Tantra slowly declined in India by the sixteenth century, with the rise of devotional religion (bhakti) and the influence of Islam, though some tantras have been written since that period. Tantra slowly became more popular, with a flourishing of texts during the tenth to fourteenth centuries. The earliest Hindu Shakta tantric texts in India date from about the sixth to seventh centuries c.e. Specific forms or emanations of the goddess are understood to act as the devotee’s personal goddess or spiritual guide, called the Ishtadevi. This form of Shaktism was influenced by the devotional (bhakti) tradition and emphasizes love of the goddess. Other forms of Shaktism focus on a particular goddess, who becomes the creator of the universe and the savior of souls. She is considered to be simultaneously the source of all creation, its embodiment, and the energy that animates and governs it, and that into which everything will ultimately return.

Some Shaktas (the followers of Shakti) generally understand the Goddess to be the supreme, ultimate, eternal reality of all existence, much like the concept of brahman (ultimate and unconditioned consciousness) in the Hindu Vedanta tradition. Goddess worship developed as a form or sect of Hinduism, today called Shaktism. This goddess is Devi or Shakti, who was later understood to take the form of other goddesses, such as Sarasvati, Lakshmi, Durga and Parvati. This text is variously dated from about 1500 b.c.e. The Devi Sukta hymn of the Rig Veda describes a goddess (devi) who creates the world without any other higher being, and who exists as infinite and eternal consciousness. Goddess worship in India is very old, and there are statues that appear to archaeologists to show goddess worship dating from about 7000–6000 b.c.e. Tantras often focused on Hindu deities, and the tantras that developed within the Hindu Shakta tradition focused on Shakti, as the cosmic feminine power. Meditation (dhyana) in Tantra makes use of visualization, and a popular form of visualization involves the ritual purification of the person and environment and the placement of deities within the body (nyasa).

Typical tantric techniques include the use of mantras (sacred words), mudras (symbolic hand positions), yantras (visual images, often in geometrical patterns, which act as maps of the inner worlds found through meditation), puja (ritual worship), and diksha (initiation) by a teacher (guru).

A tantrika is a person who follows the ideas and rituals described in these texts. Tantra can include a set of methods, techniques, and systems, leading to a religious goal. Later tantric ideas have traditionally been secret, and Tantra has often been an underground form of religiosity within the broad and diverse religious tradition that came to be known as Hinduism. Its earliest use is in the Vedic texts, referring to a model or theory. The etymological origin of the term is from the Sanskrit word for weaving and loom, thus ideas that are woven together. The term tantra originally referred to a set of texts, and the word was later broadened to include the ideas described in those texts. The history of Shakta Tantra has been much debated. Twentieth century: New forms of Hindu Shakta Tantra developed, influenced by Rajneesh (1931–1990), later known as Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh and then Osho, who taught a syncretic form of Hindu Tantra and began to attract devotees in both India and in the West. Sixteenth century and onward: Hindu Shakta Tantra slowly declined by the sixteenth century, with the rise of devotional religion (bhakti), though some tantras have been written since that period. Tenth to fourteenth centuries: Tantra slowly became more popular in India, with a flourishing of additional texts. Sixth to seventh centuries c.e.: The earliest Hindu Shakta tantric texts were composed in India.

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