The Roots of the Two Sides of Kāmākhyā: The Blending of Sex and Death in Tantra

2020, Religions of South Asia

The shrine of Kāmākhyā (Assam) was supposed to be the eminent yoginī-pīṭha. Inside the sanctum of Kāmākhyā a yoni (vulva) stone is concealed as the main cultic image of the Goddess, which Kaulism identified as the ‘mouth of the yoginīs’. This article analyses the symbolism related to the Tantric cult of the yoni and its historical evolution through the combined lens of History of Religions and Cognitive Science of Religions. Kāmākhyā thus emerges as a hyper-blended space, whose origin should be tracked down to the intersection of death symbolism related to the non-Brahmanic cult of Heruka and his retinue of yoginīs and the Kaula erotic reformation of the cult of the yoginīs. Therefore, the yoginīs played a fundamental role in the construction of Kāmākhyā—as either a caring mother or as a dreadful mother—conveying other blended spaces to the yoni metonymic symbol. Hence, this article aims, through the analysis and interrelation of textual, epigraphic and material evidence, to debate the dialectic between eros and thanatos in order to shed light on the overlap, superimposition and blend of trans- and cross-cultural elements in the multifarious goddess Kāmākhyā.

Religions of South Asia 14.1–2 (2020) 87–116 https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.19324 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 ISSN (print) 1751-2689 ISSN (online) 1751-2697 The Roots of the Two Sides of Kāmākhyā: The Blending of Sex and Death in Tantra PAOLO E. ROSATI1 Independent scholar Rome Italy paoloe.rosati@gmail.com ABSTRACT: The shrine of Kāmākhyā (Assam) was supposed to be the eminent yoginī-pīṭha. Inside the sanctum of Kāmākhyā a yoni (vulva) stone is concealed as the main cultic image of the Goddess, which Kaulism identified as the ‘mouth of the yoginīs’. This article analyses the symbolism related to the Tantric cult of the yoni and its historical evolution through the combined lens of History of Religions and Cognitive Science of Religions. Kāmākhyā thus emerges as a hyper-blended space, whose origin should be tracked down to the intersection of death symbolism related to the non-Brahmanic cult of Heruka and his retinue of yoginīs and the Kaula erotic reformation of the cult of the yoginīs. Therefore, the yoginīs played a fundamental role in the construction of Kāmākhyā—as either a caring mother or as a dreadful mother—conveying other blended spaces to the yoni metonymic symbol. Hence, this article aims, through the analysis and interrelation of textual, epigraphic and material evidence, to debate the dialectic between eros and thanatos in order to shed light on the overlap, superimposition and blend of trans- and cross-cultural elements in the multifarious goddess Kāmākhyā. KEYWORDS: conceptual blend, CSR, Heruka/Hevajra, hyper-blend, Kaula, yoginī, yoni. We can investigate and analyze some of the most interesting domains of human experience using insights and methods from cognitive science. (Hayes and Timalsina 2016: 4) 1. Paolo E. Rosati obtained a PhD in Asian and African Studies (South Asia section) from Sapienza University of Rome, defending a thesis on the yoni cult of Kāmākhyā. Paolo’s main field of research is the medieval and pre-colonial development of Assamese Tantra, applying modern social theories. He is co-editing with Andrea Acri a volume provisionally entitled Tantra, Folk Religion, and Magic: Experiences, Practices, and Practitioners at the ‘Margins’ of Monsoon Asia. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021, Office 415, The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield S1 2BX 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 88 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 PAOLO E. ROSATI INTRODUCTION Today, Kāmākhyā is worshipped as the Mother Goddess of Assam by Hindus and tribespeople.2 During the Ambuvācī melā, when her menstrual cycle is celebrated for three days every year in the monsoon season (June or July), a crowd of śākta, Tantric, non-Tantric and tribal devotees reach her shrine on top of Nīlācala, in the Brahmaputra valley, to pray to Kāmākhyā and obtain her favours (Fig. 1). Figure 1: Possibly, the menstruating Earth goddess, Kāmākhyā temple (outer northern wall). Photograph by Paolo E. Rosati, 2016. 2. During the Middle Ages, Assam was part of the kingdom of Kāmarūpa (having the form of desire), which geographically covered most of what is today known as northeastern India, and part of Bhutan and of Bangladesh. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 THE ROOTS OF THE TWO SIDES OF KĀMĀKHYĀ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 89 Her earthly abode is Nīlācala (Nīlakūṭa), ‘the blue mountain’ (KP 62.1), also renowned as Kāmagiri, ‘the mountain of love-making’; there, Śiva and Satī secretly make love (KP 62.73b–85a), after the Goddess was dismembered by the gods, and her yoni (vulva) had fallen onto its peak, turning the mountain blue (KP 62.57). The sacred zone of the Goddess’s womb at Kāmākhyā is the site of the auspicious Tripurabhairavī [KP 74.93b–98a]. It is the best of hallowed places in this earthy realm, and here Mahāmāyā dwells. There is no better place on earth than here, where every month the Goddess herself resides during her menses. All the deities of that place have assumed the form of mountains. Even the great deities dwell within those mountains. The whole earth there is the very essence of the Goddess, so think the wise. There is no better dwelling place than this sacred zone of the womb at Kāmākhyā. (Devībhāgavatapurāṇa 7.38.15–18, trans. Brown 2002: 105, diacritics added) It can be observed that a deep symbolism is enclosed in the textual sources devoted to the worship of the goddess Kāmākhyā, whose cult is closely related both to Śiva and to Kāma. Śiva not only is the inseparable lover of Kāmākhyā, but was the one who burned Kāma, from whose ashes Nīlācala was made (KP 62.89).3 The yoni-stone is concealed inside the garbhagṛha (‘womb-house’, sanctum) of the shrine of Kāmākhyā, and is worshipped as the source of the whole universe (Yoginītantra 1.15.52). This chamber is an obscure and claustrophobic place, located a few meters below ground level. The grotto was variously described in medieval Sanskrit literature,4 such as the ‘manobhavaguhā’ (cave of Kāma) (KP 63.8–9a), the ‘kāmākhye girikandare’ (the cave of the mountain of Kāmākhyā) (Devīpurāṇa 39.5cd), and the ‘yonigarta’ (recess of the yoni) (Yonitantra 4.2). The Umāchal Rock inscription (470–94 ce)5 confirms the presence of a sacred ‘guhā’ on Nīlācala (l. 4), which was constructed by king Surendravarman (who was identified with Mahendravarman [450–85 ce]) (ll. 1–2) to worship ‘valabhadrasvāmināya’ (Lord Valabhadra) (l. 3), probably a 3. 4. 5. The madana-bhasma (incineration of Kāma) myth is a Purāṇic adaptation of some Vedic mythologems. More specifically, the Kālikāpurāṇa underlines sexual and death symbols in connection with Nīlācala and with the Goddess’s yoni. Kāma, however, played a different role from Vedas to Purāṇas (Doniger 1973: 141–73). In the Vedic time, he provoked the desire of Brahmā/Prajāpati and, consequently, his incest with his daughter, an action that caused his curse and incineration by Śiva (Rosati 2016). In this study the period between the fourth and the twelfth century is described as the early medieval period, while from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century is described as the late medieval period. This division was pointed out by the historian Jae-Eun Shin (2010). ‘mahārājādhirāja śṛī | surendravarmanā kṛtam | bhagavataḥ valabhadra | svāmināya idaṃ guhaṃ’ (Sharma 1978: 2). The name Valabhadra (i.e. Balabhadra) is an evidence of the link between the early Varman kings and the Vaiṣṇava cult in the early phase of Varman kingdom. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 90 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 PAOLO E. ROSATI form of Viṣṇu or a hero associated with the cave during the Varman period (Sharma 1978: 2–3). To access this womb-like chamber, the devotees have to climb down more than a hundred steps as a metaphoric descent into the underworld (Rosati 2017a: 9–10). There, from a cleft in the yoni-stone, a water stream oozes out, completely submerging the sacred rock, as a metaphoric replica of its yonitattva.6 This symbolic representation of a yoni, covered and surrounded by her sexual fluids, is reinforced during the Ambuvācī melā. In that period, the water acquires a reddish colour, thus representing the menstrual blood of Kāmākhyā. This phenomenon is explained through the interaction of the rainfall during the monsoon season and the hematite in the rocks; nevertheless, the worshippers believe it is the menstrual blood of the Goddess, who gives back her śakti (energy) to earth once every year. According to the medieval texts, the yoni is inhabited by Kāmākhyā (KP 62.75; Kāmākhyātantra 1.4), but she also pervades the water. She exists, indeed, in the form of red water (‘raktapānīyarūpiṇī’ [Yoginītantra 1.11.37a]).7 The goddess Kāmākhyā is thus not only indissolubly linked to the fluidity of water and blood, but combines in her identity fluid and dry elements: [w]e may say that fluid essence is one of the most archaic and universal features of the sacred, closely linked to Mother Earth, whose very nature is arid and dry because through her monthly menstruation she loses her generative power and so needs to reintegrate it constantly by absorbing liquids … The earth is the Mother, the source that produces and sustains life in all its forms, but her initial sacrifice to generate life needs in turn to be nourished in order to grant vitality to all. (Lussana 2015: 76) Kāmākhyā is fluid like water/blood, but at the same time she is arid like stone/earth. She is thus transcendent and immanent at the same time. She maintains her fluidity, after losing it through her menstrual blood, by being nourished by her devotees through the blood of male sacrificial victims. Today, blood offerings are replaced by offerings of fruit and vegetables in a right-hand Tantra exotericization of the ritual praxis (Urban 2010: 167–72) inside the garbhagṛha.8 Among the offerings, coconuts and their milk are very common, as metaphoric substitutes for the ritual victims’ heads and their 6. 7. 8. The yonitattva is both the sexual fluids produced in the vulva through sexual stimulation and the menstrual blood (Aktor 2016: 97). In the Sanskrit tradition, the association between motherhood and water (ap, a feminine noun) is corroborated since the Vedic period. Indeed, the rivers—who are usually considered female—are the ones that fertilize the earth as well as transform everything (Lussana 2015: 73–74). Nevertheless, the greatest river of Assam, the Brahmaputra (son of Brahmā) is one of the few examples of a male river. Today, blood sacrifices are confined outside the main temple and may be considered a left-hand Tantra exotericization of the ancient ritual tradition, when animals and human beings were slaughtered in cremation grounds as well as in secret places. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 THE ROOTS OF THE TWO SIDES OF KĀMĀKHYĀ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 91 bone marrow—which the head-hunting tribes of northeastern India closely related to ‘heroism’, ‘manhood’ and power (Zou 2005: 89–90). Therefore, the non-bloody offerings performed inside the garbhagṛha maintain a memory of the past, a feature that has been observed in many other traditions: Traces of the past, however, survive in diverse linguistic and ideological forms, and local people themselves add a new dimension to the custom when they creatively appropriate and translate their historical heritage of headhunting into an evocative metaphor of modern practices. (Zou 2005: 76–77) Kāmākhyā lives on Nīlācala with her retinue of sixty-four yoginīs, a band of dreadful goddesses, who appeared in the Hevajratantra (1.7.10–19), a Buddhist text belonging to the middle of the ninth century (Szántó 2012: 14), as dreadful deities connected to blood sacrifices and graveyards.9 They are well described by David White (2006: 3–4) as hungry deities, angry and thirsty for human flesh and blood. Their origin is traced back to the Purāṇic mātṛs (mothers) who appeared in the sixth to eighth centuries ce Devīmāhātmya (‘mātṛgaṇa’ [8.39], ‘mātṛ’ [8.49], ‘mātṛgaṇa’ [8.62]), or to the sixth to seventh centuries Bṛhatsaṃhitā (‘viśvasya mātarah’ [47.68], ‘mātṛgaṇa’ [57.56], ‘mātṝṇām’ [59.19]).10 The Kālikāpurāṇa (54.35–45; 63.37–43) preserves two lists of sixty-four yoginīs, who are described as ‘attendants’ of Kāmākhyā, who reside in her ‘maṇḍala’ (KP 54.34; 63.44), which is identified with the yoni. The superimposition and blending between Kāmākhyā and the concept of yoginī is reinforced through the inclusion of the name of Dikkaravāsinī among the yoginīs, who is identified as the dreadful form of Kāmākhyā (KP 54.36a).11 The Kālikāpurāṇa merged the cult of these dangerous and powerful deities with the yoni cult. The text explains that eight of the sixty-four yoginīs— Guptakāmā, Śrīkāmā, Vindhyavāsinī, Koṭīśvarī, Vanasthā, Pādadurgā, Dīrgheśvarī and Bhuvaneśvarī—surround the goddess Kāmākhyā. They live in pīṭhas (seats) that are ‘all in the form of water’ (jalarūpāṇi KP 62.91–95, trans. B. Shastri 459–60). When the yoni of Satī fell on earth it broke into pieces, each of which originated a different yoginī (KP 62.74–75; particularly see Shin 2010: 16). This group of dreadful deities is thus linked either to the (aquatic) water’s fluidity or to (earthy) stone’s aridity—in fact their origin is connected to the yoni which fell on Nīlācala; furthermore, according to 9. Among these places—which were presided by the yoginīs—were pīṭhas, upapīṭhas and sandohas. This terminology is also preserved in the KjN (8.4–6, 16–17, 24–25). This fact could be considered to better understand the connection between Buddhist yoginīs and their ‘seats’ and the probably later Hindu-Tantric tradition. 10. Regarding the date of the Devīmāhātmya, see Yokochi (1999: 71), and particularly 91n1. 11. The goddess Dikkaravāsinī has two different identifications: one of her forms is tīkṣṇakāntā (‘fond of cruelty’; (Monier-Williams 1960: 448) (KP 80.36b–39), the other is lalitakāntā (‘playful beloved’) (80.52–54a). © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 92 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 PAOLO E. ROSATI popular belief the yoni-stone is a meteoritic one, although this cannot be confirmed by any scientific analysis. Kāmākhyā is therefore an ambivalent goddess; she is described in texts as either a lovely and caring mother or a dreadful and dangerous mother. What elements stand at the origin of the cult of Kāmākhyā? Why and how were they integrated within her religious universe? Combining textual and epigraphic evidence with Cognitive Science of Religions (CSR), this paper aims to shed light on the heterogeneous and contrasting factors which were blended in the construction of the Tantric Mother Goddess of Assam and her metonymic symbol par excellence—the yoni. A LONG-STANDING QUESTION: ‘WHO IS KĀMĀKHYĀ?’ The first comprehensive study on the goddess Kāmākhyā focused on the ‘fusion of Aryan and Primitive Beliefs of Assam’ (Kakati 1989). Since then, both the concept of Indo-Aryan as an ethnic homogeneous group (Bryant 2001) and that of a dichotomic division and interaction between the Brahmanic people and the local cultures have become outdated (Rosati 2016, 2017a, 2017b).12 Furthermore, in the last decades, local, tribal and oral-based cultures of South Asia are no longer described as primitive, illiterate, minor, low, or little societies (as they were by Redfield 1955, 1956: 60; Singer 1955). Also the sociological model termed ‘Sanskritization’ (Srinivas 1952), which describes the attempt of the local tradition ‘to acquire the traditional symbols of high status’ (p. 30), has been dismissed as ‘a concept too vague and ambiguous for analytic or descriptive utility’, that ‘leads to inaccurate and misleading assumptions concerning the social history of modern India’ (Carroll 1977: 366). Ronald Davidson (2002) supposed that there was an ‘aggressive Hinduisation’13 of the tribespeople during ‘the early medieval time’ (p. 225), a process, however, that has no evidence in early medieval Kāmarūpa (Rosati 2017a: 4), where universalization processes have collaborated and clashed with the process of parochialization (see Marriott 1955: 181–200). Therefore, describing the cult of Kāmākhyā as the result of an interaction between Brahmanic and local or tribal traditions is an oversimplification. 12. Indeed, Indo-Aryan is not an ethnic but a linguistic group. At the same time, medieval northeastern India was a cradle of various linguistic groups belonging to the Indo-Aryan, Mon-Khmer, Tibeto-Burmese and Austroasiatic linguistic families. Each of these groups had its own sub-groups and its own socio-cultural and religious traditions. However, intermingling and exogamic links between these groups cannot be denied, and ethnic purity can be labelled as an absurdity. 13. The term ‘Hinduization’ emphasises that kṣatriyas (i.e. warrior and/or royal class) as well as brāhmaṇas (sacerdotal class), influenced the Sanskritization process (Eschmann 1986: 79–80). © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 THE ROOTS OF THE TWO SIDES OF KĀMĀKHYĀ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 93 However, most scholars who are involved in the study of Kāmākhyā have identified her as a multicultural deity, who was constructed through the interrelation and dialectic of pan-Indian, Vedic-Brahmanic, Hindu-Purāṇic and non-Brahmanic elements (Borkataky-Varma 2019: 181–82; Dold 2004: 90; Shin 2010; Urban 2001, 2010; Rosati 2016, 2017a, 2017b, 2018a, 2018b).14 Nevertheless, all the evidence inferred from texts, inscriptions and sculptural remains pinpoints Kāmākhyā as a Tantric goddess, who is part of the heterodox folds of Brahmanism. Most of the information regarding the goddess Kāmākhyā and her yoni cult is preserved (1) in a group of śākta Purāṇas and Tantras compiled in northeastern India between the ninth and sixteenth centuries ce;15 (2) in a series of inscriptions belonging to the medieval period;16 and (3) in some sculptural remains which are identified as representations of the yoginīs. NARAKA AND THE CULT OF KĀMĀKHYĀ The mytho-history of Kāmākhyā began when Naraka defeated the Kirātas and founded the kingdom of Kāmarūpa (KP 38.104–124),17 which lay in the Brahmaputra plain up to the forests of Nagaland (Shin 2018).18 After that, he 14. In contrast to this trans- and cross-cultural analysis of the Tantric cult of Kāmākhyā, Gavin Flood (2006: 14) and Christian Wedemeyer (2012: 20–30) consider Tantra, in all its manifestations, as a primary Brahmanic religious development, finding themselves unable to trace any tribal or non-Brahmanic element in Tantra. 15. The sources can be divided into early medieval texts (Hevajratantra, Kulacūḍāmaṇitantra, KjN, KP) and late medieval ones (Devībhāgavatapurāṇa, Yoginītantra, Yonitantra). 16. See the edition of Assamese ancient and medieval inscriptions edited, translated and annotated by Mukunda M. Sharma (1978). 17. According to the Epic and Purāṇic tradition, Naraka was the founder of the Bhauma (‘son of the Earth’) dynasty, a mytho-historical line of kings of Kāmarūpa. He was succeeded by his son Bhagadatta, followed by his grandson (or younger son) Vajradatta. Only in the middle of the fourth century ce do we have evidence of a historical king, Puṣyavarman, who ascended the throne of Kāmarūpa after Naraka’s family ruled for three thousand years (Shin 2018: 27). 18. J. E. Shin (2018: 26–30; 41–46) enquired whether Kāmarūpa was part of ‘Āryāvarta’ or not. Indeed, Kāmarūpa was categorized in the Allahabad pillar of Samudragupta (middle of the fourth century ce) as ‘the land of frontier kings’, who had negotiations with the Gupta empire. According to Shin, it cannot be certain that Kāmarūpa belonged to Āryāvarta, considering that many socio-cultural, political and religious traditions cooperated in the formation of this regional entity. The association of Kāmarūpa with Āryāvarta is nationalist contestation of the colonial description of Assam as a peripheral land related with religious esoterism. However, the discourse is far more complex; as Shin (pp. 40–41) pointed out, following the KP and the Yoginītantra accounts, within Kāmarūpa there was an area more influenced by Brahmanism, and an eastern offshoot far more subjected to indigenous traditions. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 94 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 PAOLO E. ROSATI adopted the Kirāta cult of Kāmākhyā into the Brahmanic fold, placing the local cult of Śambhu (Śiva) in the background (KP 38.158).19 [Viṣṇu:] O my son [Naraka]! You shall not worship any other goddess except the great goddess Kāmākhyā, the mother of the world, who is none else than Mahāmāyā, Ambikā. Acting otherwise you shall die, therefore, O Naraka! Adhere to the promise with great care. (KP 38.149–50, trans. B. Shastri 2008: 247) The link between Kāmākhyā and Naraka underlines a first aspect of the Goddess, as far more related to the Earth goddess and the Vaiṣṇava tradition than to the Śaiva.20 Kāmākhyā, indeed, is Yoganidrā,21 who is no other than Mahāmāyā, ‘the Goddess of Great Illusion’ (Biernacki 2007: 3). Yoganidrā, the great goddess, the source of the world, who has merged at the feet of Satī at Devīkūṭa, is known as Mahābhāgā. The goddess Yoganidrā is known as Kātyāyanī at Uddīyāna, as Kāmākhyā, the protean (who assumes shape at will) in Kāmarūpa, as Pūrṇeśvarī in Pūrṇagiri, as Caṇḍī on the mountain of Jālandhara and as Dikkarāvasinī at the east end of Kāmarūpa, who is also called Lalita-Kāntā. (KP 18.48–50, trans. B. Shastri 2008: 98–99) Therefore, Kāmākhyā is ‘kāmarūpiṇī’,22 ‘the one who can assume any shape at will’ (39.17–20, trans. B. Shastri 2008: 250). This shape-shifting power is also associated with Bhūmi (Earth goddess), who is described as māyāmanuṣarūpiṇī, a goddess who can assume ‘the human form with her illusory power’ (KP 38.38, trans. B. Shastri 2008: 239; see also KP 18.49). This power of shape-shifting, therefore, emerges as a fundamental one, and is related to the Goddesses presiding over the śakti pīṭhas (seats of power).23 Naraka was the son of Bhūmi and Varāha (boar),24 who had had intercourse when the Earth was menstruating. The story is summarised as a rape in the Kālikāpurāṇa, narrating that Varāha ‘raped the licentious Pṛthvī 19. However, the cult of Śiva was prominent among the Kirātas (KP 38.101), leading us to suppose an extremely variegated non-Brahmanic tradition in the South Asian autochthonous religious substratum. 20. It is corroborated by the fact that in the Devīpurāṇa (39.5cd), the son of the earth (bhauma) is said to worship a goddess (devīṃ) on the mountain of Kāmākhyā (kāmākhye girikandare). 21. The sleep of Viṣṇu, when he was lying on the coils of the cosmic snake Ananta (endless), is called yoganidrā (waking-sleep). 22. A power that is associated also with Satī, the former wife of Śiva and with the yoginīs (KP 9.47). 23. Previously, the power of shape-shifting was associated to the mātṛgaṇa (band of mothers) (Mahābhārata 9.45.29–40a), a type of deities associated with caves, mountains, trees and graveyards. According to Jae-Eun Shin (2010–11: 49), the mātṛgaṇas mirrored ‘a myriad of autochthonous and non-Vedic goddesses’ who were categorized in the early Sanskrit Epic without any agreement as to their number. 24. Varāha, an avatāra (descent) that Viṣṇu assumed to save the Earth goddess from the abyss of the cosmic ocean (Viṣṇupurāṇa 1.4, see pp. 57–61). On the other hand, the Devībhāgavatapurāṇa © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 THE ROOTS OF THE TWO SIDES OF KĀMĀKHYĀ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 95 [i.e. Bhūmi] in the water in the past, and as she was in her menstruation period she conceived a terrible embryo’ (KP 29.13, trans. B. Shastri 2008: 187). Therefore, this dangerous physical condition of the Earth goddess contaminated Varāha, ‘[t] he body of mine had been contaminated for having sexual intercourse with a woman in her period of menstruation’ (KP 30.34, trans. B. Shastri 2008: 193) as well as their son Naraka, who was thus perceived as an asura (anti-god). The ambivalent and dangerous identity of Naraka is also summarized in the Dubi Copper Plates of Bhāskaravarman (v. 2): One who, in the days of yore, in the form of a boar out of compassion recovered the lost Earth for the stability of the people and put the same in his mouth, begot a superior son, Naraka by name, who was powerful enough even to torment the ambrosia-drinking gods and who was all powerful on earth being the king of kings. (Trans. Sharma 1978: 20) Menstrual blood is, indeed, either a polluting substance or an auspicious one. It is powerful and sacred, encompassing both auspicious and inauspicious aspects but exclusively neither one nor the other (Appfel-Marglin 1985: 40–44). Hence, menstrual blood well fits the kingship’s need for a type of power that could not be manipulated by anyone without risk—an element that influenced the need of a Tantric specialist or the need of the king to become well-versed in the Tantric rituals. Naraka, being the first mytho-historical king of Assam, well-synthesized the image of the Tantric king. Naraka (hell) was found by his stepfather, Janaka, lying and crying inside a human skull (KP 37.48–51)—a replica of the skull-cup used by Tantric adepts for drinking blood or other prohibited liquids, such as alcohol. This symbolism also traces a connection between the Assamese medieval kingship and the world of dead spirits. The syncretic amalgam of Vaiṣṇava ideology with local and tribal female deities has been observed in many regional contexts of South Asia (Tiwari 2002: 128); in fact, a stratification of local, non-Brahmanic, Vaiṣṇava, Śaiva and śākta strands is a shared element among the Hindu deities (Erndl 1993: 43–44). However, for Śaivism it was far easier to blend with tribal and local traditions because of ‘its popular character’ (Bhattacharyya 1974: 73). The Cult of the Yoginīs and Its Intersection with the Goddess Kāmākhyā If we are to look for the origins of the yoginīs, it appears that we must turn to the simple village cults and to the grāma devatās ... These village goddesses seem to have been gradually transformed and consolidated into the … sixty-four [yoginīs] … It was tantrism that elevated these local deities … The philosophy, rituals and cults of (9.9.42–45) narrates that from the union of Varāha and the Earth goddess was born the planet Mars. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 96 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 PAOLO E. ROSATI these deities along with others that were originally non-Brahmanical, were brought together under the rubric Tantra and thus given legitimacy in later Hinduism. (Dehejia 1986: 1–2, italics added) The other and more dangerous aspect of the goddess Kāmākhyā derived from her association with the dreadful band of yoginīs. Their roots are often traced back to outside the mainstream Indian religions, more specifically to both the mātṛgaṇas who were crystallised in the group of the saptamātṛs (seven mothers) around the middle or the end of the sixth century ce (Shin 2010–11: 59–62), and the grāmadevatās (village goddesses) (Dehejia 1986: 68). Shaman Hatley (2014) questions the existence of a relevant process of absorption of local goddesses within Kaulism. Nevertheless, he considers possible a link between local cults and yoginīs in an earlier stage: It does appear possible that Yoginī temples incorporated local deities into their iconic programs,25 but in no case has this been demonstrated to be a significant process. Some Yoginīs who have been singled out as ‘local’ deities on the basis of non-Sanskrit names … are in fact also attested in the pan-regional tantric literature in Sanskrit. Tribal and local traditions might have been significant to the Yoginī cult, but if these were formative influences, they should be looked for in the early Śiva and Buddhist esoteric traditions, given the apparent chronology of evidence, for tantric worship of Yoginīs appears to predate the temples by at least two centuries … Without more evidence, it is therefore difficult to concur in the view that the Yoginīs enshrined in temples ‘represent’, as Donaldson [2002: 2.658; cf. Dehejia 1986: 93–94] suggests, ‘localized cult traditions of village deities that eventually were transformed into potent groups of sixty-four yoginīs’. (Hatley 2014: 209–10) However, it seems that Hatley does not totally deny an origin of the yoginīs outside the mainstream religions of South Asia, but it has to be looked for into the intersection of local and tribal cultures with Tantric Buddhism and the Vidyāpīṭha tradition. The association of the yoginīs with Bhairava (Śiva) as well as with the sexual practices of Kaulism is a cultic development of the Vidyāpīṭha, in which ‘the Kāpālika culture of the cremation grounds’ was ‘pervasive’ (Sanderson 1988: 670). The Yoginī cult, like the main cults of entry into the Vidyāpīṭha, was the speciality of skull-bearing ascetics removed from conventional society. It might reasonably have been expected to remain so but for Kaulism. This movement within esoteric Śaivism decontaminated the mysticism of the Kāpālikas so that it flowed into the wider community of married householders … Kaulism developed from within these Yoginī cults … In the cults of Vidyāpīṭha the propitiation of the deities involved sexual intercourse with dūtī [consort]. This practice continued in Kaulism. Indeed it moves to the very centre of the cult. However while its principal purpose in the Vidyāpīṭha was to produce the power-substances needed to gratify the deities, here 25. It is necessary to point out here that the temples of the yoginīs in South Asia are dated no earlier than the ninth or tenth century. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 THE ROOTS OF THE TWO SIDES OF KĀMĀKHYĀ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 97 the ritual of copulation is aestheticised … The Kāpālika of the Vidyāpīṭha sought the convergence of the Yoginīs and his fusion with them (yoginīmelaka, -melāpa) through a process of visionary invocation in which he would attract them out of the sky, gratify them with an offering of blood drawn from his own body, and ascend with them into the sky as the leader of their band. The Kaulas translated this visionary fantasy into the aesthetic terms of mystical experience. The Yoginīs became the deities of his senses (karaṇeśvarīs), revelling in his sensations. (Sanderson 1988: 679–80) Hence, in the tenth–eleventh century, with the Kaula reformation, sexual intercourse in relation to the worship of the yoginīs assumed a central position in the ritual praxis, while the cremation ground was a subsidiary element. What we do know regarding the cult of the yoginīs is that when it was integrated within the Kaula tradition, through its systematization in the Kaulajñānanirṇaya (ninth to eleventh century), the yoni pūjā (worship of the vulva) was upraised to ‘the “primal sacrifice” (ādiyāga)—one of the six types of “clan sacrifice” (kulayāga)—and Tantric initiation’ in Kaulism (White 2006: 106). In fact, the transmission of the gnosis could take place through the vaktrādvaktram, ‘mouth to mouth’ transmission (KjN 18.22b).26 Thus, the yoginī transmitted the gnosis through their sexual fluids from their nether mouth to the practitioner’s mouth in a ritual called rajapāna (White 2006: 106).27 This mystic-erotic practice was founded on the consumption of female sexual fluids from ‘the mouth of the yoginī’ (Tantrāloka 29.122a–26a, 127b– 28b; Kāmākhyātantra 4.22), the vulva, source of both gnosis and inestimable powers (siddhis). According to a northeastern Sanskrit tradition, the master who founded the Kaula sect, around the beginning of the tenth century, was Matsyendranātha,28 who learnt the doctrine from Bhairavī in a circle of yoginīs in Kāmarūpa (KjN 16.21–22). Hugh Urban (2010: 41) identified some sculptural representations of female goddesses, belonging to the early medieval period, scattered around Nīlācala, with a retinue of yoginīs (ibid.: 205 n. 43). The fact that a considerable number of sculptures of yoginīs (Fig. 2) was found on Nīlācala reinforces the connection of their cult with the cult of the yoni of Kāmākhyā. 26. Furthermore, the ‘Kaulika Knowledge’ is said to reside ‘in the navel, the heart, the throat, the mouth and the nostrils’ (KjN 6.7–8). 27. A ritual that is represented across South Asia in a number of sculptural representations (e.g. White 2006: 107 fig. 4c, 110 fig. 4d, 111 fig. 4e). 28. Matsyendranātha is identified with Bhairava (KjN 16.11). © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 98 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 PAOLO E. ROSATI Figure 2: Cāmundā on a pretāsana, Śrī Kedareśvara Śivālaya temple (Nīlācala). Photograph by Paolo E. Rosati, 2016. METHODOLOGY: TANTRA AND CSR A person may be having a vision of a divine being, but that experience is embedded not only in the sociocultural and religious contexts of the individuals, but also in the neural and cognitive systems of the human body. (Hayes and Timalsina 2016: 3) © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 THE ROOTS OF THE TWO SIDES OF KĀMĀKHYĀ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 99 The Mother Goddess of Assam emerges as a very syncretic and multicultural deity, who blended and stratified a substantial number of different traditions, thus absorbing, after a centuries-long cross- and trans-cultural dialectic, many heterogeneous elements. Among those elements, menstrual blood and sexual fluids, blood sacrifices, and death imaginary will be pointed out, to shed light on the ambivalence and nuance in the cult of Kāmākhyā. In this article, CSR will be used in order to explain the hidden process that stands at the origin of the mental perception of the divine at Kāmākhyā. The cognitive theory of conceptual blend, which was introduced in the early 1990s by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner, will be integrated within the field of religious studies, in order to explain the figure of Kāmākhyā as a hyper-blend (or megablend).29 The conceptual blend theory is a further development of the conceptual metaphor theory of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980), and both theories can combine to better explain religious processes not being antithetic.30 The blend (Fig. 3) is a mental tool for compression (of time, space, identity, etc.) leading to new meanings. In blending, partial structures of input (mental) spaces are projected and compose the blended space. The input spaces share a generic space, which connects them. The blended space is a selective projection Figure 3: The conceptual blend and the four space-model. Scheme adaptation from Fauconnier and Turner (2003: figs. 3.2–6, see pp. 41–43, 45–46). 29. A hyper-blend is an integration network of two blended spaces or of a blended space and a simple network. 30. More information on their application in the South Asian religious studies, and more specifically on Tantra, may be found in Hayes (2012), Hayes and Timalsina (2016) and Timalsina (2016). © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 100 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 PAOLO E. ROSATI of input structures, which can be brought into the blend as mixed in one or as separate entities—this process is composition. Two other processes participate in mapping a blended space: completion, which integrates a familiar background frame, and elaboration, which develops the blend through imaginative mental processes. ‘Crucially, the blended space remains connected to the inputs by the mappings, so that real inferences can be computed in the inputs from the imaginary situation in the blended space.’ In this way, blending firstly ‘provides relations that do not exist in separate inputs’. Secondly, it unconsciously integrates ‘background models’. Thirdly, it is treated ‘as a simulation’ which is run ‘imaginatively’ (Fauconnier and Turner 2003: 58–60). Hence, this article will try to explain the yoni, a metonymic symbol of Kāmākhyā, as a hyper-blend, a mental space that is ‘at the heart of language, art, religion and much daily life’ (Hayes 2012: 197). More specifically, this hyper-blend seems to correspond with the ‘double-scope network’, which ‘produce[s] the most imaginative and creative blend’ (ibid.: 199). In this typology of blend space, the two inputs have two distinct ‘organizing frames’ that ‘clash with each other, so that only parts of each frame are projected into the blend, leading to an entirely new “blended space” which has its own “emergent structure” and frame’ (ibid.). THE MOUNTAIN OF SEX AND CORPSES The bipolar symbolism linked to Nīlācala as a Tantric mountain of death and life has its roots in the intersection and mutual transformation of Brahmanic with local and tribal traditions. Both northeastern Tantric and Purāṇic sources identify this mountain as the most sacred among the pīṭhas (‘evaṃ pupyatame pīṭhe kubjikāpīṭhasaṃjñake || nīlakūte mayā sārdhaṃ devī rahasi saṃsthitā’ [KP 62.73b–74a]), the greatest pīṭha (‘pīṭhānaṃ paraṃ pīṭhaṃ kāmarūpaṃ mahākalam’ [Kulacūḍāmaṇitantra 5.36b]), the original pīṭha (‘prathaṃ pīṭhamutpatraṃ kāmākhyānam suvrate’ [KjN 8.20]).31 The yoni of Satī has conferred on the site an exceptional power (‘yuvābhyāṃ tatra paśya tvaṃ jātaṃ me yonimaṇḍalam | mama tejaḥ samudbhūtaṃ jānīhi yonimaṇḍalam’ [Yoginītantra 1.15.51]). Not only is the yoni intrinsically associated with the mountain (‘kāmarūpe kāmagirau nya patadyonimaṇḍalam’ [KP 18.42a]; ‘tasmimstu kubjikāpīṭe satyāstadyoni31. According to the more ancient list of pīṭhas preserved in the Hevajratantra (1.7.12), the four original pīṭhas are Jālandhara, Oḍḍiyāna, Paurṇagiri and Kāmarūpa—which are not yet associated with the Goddess’s limbs. In the KP (18.41–43), instead, there are seven pīṭhas, each related to a limb of Satī: Devīkūṭa (feet), Uddīyāna (thighs), Kāmagiri (i.e. Nīlācala) (yoni), Kāmagiri’s foot (navel), Pūrṇagiri (arms and neck), Jālandhara (breasts) and a non-specified pīṭha supposed to be in eastern Kāmarūpa (head, which ‘fell beyond the region of Kāmarūpa’). Due to their connection to Satī’s body they can be called śakti pīṭhas (see Sircar 1998). © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 THE ROOTS OF THE TWO SIDES OF KĀMĀKHYĀ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 101 maṇḍalam | patitaṃ tatra sā devī mahāmāyā vyalīyata’ [62.56]), but also Śiva was attracted to the mountain and to any other pīṭhas of the Goddess, where Śiva assumed both ‘the shape of the liṅga (phallus)’ (‘yatra yatrāpatan satyāstadāpādādayo dvijāḥ | tatra tatra mahādevaḥ svayaṃ liṇgasvarupadrik | tasthau mohasamāyuktaḥ satīsnehavaśānugaḥ’ [KP 18.46], see also KP 18.53), and ‘the form of a mountain’ (‘sīnāyāṃ yoganidrāyāṃ mayi parvatarūpiniḥ | sa nīlavarṇaḥ śailo’bhūtpatite yonimaṇḍale [KP 62.57]), which ‘turned its colour into blue’ (ibid.). According to the Sanskrit tradition, Śiva was indissolubly associated with Kāmākhyā, either in his liṅga form or in his mountain form; in fact, the sacred mountain crosses over any sex-gender differentiation, being the symbol of both Śiva and Satī (e.g. ‘mahāmāyā jagaddhātrī śailarūpapradhāriṇī | āgṅeyyāṃ ca tathā viṣṇurekarūpeṇa saṃsthitaṃ’ [KP 62.42]). Therefore, the traits blended in Nīlācala are related both to manhood and to womanhood; Nīlācala is also well-known as Kāmagiri, the love-making mountain where Śiva and Satī have been intimately united in an endless intercourse—the primary symbol of Kaulism (Dyczkowski 1988: 60–61). Nīlaśaila (the mount Nīla) is triangular, being low in the middle, is Sadāśiva himself. In the midst of it there is a maṇḍala which is beautiful drawn and provided with thirty śaktis; there is the guhā of Manobhava (Kāma). (KP 62.87–88a, trans. B. Shastri 2008: 459) On the one hand, the mountain is the fruit of a sexual fusion, incorporating the śakti, as its pulsing heart, which is preserved inside the garbhagṛha in the form of the yoni stone, inside the body of Śiva. However, another Purāṇic story links the mountain of love-making to the death and resurrection of the god Manobhava (‘born from mind’), also known as Kāma (‘desire’). In fact, ‘in each narration Kāma ultimately dies in the wrathful fire of Śiva’s third eye’ (Benton 2005: 39), but he is reborn as anaṅga (bodiless) after the wedding between Śiva and his second wife Parvatī.32 On the other hand, the Kālikāpurāṇa (18.3–6; 42.148–173a) fixed a connection between Kāma and Kāmarūpa, the place where he was reborn. In fact, this śākta Purāṇa outlines a close link between Kāma and the goddess Kāmākhyā in a passage belonging to one of its relatively later and far more Tantric sections: (Inside the cave) on that stone there is a very lovely yoni in the form of stone which is twelve aṅgulas in width and twenty aṅgulas in length, gradually narrowing and sloping, and lying along the Bhasma-śaila (the hill of ashes of Kāma). It is reddish in colour like vermilion or saffron, who fulfils all desires. On that yoni the amorous goddess Kāmākhyā, who is the supportress and the source of the world and the Primordial Force, the eternal one, always amuses herself in five different forms. (KP 62.88b–90, trans. B. Shastri 2008: 459) 32. The madanabhasma (incineration of Kāma) is preserved in Brahmandapurāṇa (4.11–12; 4.29.141–48; 4.30; see also Benton 2005: 59–64), Brahmapurāṇa (38.1–13), Brahmavaivartapurāṇa (4.39.40–59), KP (44), Matsyapurāṇa (154.212–86), Śivapurāṇa (2.3.17–20), Skandapurāṇa (1.1.21.48–99; 1.2.24.17–20), Vamanapurāṇa (6.1–107). © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 102 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 PAOLO E. ROSATI Among the powers of Kāma are ‘manmatha’, the ability to agitate, and ‘madana’, the power ‘to excite the mind of all the living beings’ (KP 2.4–6; Śivapurāṇa 2.2.3.6). While his weapons are five flower-arrows, which are called harṣaṇa ‘delighting’, rocana ‘appealing’, mohana ‘deluding’, śoṣaṇa ‘withering’ and māraṇa ‘killing’ (Śivapurāṇa 2.2.3.11–12), the tools through which ‘Śiva gave up self-meditation’ (‘parityajyātmacintanam’ [KP 10.55, trans. B. Shastri 2008: 54]), and was enchanted to love his first wife Satī, an act which Śiva punished by incinerating Kāma with his fire (KP 42.42).33 Nīlācala, therefore, was not only equated to the intersection of two triangles, symbols of male and female in their limitless sexual union as Śiva-Śakti (Rosati 2016: 291), but also to the death of Kāma, who was restored in his corporal form by Kāmākhyā. The Goddess is described as the one who ‘gives love, is a loving female, is embodiment of love, the beloved, she restores the limbs of Kāma and also destroys the limbs of Kāma’ (KP 62.2, trans. B. Shastri 2008: 453). She absorbed the destructive powers of Śiva, being the one who dismembered Kāma, who, in his turn, was equated to Satī, the Goddess who was dismembered by the gods. Fusion, intersection and superimposition emerge as a common trait of the Purāṇic tradition, which often completely subverted an earlier tradition or, at least, reinterpreted and completely transformed it (Coburn 1991: 13–17; Brown 1990: 4–5). Hence, a close association emerges of Nīlācala-Kāmākhyā both with the ashes of Kāma (KP 62.89a) and with the śakti of Kāma (KP 63.8–9a), being her sacred abode, the manobhava-guhā (‘cave of Kāma’ [KP 62.88a]) born from the primordial desire (ṚV 10.129.3–4). This wide association between the two deities is explicit in the etymology of the name Kāmākhyā, ‘she whose name is love or desire’, which perhaps was an adaptation of Kāmākṣī, ‘she whose eyes are full of love’; both names may be speculated to be Sankritizations of unknown tribal Goddess(es). On the other hand, her etymological association with an Austroasiatic word related to death imaginary through the association of Kāmākhyā with the proto-Mon-Khmer *kmuuc (dead person) (Khmer, Katuic, South Bahnaric, Palaungic, Aslian) (Bhattacharyya 1995: 88–89),34 was dismissed by Paul Sidwell,35 who pointed out that *kmuuc is related to *bruuʔ (hill). Although the association of Kāmākhyā with death imaginary seems an incongruity, and there is no linguistic evidence to link her name to that symbolism, her mythology suggests a double identification of the Mother Goddess of Assam. She is either a lovely and creative mother who cares of her devotees’ necessities and desires, or a terrifying mother who needs her 33. However, in the Kālikāpurāṇa (10.20–21), Kāma was unable to strike Śiva without the intervention of Satī with her illusory power (māyā). 34. It was erroneously hypothesized that words for ghost (ke-moyd/ke-moyt; khmoch), grave (khmoch; kamui), corpse (komuoch; kamet), demon (kemoi), devil (kamoit) derived from *kmuuc (Kakati 1989: 42). 35. Personal communication (email correspondence from 25 March to 4 May 2017). © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 THE ROOTS OF THE TWO SIDES OF KĀMĀKHYĀ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 103 devotees’ blood to strengthen her śakti prior to releasing it. When Kāmākhyā begins to bleed because of her menstrual cycle, during the Ambuvācī melā in the monsoon season, she loses her ability to vivify the earth. The absorption of human blood is closely related to the identification of Nīlācala as an ancient cremation ground (śmaśāna), or graveyard. The śakti pīṭhas in the Middle Ages were religious centres influenced by trans- and cross-cultural dialectic; they were closely linked to Tantric exoteric and esoteric practices, although they were absorbed within the fold of Brahmanic society. However, underpinning blood sacrifices to the Goddess, the śakti pīṭhas maintained a continuity with their non-Brahmanic past, when they were probably tribal graveyards (Sircar 1998: 33; Urban 2010: 75–78). Hence Brahmanism (in its larger sense), through what can be defined as inter-cultural dialogue and cross-cultural exchange with the tribal traditions of the hills and forests of the Brahmaputra Valley, was able to incorporate the graveyards within its theology (Davidson 2002: 224–25; Rosati 2017b: 147–50). Nīlācala’s ‘primeval function as cremation ground’ was maintained through the identification of the terrifying Heruka (blood drinker) as the presiding deity of the cremation ground (śmaśāna-bhairava) at Nīlācala (Rosati 2017a: 9). Heruka, who is a male deity, is described as ‘being of red colour’, with a ‘knife’ as his weapon, ‘extremely terrible’ in aspect, greedy of ‘human flesh’, and of the blood bleeding from the severed heads of ritual victims. He is naked, ‘stands on a corpse’, is attended by ‘ghosts’, and is worshipped through ‘meditation’. Heruka himself is the cremation ground (KP 63.135–37a, trans. B. Shastri 2008: 474). The Lord [Hevajra] plays in the cemetery surrounded by his eight yoginīs. ‘In the cemetery’, we say, because here we have a play on words, for śvasiti means ‘he breathes’ and śvavasati means ‘resting place of corpses’. (Hevajratantra 1.3.16, trans. Snellgrove 1980, I: 59) In the Hevajratantra (1.3.4–5), Heruka is identified with Hevajra. They were both experienced as states or deities by their devotees during ecstatic rituals.36 ‘Heruka’ is both a wrathful supreme deity with a distinctive but rarely found iconic form and a generic name for wrathful manifestations of the supreme Buddha that include Hevajra (with eight heads), Saṃvara (with elephant hide), and Mahākāla (black, with tongue extended). (Sharrock 2006–07: 56) Claudine Bautze-Picron (2014: 5-6) noticed that in a Heruka temple in Bahal II (Sumatra) there is an icon of Heruka as a double-armed deity, 36. Rob Linrothe (1999: 250) pointed out that according to the literature, Heruka is associated to ‘skull-cups, ornaments of bones, animal skins, ash-smeared skin’, all elements that ‘reinforce a connection’ with the yoginīs and link Heruka’s iconography to both ‘deities and human practitioners’. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 104 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 PAOLO E. ROSATI ‘trampling or dancing on a corpse’ and surrounded by eight yoginīs (see also Linrothe 1999: 256). The icon is stylistically close to Bengal iconography, something that ‘must be seen as part of a network which extends across the Bay of Bengal in the eleventh and twelfth century’. In the same temple, an icon which was confused with a ‘demoniac woman standing on a corpse’ has the same place usually reserved to Hevajra (Schnitger 1937: 27). ‘She wears large ear rings, puffed hair and a string of skulls. The left hand holds a skull in front of her breast, the right hand rests on the hip and holds a Vajra and a sacrificial knife’ (p. 27).37 However, it is far more possible that the icon is not a female but an image of Mahākāla (Bautze-Picron 2014: 7). Is it possible that a sex-gender confusion afflicted the image of Heruka’s manifestation as Mahākāla, in a region such as Assam (a region close to Bengal and perhaps preserving similar stylistic patterns)? Although we are in the realm of speculation, in a recent article, I point out the fluidity of Kāmākhyā’s sex-gender identity, which switched from a female-marked to implicitly pansexual-marked (Rosati 2019).38 This sex-gender fluidity could reflect the influences that Kāmākhyā received from contact with Mahākāla-Heruka, which resulted in a complex process of blending between male and female deities that originated the Tantric goddess named Kāmākhyā in her medieval form.39 FROM HERUKA TO THE BAND OF THE YOGINĪS Thence, Nīlācala and its presiding Mother Goddess seem to incorporate, through intersections, mutual transformation and fusion, traits of non37. My greatest thanks are addressed to C. Bautze-Picron, who sent me this bibliographical reference (email correspondence, 22 November 2018). 38. In this context the adjective pansexual is not describing the mixing between female and male traits, but it describes the sex–gender fluidity as well as the power to transcend any sex–gender differentiations. 39. R. Davidson (2002: 213) formulated this theory of switching from Heruka to Kāmākhyā, although he did not enter into any speculation regarding how this process could have worked out. Thus, Heruka emerges as an intriguing deity, who switched from the pantheon of Tantric Buddhism to the ranks of Hindu-Tantric deities. According to Davidson (ibid.), Kāmākhyā appropriated that quality of Heruka as blood-absorber of the deceased, which is indissolubly implicit in the cremation ground. Today, there are four cremation grounds on Nīlācala, each placed on one of the four main directions (north, east, south and west), although the one mentioned in the Kālikāpurāṇa, which was described as Heruka himself, has been supposed to be the one on the eastern side of the mountain, near the car park and the cricket field. Nowadays, its presiding deity is a form of Kālī who is inside the small shrine attached to the cremation field, while outside this small shrine Mahākālī is represented in a semi-anthropomorphic form, with red skin and clothed with a black dress (see Rosati 2017b: figs. 1–2). © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 THE ROOTS OF THE TWO SIDES OF KĀMĀKHYĀ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 105 Brahmanic traditions and their close connection with the cult of the dead. More specifically, although Kāmākhyā explicitly recalls the universe of sexual desire, in a far more implicit way she reflects the imaginary of death, through elements such as ashes, corpses and blood. These elements, however, were mediated by Purāṇic Hinduism before they burst into the peculiar Tantric cult of the yoni of Kāmākhyā. The yoni symbol is a metonymic representation of the Goddess and of her retinue of yoginīs. According to the Kālikāpurāṇa, indeed, Kāmākhyā and the yoginīs both originated from the splitting of the yoni of Satī (Rosati 2018a: 176–78) and they both inhabited the yoni and its inner and outer maṇḍala, as a microcosm of the śākta universe. The text established that ‘all the sixty-four yoginīs are to be worshipped in the middle of the maṇḍala’ of Kāmākhyā (KP 54.34–40, trans. Shastri 2008: 384). This maṇḍala is equated to the lotus flower, and each of its eight petals is associated with a different yoginī. Hence, ‘Śailaputri, Caṇḍaghaṇṭā, Skandamātṛ, and Kālarātri’ are on four petals associated with the four directions ‘beginning with the east’, while ‘Caṇḍikā, Kuṣmāṇḍī, Katyāyanī, and Mahāgaurī’ are on the petals ‘in the direction following the order from the south-east (agni)’. Mahāmāyā is ‘on the middle of the lotus’, and ‘the adept should worship’ her ‘by repeating eight times mūlamantra and pray to the goddess “pardon me”. This is to be followed by the offering sacrifice (balidāna)’ (KP 54.42–45, trans. B. Shastri 2008: 384). In the Hevajratantra (1.7), the yoginīs were associated with the cremation ground and blood sacrifices. However, they also emerged as a circle of dreadful goddesses connected with meditation, such as Heruka, and to the bhaga (i.e. a ‘triangle white as the moon’ [Snellgrove 1980, I: 73n1]),40 which is the ‘origin of the elements (dharmas)’ (ibid.). Now I shall explain the circle of the yoginīs. Concentrate upon the triangle of origination in the midst of space, and then perform the meditation at its centre, first, the figurative representations of the four elements in their right order—in the due order of appearance of the divinities. First earth and water, then fire and wind, which correspond with the appearance of the goddesses, and with the meditator himself. The maṇḍala which now arises pure and unblemished from the triangle, consists of two concentric parts, one formed by the eight central petals of the lotus, and the other by the triangle. At their centre one should imagine a corpse, which is in effect that seat of the fifteen yoginīs. Resting on that there should be a lunar disk, upon that the seed-syllable and upon that a solar disk. The conjunction of these two, lunar disk and solar disk, is great bliss. āli has become moon, and the sun has revolved into kāli, and from this mingling of sun and moon Gaurī and her companions are proclaimed to be … Gaurī and her companions arise each from a separate letter. Now in the inner circle there are five yoginīs, whom the knowing yogin always regards as representing the five skandhas. In the east is Vajrā, and Gaurī to the south, Vāriyoginī in the west, Vajraḍākinī to the north, and Nairātmyā at the 40. Bhaga also means ‘vulva’ (Monier-Williams 1960: 743); however, any association to sexuality in this context can be only speculated. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 106 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 PAOLO E. ROSATI centre. In the outer circle there are Gaurī II, Caurī, Vatālī, Ghasmarī and Pukkasī, Śavarī and Caṇḍālī, and Ḍombinī as eighth. At the zenith is Khecarī and at the nadir Bhūcarī, O thou of great compassion, and these two stand to represent saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. All these goddesses are black in colour and exceeding fearful … They have one face and inflamed eyes and clasp in their hand the knife and the skull. (Hevajratantra 1.8.1–16, trans. Snellgrove 1980, I: 73–74) Thus the band of yoginīs, not yet crystallized into the Kaula group of sixty-four, was fully recognised in connection with the directions of space and the maṇḍalic representation of the Universe. This trait was probably absorbed by the yoginīs because they were the retinue of Heruka/Hevajra, a deity widely linked to mental speculation. Then, in a continuous process of transmission and transformation, they channelled this trait to Kāmākhyā who was their leader in the Hindu-Tantric tradition of medieval Kāmarūpa. THE YONI OF KĀMĀKHYĀ AS A HYPER-BLEND SPACE The goddess Kāmākhyā, through a historical-religious analysis, emerges as the result of the dialectic of a number of traditions and their related symbols. However, the process that stands at her origin is far more complex. In previous studies (Rosati 2016, 2017a, 2017b, 2018a, 2018b), the intersection of the processes of universalization and parochialization was variously pointed out. In this article, the primary purpose is to shed light on the intertwining of distinct traits and on their selective projection and superimposition, through CSR. The goddess Kāmākhyā and her earthly abode, Nīlācala, blended a number of dichotomic symbols, which may be simplified and summarized in a primary division between sex/life and violence/death. The Mother Goddess of Assam, indeed, is a dangerous and terrifying mother, who is in need of blood to increase her power (śakti); but at the same time she cares about her devotees, giving them back her power through her yonitattva (menstrual blood), which vivifies the earth and is the key ingredient to obtain any siddhi in the Kaula sexual rites. The yoni as the metonymic symbol of the Mother Goddess Kāmākhyā blended the two symbolic universes of blood and sexual fluids (Fig. 4). A key role in this transmission and superimposition of selected elements from distinct traditions into the yoni of Kāmākhyā seems to be played by the band of yoginīs. On the one hand, they mediated the Kaula symbolism of Śiva-Śakti into the yoni, which indeed reflects both these principles.41 On the other hand, they channelled to Kāmākhyā the death imaginary related to the 41. Some notes on the yoni as a pansexual symbol were presented during the 44th Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions, which was held at Storey Institute, Lancaster (12–14 April 2019), and they are most of the material used for Rosati (2019). © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 THE ROOTS OF THE TWO SIDES OF KĀMĀKHYĀ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 107 Figure 4: The CSR reading of the yoni metonymic symbol. cremation ground and to Heruka, whose retinue they were in the Buddhist esoteric tradition. The association of blood sacrifices and sexual rites in the Kaula tradition and at Kāmākhyā is not part of the Hevajratantra, but it can be supposed to be Figure 5: The CSR reading of the goddess Kāmākhyā (Yoni-Goddess). © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 108 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 PAOLO E. ROSATI a later development. The Kaula school perceived sexual rites as the counterpart of blood sacrifices (White 2006: 17). Both kinds of ritual were (and still are) necessary to release the śakti, which is the main purpose of the Tantric practitioners at Kāmākhyā (Urban 2001: 783). Hence, the Hindu-Tantra medieval yoni intersected with the memory of the endless Śiva-Śakti union which followed the dismemberment of Satī’s corpse (Fig. 5). This intersection was given textual form in the Kālikāpurāṇa, the most ancient text where the splitting of the Goddess and of the yoni is narrated. Śiva-Śakti’s union and Satī’s dismemberment were already blended spaces that collaborated in the generation of the hyper-blend—i.e. the yoni. A further clarification is needed. The yoni symbol is neither a substitute for Satī’s death nor an equation of Śiva-Śakti. On the contrary, it is a new structure that incorporates both those inputs in a new network. This metonymic structure did not exist in the two original inputs, but emerges from their blending. The yoni compresses together death and sex, originating a larger symbol that is a ‘mental space’, which is unconsciously shared by the devotees at Kāmākhyā. In this way, what Glen Hayes (2012: 201) said about Tantra, that it ‘may be regarded as a blend which has been repeatedly “reblended”’, is corroborated by the yoni symbol of Kāmākhyā. Input 1: Satī’s death The first input is the dismemberment of Satī’s corpse, which is replicated in every blood sacrifice performed at Kāmākhyā and in every śakti pīṭha. The animal slaughter and dismemberment palpably recalls this episode, which originated the Tantric network of śakti pīṭhas. The Goddess’s death was not only the first step of Tantra in the Brahmanic world, but also a conceptual blend,42 which cross-mapped the violence of blood spreading to nourish the yoginīs—in a religious context centred on the cult of the dead—with the multiplication of the Goddess’s cults across South Asia. Blood sacrifices, through a selective projection, switched from being related to the cult of the dead to a praxis related to the female body. Beheading a sacrificial victim became one of the powerful sources of power for the goddess Kāmākhyā. Furthermore, this extremely dangerous ritual act traces its roots back to the head-hunter tribes of northeastern India. 42. Although the Kālikāpurāṇa’s extant recension belongs to ninth to eleventh centuries, Hazra (1963: 194–259) speculated on the existence of an earlier version of this Purāṇa in the sixth century. There is no evidence regarding the existence of this earlier source; nevertheless, it is possible that it existed, basing on the very different traditions preserved within the Kālikāpurāṇa (Wendt 1996: 180). Hence, it is possible that an earlier version of the Kālikāpurāṇa, or an earlier source that influenced its extant recension, preserved the full story of Satī (Rosati 2017a: 12–13)—which, instead, was overlooked in the Hindu-Purāṇic literature belonging to the northern and northwestern regions of the sub-continent. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 THE ROOTS OF THE TWO SIDES OF KĀMĀKHYĀ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 109 Previous studies associated the head-hunting raids with the death of a tribal chief, whose grave was adorned with the skulls of the killed enemies in order to lead him to the other world. However, head-hunting practices represent ‘heroism and manhood’ (Zou 2005: 89). Coming back from a raid without any head trophy was a sign of shame for the tribal warriors, for whom head-taking was essential for marriage. In fact, a warrior could appropriate the enemy’s soul to himself by cutting off their head, a necessary act for the generation of offspring. The human head, indeed, being linked to bone marrow and its sexual symbolism, was inter-culturally described as the ‘seat of life’ or the ‘seat of soul’ (Onians 1994: 94–98; Zou 2005: 94–97). What was not projected from input 1 to the blended space (i.e. yoni) is the cremation ground, which was the primary location of the yoginīs before the Kaula reformation. Input 2: Śiva-Śakti The second input is the endless union of Śiva-Śakti in every śakti pīṭha, which was replicated through Kaula sexual rites when the male Tantrika drank the female fluids from what the Kaula texts call the ‘mouth of the yoginī’ (i.e. the yoni). In medieval Kāmarūpa, every woman was considered a yoginī (KjN 22.8–12), although their agency in ritual is ambivalent. According to Loriliai Biernacki’s (2007) study of a group of northeastern medieval Tantras, the woman is described either as a divine being or as a mere ritual object which was used by Kaula siddhas (perfect beings) in order to obtain their sacred fluids. However this may be, the woman is fundamental in Kaula theology. The sexual symbolism of Śiva-Śakti union is projected and enhanced at Kāmākhyā, where the main deity is a Yoni-Goddess—indeed, according to the Purāṇic sources the gods make love secretly at Kāmākhyā. There is no other Purāṇic pīṭha in South Asia that claims to house the yoni of Satī.43 Hence, Śiva-Śakti is another conceptual blend, which fused puruṣa (spirit) and prakṛti (nature) in a pansexual union—which underlined the necessary crossing of sexual binarism to initiate cosmogenesis. This pansexual unity was mediated through the yoni of Kāmākhyā in medieval Kaulism, where any Brahmanic sexual taboo was violated in order to obtain supernatural powers and religious gnosis. However, apparently this input projected only the feminine aspect, the yoni, while the masculine one is completely hidden, as no liṅga is preserved inside the garbhagṛha. 43. In the Mahābhārata (3.80.100–05; 3.82.80–85; 3.82.130–35) three tīrthas related to both the breast and the womb of the goddess are described. The yoni tīrtha is placed at Udyantaparvata (Mahābhārata 3.82.130–35), which was supposed to be on eastern Himalayan range (Sircar 1998: 9). However, there is no mention of any yoni stone in the text, but the site is described as a yonidvāra (‘gate-of-the-womb’, trans. Van Buitenen 1975: 390). © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 110 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 PAOLO E. ROSATI The Two Sides of the Goddess Kāmākhyā The hyper-blend thus manifested itself as a non-coherent space which integrates eros (desire) and thanatos (death)—which today are both unconsciously perceived by the devotees. Although there is no analogy between the binomials death/violence and life/desire, after a centuries-long cross-mapping they have become the two faces of the same coin. Kāmākhyā emerged as a polymorphic deity as well as a hyper-blended space. Her connection to the universe of kāma is evident in her name. Entering inside her garbhagṛha, the practitioners feel that they have penetrated inside the maternal womb—the moisture mixed with the darkness of the chamber and the final contact with the sacred water that oozes out from the sacred recess of the yoni-stone are indisputable evidence of a connection between Kāmākhyā and motherhood (Fig. 6). Hence, this symbolism is related to the peculiar power of the yoni of Kāmākhyā—which is not the śakti per se, but a śakti blended with an ancestral energy that has its roots in the universe of death. Climbing down the steps towards the garbagṛha and touching the yoni allows the devotees to transcend our worldly universe. This aspect of Kāmākhyā is the most hidden part of her Tantric cult. Her devotees do not consciously perceive this ancestral symbolism, and the medieval texts have not explicitly preserved it. Figure 6: Mother feeding her child, Kāmākhyā temple complex (inner northern enclosure-wall). Photograph by Paolo E. Rosati, 2016. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 THE ROOTS OF THE TWO SIDES OF KĀMĀKHYĀ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 111 This energy, although dangerous, is extremely powerful, and it is intertwined with the ‘holy water of Kāmākhyā’ and its ‘intoxicating power’ (Van Kooij 1972: 25–26). Thereby bathing in the sacred pond of Kāmākhyā has allowed the practitioners to access ‘heaven’ (KP 80.31b–32a), while drinking its water was both the source of siddhis (KP 62.88b–90), and the vehicle to reach the mahānirvāṇa (highest extinction) (KP 80.87). This ritual description is a clear exotericization of the Kaula sexual rituals that have been kept secret—being reserved to a restricted circle of initiates who were part of the kula (clan). Thereby, the dangerous power of the yoni was opened to and accessed by a larger number of practitioners, Tantric as well as non-Tantric. CONCLUSIONS How is it possible that the Indian Mother Goddess par excellence is also a cruel and dreadful mother? How were apparently irreconcilable elements, such as eros and thanatos, blended in the Tantric cult of Kāmākhyā? Today, the worship of Kāmākhyā in its public cult of her menstruating yoni—located inside her garbhagṛha—is a peculiar and partially exotericized left-hand Tantra praxis. On the one hand, the dreadful aspect of the Mother Goddess is remembered through the spreading blood of the dozens of ritual victims slaughtered and dismembered in the sacrificial open hall attached to the main temple of Kāmākhyā. These blood sacrifices, although excluded from the main shrine, are still performed inside the temple’s enclosure, and are not replaced by metaphoric or metonymic substitutes. They are necessary to nourish the Mother Goddess and to feed her śakti. While their earlier secrecy in association with the non-Brahmanic cult of the yoginīs is nowadays lost, the animal slaughter palpably recalls the ancestral death imaginary and its symbolic development within Satī’s story. Notwithstanding, the terrifying aspect of Kāmākhyā is the least perceptible trait of the Goddess in her temple. Her dark and dangerous nature is not emphasized in the practitioners’ perception of the divine. On the contrary, the practitioners’ perception emphasizes the caring nature of Kāmākhyā as a Mother Goddess. Notwithstanding, sexual rites are the most secret part of her worship; nowadays, only rumours regarding their practices can be noted. Sexual rites are the counterpart of the blood sacrifices, and are necessary to unleash the śakti of the Goddess—which is the source of extraordinary siddhis. Thus, the Kaulas through the worship (pūjā) of a human yoni and the consumption of its secretions were able to obtain siddhis beyond gnosis and mokṣa (liberation). The exotericization of the yoni pūjā not only softened the Kaula sexual praxis but was also a fundamental step in blending death imagery and sexual symbolism. In fact, eros and thanatos had followed two distinct paths which intersected through the absorption and reformation of the cult of the yoginīs © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 112 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 PAOLO E. ROSATI in the religious history of Kāmākhyā. From a historical religious perspective, firstly the yoginīs conveyed the death and blood imagery, related to Heruka, to the Hindu-Tantric cult of the yoni at Kāmākhyā. Secondly, the yoginīs were transformed into sexual tools, becoming the main ritual agent in Kaula sexual rites. In this way, the universe of desire accepted an agent formerly connected to the universe of death. In sum, the yoginīs played a fundamental double role as either active or passive agents, contaminating Brahmanism (in its larger sense) and being contaminated by Brahmanism. The cult of the yoginīs and its role in shaping the Hindu-Tantra cult of Kāmākhyā corroborated the idea of a mutual osmosis between Brahmanic and non-Brahmanic tradition in ancient and early medieval Kāmarūpa. Through the application of the hyper-blend theory to the cult of Kāmākhyā, an apparent contradiction in the Tantric cult of the yoni has been detected. Furthermore, the reading of Kāmākhyā as a hyper-blend space is able to explain her far more hidden symbols related to death imagery and to her nature as a dreadful mother. In conclusion, the cult of the yoginīs seems to have played a fundamental role in blending different already blended spaces into the peculiar Assamese cult of the yoni of Kāmākhyā. ABBREVIATIONS CSR KjN KP Cognitive Science of Religions Kaulajñānanirṇaya Kālikāpurāṇa REFERENCES Primary Sources Brahmāndapurāṇa. Ganesh V. Tagare (ed. and trans.). The Brahmānda Purāṇa. Translated and annotated by G. V. Tagare. Vol. 4 of 5. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publisher, 2000 [1983]. Brahmapurāṇa. Jagdish L. Shastri (ed.). Brahmāpurāṇa. Translated by a Board of Scholars. Vol. 1 of 4. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1985. Brahmavaivartapurāṇa. S.L. Nagar (trans.). Brahmavaivartapurāṇa. Text with English Translation. Delhi: Parimal Publications, 2012. Bṛhatsaṃhitā. M. Ramakrishna Bhat (ed. and trans.). Varāhamihira’s Bṛhatsaṃhitā. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1981–82. Devībhāgavatapurāṇa. Raj T. Pandey (ed.). Devībhāgavatapurāṇa. Kashi: Pandit Pustakalya. 1956. Devīmāhātmya. (1) Vasudeva S. 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The Roots of the Two Sides of Kāmākhyā: The Blending of Sex and Death in Tantra

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