This panel brings together new research on yoginīs in South Asian Tantric traditions, from early-medieval Kaula and Vajrayāna sources and classical literary theory to the Śākteya traditions of Kerala and contemporary communities associated with yoginī temples. Yoginīs have central roles in multiple Tantric traditions, which envision them as beings of power renowned for their ability to bless, reveal, empower, transform, protect and destroy. The panel explores yoginīs and related goddesses from a variety of perspectives, historical periods and regions, bringing together ethnographic and textual research. We examine yoginīs as stock figures in literary theory, as powerful goddesses ruling over locales, as bestowers of secret teachings and initiations outside of conventional textual transmission, and as powerful and charismatic women. Considering yoginīs in these diverse ways opens up new insights into the varied meanings and life-worlds of tantric goddesses.
In the seventh chapter of his Kāvyamīmāṃsā Rājaśekhara describes the different kinds of speech spoken by various celestial and mythological beings. The list includes the progeny of Brahmā, ṛṣis, vidyādharas, gandharvas, and serpents (Skt.: bhaujaṅgamam). Interestingly, another category of being is labeled yoginīgata (“abiding with yoginīs”). Rājaśekhara describes the speech of yoginīs as “a string of words with deep meaning, abounding in compounds and metaphors, and abiding within doctrine and convention.” However, who was Rājaśekhara referring to, divine mythological beings or their followers? What about human women, like Lakṣmīṅkarā? This paper will address this question by examining several texts attributed to divine female beings and teachers, will examine their style and content in light of Rājaśekhara’s comments. By so doing this paper will investigate how well an important alaṅkāraśāstra theorist was acquainted with Tantric traditions, and what insight his works might have on the style of the latter.
This paper examines the role of mother goddesses and yoginīs in the so-called Śākteya Tantra of Kerala. The traditions of the Śākteya communities in Kerala were profoundly influenced by Kashmiri Śaivism, yogic traditions and local magical cults (mantravāda). The term Śākteya refers to a constellation of interconnected traditions in Kerala centred on the worship of divine female beings and involving rituals of possession and transgressive ceremonies that have their roots in early Krama and Śrīvidyā ritualism. The paper shows the roles of the female divine beings invoked in the Śākteya traditions in Kerala and how they represent the various concepts of the power of the divine. Based on anthropological data from fieldwork in Kerala and my reading of the Śākteya paddhati manuscripts belonging to one of the tantric families from Kozhikode, the paper aims to shed more light on this complex ritual system of goddess worship.
As powerful Tantric deities, yoginis have energies far beyond their times. While they are believed to have lived in the 6th-9th centuries, evidence of their importance in contemporary times exists in various forms. Over time, yoginis have seeped into spaces of tantric as well as non-tantric practitioners, even if often unaware (while people today chant to yoginis, they are not always knowledgeable about the meaning or power behind the prayers). This presentation looks at past yoginis and their importance today. It uses several methods of understanding yogini powers: 1. Transmission of philosophy of sangha and strategy through temple architecture, texts, and importance to contemporary women’s sanghas; 2. Transmission of powers and blessings through non-tantric textual stotram chanting; 3. Ritual propitiation of yoginis in temples by locals; 4. Literature review regarding anecdotal evidence of powers of yoginis; 5. Personal experiences in the field, including documentation of “Holi” at Varanasi’s Chausanth Yogini Mandir.
This paper examines the roles of goddesses and divinized women in Shaiva Tantric revelation, focusing on the figure of the yoginī, a category bridging the divine and the human. The early goddess-centered or Shākta Bhairavatantras and later Kaula traditions transformed Shaiva conceptions of revelation, giving new roles to yoginīs and siddhas (‘perfected’ yogins) as agents of its transmission and positing the Goddess as its ultimate source. As this paper demonstrates, yoginīs’ transmission of knowledge is typically framed as the bestowal of “lineage teachings” (sampradāya): oral instruction or coded communication too esoteric to set be down in conventional textual forms.
| Sthaneshwar Timalsina | timalsin@sdsu.edu | View |