Tantra is the [[w:Asia}Asian]] body of beliefs and practices which, working from the principle that the universe we experience is nothing other than … - David Gordon White

Tantra emerged out of South Asian elite and popular mainstream some time in the middle of the first millennium C.E.

The energy levels of the Tantric universe are generally represented as a set of concentric circles (cakras) of hypostasized forms of the divine energy which, in addition to appearing as an array of divine enlightened, perfected , demonic, human or animal beings, also manifest themselves on an acoustic level, as garlands or piled-up aggregates of phonemes (mantras), on a graphic level, as the written characters of the hieratic alphabets and as the hierarchized cakras of the yogi body.

The theory and practice of the Tantric mandala operates on a mesocosmic level , that is, on the level of a mediating template between protocosm and metacosm as well as between macrocosm and microcosm.