Tantra Art as Visual Knowledge: Collective Authorship from Lineage to Artificial Intelligence

Contemporary debates on generative artificial intelligence frequently frame AI as a disruptive force that destabilises authorship, originality, and creative agency. Such concerns are shaped by print-era epistemologies that privilege individual origination and fixed authorship. This paper reframes these debates by examining Tantra Art as visual knowledge within an Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) framework, where knowledge has historically been produced through collective transmission rather than individual artistic authorship. Drawing on Tantric visual practices—particularly yantras, ritual diagrams, and illustrated manuscripts—the study conceptualises authorship as cumulative and sustained through lineage, procedural validity, and communal accountability. In Tantra Art, authority does not derive from originary artistic intent but from correct transmission, repetition, and sanctioned variation. Through a genealogical and comparative analysis, the paper traces this visual epistemology across Tantric manuscript cultures, modern digital commons such as Wikipedia, and contemporary generative AI systems. The paper argues that generative AI represents not an epistemic rupture but a computational intensification of collective visual knowledge production. The critical shift lies in the visibility of authorship: while Tantra Art, manuscript traditions, and digital platforms preserve traceable mechanisms of validation and responsibility, AI systems aggregate visual cultures into opaque statistical models that obscure lineage and accountability. By foregrounding Tantra Art as visual knowledge, the paper offers an alternative framework for rethinking creativity, pedagogy, and ethical governance in algorithmically mediated visual environments.