Yogini
A yogini (
A yogini, in some contexts, is the sacred feminine force made incarnate, as an aspect of Parvati, and revered in the yogini temples of India. These often revere a group of 64 yoginis, and are named as such, but can also have 42 or 81 yoginis. The names of the 64 yoginis vary in different classifications.
History
The worship of yoginis began outside
Devi
In ancient and medieval texts in
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Cloth painting of Devi with a superimposed Yogini Chakra, wheel of the 64 Yoginis. Rajasthan, 19th century.
Nath Yoga
The term yogini has been in use in medieval times for a woman who belongs to the
Tantra
Women in
64 yoginis
Characteristics
From around the 10th century, yoginis appear in groups, often of 64. They appear as goddesses, but human female adepts of
Into the late 20th century, yoginis inspired a "deep sense of fear and awe" among "average" people in India, according to the scholar Vidya Dehejia. She notes that such fear may be ancient, as the Brahmanda Purana and the Jnanarnava Tantra both warn that transmitting secret knowledge to non-initiates will incur the curse of the yoginis.[22]
Association with Matrikas
In Sanskrit literature, the yoginis have been represented as the attendants or manifestations of
Names
There is no universally-agreed list of the names of the 64 yoginis; Dehejia located and compared some 30 different lists, finding that they rarely corresponded, and that there must have been multiple traditions concerning the 64. She states that the lists can be categorised into those that include the Matrikas among the Yoginis and give the Yoginis high status, and those that do neither. The high status means that the Yoginis are either aspects of the Great Goddess Devi, or her acolytes.[25]
The
The Agni Purana does not include the Matrikas among the yoginis, but states that they are related. It divides the yoginis into 8 family groups, each one led by a Matrika, who is either the mother or another relative of each of her yoginis. [25]
The Agni Purana, the Skanda Purana and the Kalika Purana each contain two lists (namavalis) of yoginis with often wholly differing contents. The Sri Matottara Tantra tells that the Khechari Chakra and the Yogini Chakra are both circles of 64 yoginis, while the Mula Chakra has a circle of 81 and the Malini Chakra has a circle of 50.[27] The number 8 is auspicious; its square, 64, is "even more potent and efficacious".[28] In tantric texts there are supposedly 64 Agamas and Tantras, 64 Bhairavas, 64 mantras, 64 sites sacred to the Goddess (pithas), and 64 extraordinary powers (siddhis). Dehejia notes that the yoginis are closely associated with the siddhis.[28]
Temples
Yogini temples are simple compared to typical Indian temples, without the usual towers, gateways and elaborate carvings that attract scholarly attention.[22]
Major extant
The iconographies of the yogini statues in the various temples are not uniform, nor are the yoginis the same in each set of 64. In the Hirapur temple, all the yoginis are depicted with their Vahanas (animal vehicles) and in standing posture. In the Ranipur-Jharial temple the yogini images are in dancing posture. In the Bhedaghat temple, the yoginis are seated in lalitasana.[29]
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Chausathi Yogini Temple, Hirapur, Odisha, 2012. The yoginis have recently been venerated with the gift of headscarves.
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One of the Yoginis of Chausathi Yogini Temple at Hirapur, Odisha. There is an offering of flowers at the yogini's feet.
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8th-centuryChausath Yogini Temple, Morena, Madhya Pradesh
Statues
Temple images of yoginis have been made in materials including stone and bronze from at least the 9th century.
Siddhis
The goal of yogini worship, as described in both Puranas and Tantras, was the acquisition of siddhis.[35]
The Sri Matottara Tantra describes 8 major powers, as named in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, namely: Anima, becoming microscopically small, giving knowledge of how the world works; Mahima, becoming huge, able to view the whole solar system and universe; Laghima, becoming weightless, allowing levitation and astral travel away from the body; Garima, becoming very heavy and powerful; Prakamya, having an irresistible willpower, able to control the minds of others; Ishitva, controlling both body and mind and all living things; Vashitva, controlling the natural elements, such as rain, drought, volcanoes, and earthquakes; and Kamavashayita, gaining all one's desires and any treasure.[36]
The Sri Matottara Tantra lists many other more or less magical powers that devotees can obtain by invoking the yoginis correctly, from the ability to cause death, disillusion, paralysis, or unconsciousness to provocation, delightful poetry, and seduction.[37]
Practices
Wine, flesh, blood
Yogini worship, intended to yield occult powers, consisted of a set of rituals called Mahayaga. These took place in the sacred space of the circular temple, appropriate for the working of magic. The yoginis were invoked with offerings of wine, flesh, and blood. The Sri Matottara Tantra describes the yoginis delighting in and drunk upon wine; one of them is indeed named Surapriya (lover of wine). The Kularnava Tantra provides a recipe for brewing the yoginis' drink, involving dry ginger, lemon bark, black pepper, blossoms, honey and jaggery sugar in water, brewed for 12 days. The yoginis danced and drank blood and wine, according to the Brhaddharma Purana. The Kaulavali Nirnaya adds that blood and meat are needed to worship the yoginis. The sacrifice of animals, always male, is practised at Assam's Kamakhya Temple, where the 64 yoginis continue to be worshipped.[38]
Corpse rituals
Sculptures at some of the yogini temples such as Shahdol,
Maithuna
Dehejia notes that none of the yogini temples have sculptures depicting maithuna, ritual sex, nor are there any small figures in embrace carved into the pedestal of any yogini statue. All the same, she writes, it is "fairly certain" that maithuna was one of the Mahayaga rituals.[40] The Kularnava Tantra mentions "the eight and the sixty-four mithunas" (couples in embrace); and it proposes that the 64 yoginis should be portrayed "in embrace with the 64 Bhairavas" and that the resulting images should be worshipped.[40] The Jnanarnava Tantra describes the 8 Matrikas paired off (yugma yugma) with the 8 Bhairavas.[40]
The Yogini Chakra, also called the Kaula Chakra or Bhairavi Chakra, is formed as a circle (Chakra) of at least 8 people, with equal numbers of men and women. Dehejia writes that this meant that pairing was random rather than having people arriving in couples, and that this explained the careful sexual preparations in Kaula texts, such as anointing the body and touching its parts to stimulate both partners. Caste was ignored during such Chakra-puja (circle worship), all men being Shiva while in the circle, and all women being Devi, and the women of the lowest castes were thought the best suited to the role.[40]
Dehejia notes, too, that the need for "privacy and secrecy" given such practices readily explained the isolated hilltop locations of the yogini temples, well away from towns with "orthodox
David Gordon White writes that the modern practice of '"Tantric sex"' (his quotation marks) is radically different from the medieval practice.[41]
See also
- Apsara – Type of female spirit of the clouds and waters in Hindu and Buddhist culture
- Devadasi – Woman dedicated to the worship of a temple's patron god
- Vajrayogini – Tantric Buddhist female Buddha and ḍākiṇī
- Women in Hinduism – Position of women in the religious texts of Hinduism
- Yakshini – Class of nature spirits in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain religious mythologies
- Yoga for women – Yoga as exercise for and marketed to women
References
- ^ Monier-Williams, Monier. "योगिन् (yogin)". Monier-Williams Sanskrit Dictionary 1899 List. Sanskrit English Dictionary with Etymology. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
- ^ Dehejia 1986, pp. 1–10.
- ^ White 2012, p. 73-75, 132-141.
- ^ Dunn 2019.
- ^ Dehejia 1986, pp. 19–31.
- Monier-Williams, Sanskrit Dictionary (1899).
- ^ Feuerstein 2000, p. 350.
- ^ Dehejia 1986, p. 22.
- ^ White 2012, p. 8-9, 234-256, 454-467.
- ^ a b c Lorenzen & Muñoz 2012, pp. x–xi.
- ^ Lorenzen 2004, pp. 310–311.
- ^ Lorenzen & Muñoz 2012, pp. 24–25.
- ^ Gross 1993, pp. 87, 85–88.
- ^ White 2013, pp. xiii–xv.
- ^ Shaw 1994.
- ^ Hatley 2007, pp. 12–13.
- ^ Hatley 2007, pp. 13–14.
- ^ Hatley 2007, pp. 16–17.
- ^ Hatley 2007, p. 14.
- ^ Hatley 2007, p. 59.
- ^ Hatley 2007, p. 17.
- ^ a b Dehejia 1986, pp. ix–x.
- ^ a b Bhattacharyya 1996, p. 128.
- ^ Wangu 2003, p. 114.
- ^ a b Dehejia 1986, p. 187.
- ^ Dehejia 1986, p. 188.
- ^ Dehejia 1986, p. xi.
- ^ a b Dehejia 1986, p. 44.
- ^ a b Chaudhury, Janmejay (October 2004). "Origin of Tantricism and Sixty-four Yogini Cult in Orissa" (PDF). Orissa Review. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 May 2010.
- ^ Patel, C. B. (August 2004). "Monumental Efflorescence of Ranipur-Jharial" (PDF). Orissa Review: 41–44. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 30, 2007.
- ^ Jabalpur district official website – about us Archived August 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Chausath Yogini Temple – Site Plan, Photos and Inventory of Goddesses Archived April 17, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Ekattarso Mahadeva Temple". Archaeological Survey of India. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
- ^ Dehejia 1986, pp. 91–144.
- ^ Dehejia 1986, pp. 53–66.
- ^ Dehejia 1986, pp. 53–54.
- ^ Dehejia 1986, p. 54.
- ^ Dehejia 1986, pp. 56–58.
- ^ Dehejia 1986, pp. 58–61.
- ^ a b c d e Dehejia 1986, pp. 62–64.
- ^ White 2006, p. xiii.
Works cited
- Bhattacharyya, Narendra Nath (1996) [1974]. History of the Sakta Religion (2nd ed.). Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers. ISBN 978-8121507134.
- National Museum, Janpath, New Delhi.
- Dunn, Laura M. (2019). "Yoginīs in the Flesh: Power, Praxis, and the Embodied Feminine Divine". Journal of Dharma Studies. 1 (2). Springer: 287–302. S2CID 151147589.
- Feuerstein, Georg (2000). The Shambhala Encyclopedia of Yoga. Shambhala Publications.
- Gross, Rita (1993). Buddhism After Patriarchy. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0791414033.
- Hatley, Shaman (2007). The Brahmayāmalatantra and Early Śaiva Cult of Yoginīs. University of Pennsylvania (PhD Thesis, UMI Number: 3292099). pp. 1–459.
- Lorenzen, David (2004). Religious Movements in South Asia, 600-1800. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195664485.
- Lorenzen, David N.; Muñoz, Adrián (2012). Yogi Heroes and Poets: Histories and Legends of the Naths. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-1438438900.
- Shaw, Miranda (1994). Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism. Princeton University Press.
- Wangu, Madhu Bazaz (2003). Images of Indian Goddesses. Abhinav Publications. ISBN 978-8170174165.
- ISBN 978-0226149349.
- White, David Gordon (2013). Tantra in Practice. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-8120817784.
- White, David Gordon (2006) [2003]. Kiss of the Yogini: 'Tantric Sex' in its South Asian Contexts. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226894843.
Further reading
- Brown, Cheever Mackenzie (1998). The Devi Gita: The Song of the Goddess: A Translation, Annotation, and Commentary. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-3939-5.
- Chopra, Shambhavi (2006). Yogini: Unfolding the Goddess Within. Wisdom Tree Press. ISBN 978-8183280358.
- Johnsen, Linda (1994). Daughters of the Goddess: The Women Saints of India. Yes International Publishing. ISBN 978-0936663098.
- McDaniel, June (2004). Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls: Popular Goddess Worship in West Bengal. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-534713-5.
External links
Media related to Yogini at Wikimedia Commons