": "texts-finding", "name": "Texts", "description": "Texts.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the major tantric texts, and how are they interpreted, with scholarship attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "practices", "name": "Practices", "description": "Practices.", "findings": [ { "id": "practices-finding", "name": "Practices", "description": "Practices.", "questions": [ { "text": "What practices such as mantra, mandala, yoga, initiation and deity visualisation characterise Tantra, in general terms?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation respectful of living traditions?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "modern", "name": "Modern", "description": "Modern developments.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "movements", "name": "Movements", "description": "Modern movements.", "findings": [ { "id": "movements-finding", "name": "Movements", "description": "Movements.", "questions": [ { "text": "What modern tantric movements exist, such as the Tantra Sangha, and how do they describe themselves?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "neotantra", "name": "Neo-tantra", "description": "Western neo-tantra.", "findings": [ { "id": "neotantra-finding", "name": "Neo-tantra", "description": "Neo-tantra.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does Western neo-tantra differ from the traditions, and what do scholars say about the sexual focus, with attribution?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral and non-sensational?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "History and culture.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did Tantra emerge and spread across South, Central and East Asia, as historians describe?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the history of Indian religions?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "culture", "name": "Culture", "description": "Art and culture.", "findings": [ { "id": "culture-finding", "name": "Culture", "description": "Culture.", "questions": [ { "text": "How has Tantra shaped art, temple architecture and iconography?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits tantric art?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should Hindu tantra and Vajrayana be separate primary entries?", "How should scholarly sources be linked?", "The registry entry has merged aliases naming a modern movement and regional traditions; should they be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "organisation or institution", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a Tantra, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain Tantra as a family of religious traditions with scholarly attribution, describe Hindu and Buddhist forms, relay texts and practices in general terms, and distinguish scholarly understanding from popular Western usage, respectfully.", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "collective" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Tantra Sangha, Tantra in Hinduism, Shaktism, Hindu tantra in Bengal.", "4 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 81 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a Tantra, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "a social arrangement between people", "physicalCharacter": [ "Acts through people, and only through them.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. Recognised by name, register entry and the people acting in its name, and those change while it stays the same body." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "Tantra Sangha", "Tantra in Hinduism", "Shaktism", "Hindu tantra in Bengal" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 81 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 4 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one Tantra from another, and a Tantra from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a Tantra, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a Tantra, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a Tantra is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a Tantra, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a Tantra, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a Tantra is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a Tantra sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a Tantra, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a Tantra, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a Tantra is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a Tantra from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a Tantra, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a Tantra, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a Tantra is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a Tantra passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a Tantra between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a Tantra, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a Tantra, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a Tantra is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a Tantra, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a Tantra is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a Tantra, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a Tantra, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a Tantra is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "people-and-responsibility", "name": "People, roles and responsibility", "description": "Who stands in what relation to a Tantra.", "rationale": "Social things are defined by the relations people hold to them, and those relations change without the thing changing.", "layers": [ { "id": "roles-and-parties", "name": "Roles and parties", "description": "The roles that exist around a Tantra and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a Tantra, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a Tantra, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a role over a Tantra, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a role over a Tantra is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ownership-and-accountability", "name": "Ownership and accountability", "description": "Who answers for a Tantra and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a Tantra sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a Tantra, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about responsibility for a Tantra, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once responsibility for a Tantra is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "legal-identity", "name": "Legal identity and mandate", "description": "What Tantra is in law and what it exists to do.", "rationale": "Legal identity survives changes of name, address, staff and premises, which is exactly why it must be recorded separately from all of them.", "layers": [ { "id": "registration", "name": "Legal form and registration", "description": "Form, register, identifiers and jurisdiction.", "findings": [ { "id": "registration-record", "name": "Registration and identifiers", "description": "What names this body unambiguously in law.", "questions": [ { "id": "registration-record-q01", "text": "What legal form does Tantra take, in which register, under which identifier?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "registration-record-q02", "text": "What survives a rename, a merger or a move of premises, and what does not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mandate", "name": "Mandate and governing instrument", "description": "The purpose it is bound to and the document that binds it.", "findings": [ { "id": "mandate-record", "name": "Mandate and its source", "description": "What it may do, and the instrument that says so.", "questions": [ { "id": "mandate-record-q01", "text": "What is the mandate of Tantra, and which founding or governing instrument grants it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "mandate-record-q02", "text": "What lies outside the mandate, and what should an agent do when asked for it?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "governance-and-membership", "name": "Governance, membership and decision rights", "description": "Who decides in Tantra and who belongs to it.", "rationale": "Authority inside an organisation is held by roles, not people, and an agent needs to know which role can commit it.", "layers": [ { "id": "decision-rights", "name": "Decision rights", "description": "Bodies, offices and what each may bind.", "findings": [ { "id": "authority-map", "name": "Who may bind the organisation", "description": "The offices that can commit it and their limits.", "questions": [ { "id": "authority-map-q01", "text": "Which bodies or offices of Tantra may take which decisions, and up to what limit?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "authority-map-q02", "text": "What evidence shows that a given person currently holds that office?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "membership", "name": "Membership and affiliation", "description": "Who counts as part of it and on what terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "membership-rules", "name": "Membership and its evidence", "description": "Classes of member, how membership starts and ends.", "questions": [ { "id": "membership-rules-q01", "text": "What kinds of membership or affiliation does Tantra have, and how does each begin and end?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "membership-rules-q02", "text": "What may a member do in its name, and what may they not?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a Tantra came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a Tantra and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a Tantra, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a Tantra, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a Tantra is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a Tantra is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a Tantra, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a Tantra, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a Tantra is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }