Religioni e filosofie

The death of Satī and the worship

of her yoni: the rise of the Yoginī Kaula
school in early medieval Assam*
by Paolo E. Rosati

1
Introduction

The yoni (vulva) of the goddess Satī is eternally associated to Nīlācala (Blue
Mountain), the sacred abode of the goddess Kāmākhyā in the Brahmaputra
Valley of Assam in the northeastern offshoot of the Indian subcontinent1.
The temple of Kāmākhyā is located on top of Nīlācala and its construction
took place throughout the medieval kingdom of Naranārāyana (1534-86 ce)
of the Koch dynasty; the works started in 1555 and ended in 15652, though
the architectural structure was also renewed in the xviii century during the
Āhom period3.
However, since this temple is the eminent śākta pītha (seat of power)4

* This essay is partially based on Splitting the Goddess, Slitting the Yoni: The Origins of
the Yoginīs at Kāmākhyā”, a paper that I presented on 25 August during the 2nd conference of
the European Association for Asian Art and Archaeology, held at the University of Zurich
(24-27 August 2017).
1. The mountain’s name is due to the fact that it turned blue after the contact with Satī’s
falling yoni (Biswanarayan Shastri, ed. and transl., The Kālikāpurāna: Text, Introduction and
Translation in English, Nag Publisher, Delhi 2008, 1st ed. 1992, 62.57). However the moun-
tain is also known as Kāmagiri (Mountain of Desire) because, according to another myth
preserved in the Assamese Puranic tradition (ibid., 79.51-2), Kāma (Desire) was incinerated
and was reborn there (see Paolo E. Rosati, Nīlācala: The Mountain of Desire, Death and Re-
birth, in David W. Kim, ed., Colonial Transformation and Asian Religions in Modern History,
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle 2018, pp. 41-4).
2. Hugh B. Urban, The Power of Tantra: Religion, Sexuality and the Politics of South
Asian Studies, I. B. Tauris, New York 2010, pp. 74, 83-4.
3. Kali Prasad Goswami, Kāmākhyā Temple: Past and Present, aph, New Delhi 1998,
p. 95.
4. The network of śākta pīthas is a network of the goddess’s sacred centres, each of which
is supposed to preserve a distinct limb of Satī; their number varies from 4 to 110, depending
172 paolo e. rosati

of the Indian subcontinent5, it is believed to have more ancient roots. M.

Deka esteemed the iv-v centuries ce to be the period of its construction6,
which is corroborated by recent researches, based on radiocarbon analysis,
that discovered the presence of two strata below the temple: one dates back
to 200 bce and the other to 500 ce7. The latter date is confirmed by the
Umācal Rock Inscription (470-94 ce), which is located in the northeast-
ern slope of Nīlācala, that states that a guhā (cave) was built on the hill by
Śrī Surendravarman8. Surendravarman’s identity is disputed between either
king Mahendravarman, of the mytho-historical Naraka-Bhauma dynasty9,
and Mahendravarman of Nidhanpur, of the Varman dynasty (450-85 ce)10.
The presence on Nīlācala of a sacred guhā is also corroborated by two
northeastern early medieval śākta purānas11: the Devīpurāna and the Kā-
likāpurāna. Particularly the first one seems to confirm the existence of a
pre-Varman cave on the mountain, narrating that the “son of the Earth” (i.e.
Naraka) worshipped the goddess kāmākhye girikandare (on the mountain

on the tradition considered (see Dinesh C. Sircar, The Śākta Pīthas, Motilal Banarsidass,
Delhi-Patna-Varanasi 1948, pp. 17-31).
5. Chandra Prabodh Bagchi (ed.), Kaulajñāna-nirnaya of the School of Matsyendranā-
tha, Metropolitan Print. & Pub. House, Calcutta 1934, 8.20a; John Woodroffe (ed.), Ku-
lacūdāmani Tantra, Ganesh and Co., Chennai 1956, 5.36-40.
6. Mousumi Deka, Sculptures of Kamakhya Temple: An Aesthetic View, in “Interna-
tional Journal of Scientific and Research Publications”, vol. 3, n. 10, 2013, pp. 1-5.
7. Pranav J. Deka, Nīlācala–Kāmākhyā: Her History and Tantra, Lawyer’s Book Stall,
Guwahati 2004, p. 12.
8. Ibid., pp. 1-3.
9. The Naraka-Bhauma dynasty is supposed to be an Assamese royal line founded by the
mytho-historical king Naraka, the first king of Kāmarūpa (Assam). According to the Epic
and Puranic traditions, he was the son of Prthvī (Earth goddess) and Varāha (boar) – a wild
avatāra (descent) of Visnu. However, there is no material evidence to support the existence
of a single king that founded the kingdom of Kāmarūpa, neither any evidence related to the
Bhauma dynasty. On the other hand, the first recognised historical king was Pusyavarman
(355-80 ce), the founder of the Varman line, who traced back his origins to Naraka and
consequently to Prthvī and Varāha.
10. Mukunda M. Sharma, Inscriptions of Ancient Assam, Dept. Publications Guwahati
University, Guwahati 1978, pp. 1-3.
11. The śākta purānas are a group of texts compiled in Northeast India throughout the
early medieval and medieval period that is composed by the Devīpurāna (Sharma P. Ku-
mar, ed., Devī Purānam, Sri Lal Bahadur Shastri Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, New Delhi
1976), the Brhaddharmapurāna (Hara Prasad Shastri, ed., Brhaddharmapurāna, Bibliotheca
Indica Series, Asiatic Society, Calcutta 1888), the Devībhāgavatapurāna (Raj T. Pandey.,
ed., Devībhāgavatapurāna, Pandit Pustakalya, Kashi 1956), the Kālikāpurāna (Shastri, The
Kālikāpurāna, cit.) and the Mahābhāgavatapurāna (Sharma P. Kumar, ed., Mahābhāgavata
Purāna: An Ancient Treatise on Śakti Cult, Eastern Book Linkers, Delhi 1983).
 the death of satī and the worship of her yoni 173

of Kāmākhyā)12. The connection between a guhā and Nīlācala is attested by

the Kālikāpurāna too13, which describes the cave as the abode of Manobhava
(Kāma) and his Śakti (hypostatization of śakti)14.
When were the two śākta purānas compiled? The issue of dating purānas
is well known15, being these sectarian records «influenced by changing ideas
and practices, and subject to interpolation»16. Indeed, the purānas «could
also be quite original» because they retell ancient myths providing new in-
terpretations; hence «older concepts, terms, and ideals» could take over the
older ones, thus resulting in new theological concepts17. It can be postulated
in this instance that the Devīpurāna and the Kālikāpurāna – whose actual
recensions were compiled throughout the early medieval age between the
ix and the xi century18 – were influenced by an earlier, now lost, common
source19.
The existence of a sacred guhā, where a female deity was worshipped, was
confirmed by the later medieval northeastern Yoginī and Yoni Tantra20, both

12. Kumar, Devī Purānam, cit., 39.5cd; see Karel R. Van Kooij, Worship of the Goddess
According to the Kālikāpurānā, E. J. Brill, Leiden 1972, p. 32 note 3.
13. Shastri, The Kālikāpurāna, cit., 63.8-9.
14. According to Diana L. Eck, India: A Sacred Geography, Harmony Books, New York
2012, p. 259, śakti «is not female power or energy in particular. More accurately, shakti is all
power and energy, and it is the attribute of the Goddess».
15. Ludo Rocher, The Purānas, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1986, pp. 100-3.
16. Paolo E. Rosati, The Yoni Cult at Kāmākhyā: Its Cross-Cultural Roots, in “Religions
of South Asia”, vol. 10, n. 3, 2016, p. 285.
17. Cheever Mackenzie Brown, The Triumph of the Goddess: The Canonical Model
and Theological Visions of the Devī-Bhāgavata Purāna, State University of New York Press,
Albany (ny) 1990, pp. 4-5.
18. Ludo Rocher claimed the latter half of the vi century to be the period of the
composition of the Devīpurāna (see Rocher, Purānas, cit., p. 167), however it seems a too
early date for the text (pers. comm. Florinda De Simini, May 2017), indeed, J. E. Shin
placed its compilation «before the mid-ninth century» (see Jae-Eun Shin, Yoni, Yoginīs
and Mahāvidyās: Feminine Divinities from Early Medieval Kāmarūpa to Medieval Koch
Behar, in “Studies in History”, vol. 26, n. 1, 2010, p. 8). On the other hand, the placement
of Kālikāpurāna in the xiv century ( John Nicol Farquhar, An Outline of Religious Lit-
erature in India, Oxford University Press, London 1920, p. 354) was flawed (cfr. Rocher,
The Purānas, cit., p. 182), while an earlier period for the composition is more probable
(Rajendra Chandra Hazra, Studies in Upapurānas. Volume 2: Śākta and Non-sectarian
Upapurānas, Sanskrit College, Calcutta 1963, p. 245; Shastri, The Kālikāpurāna, cit., pp.
xxvi-xxxiv; Urban, The Power of Tantra, cit., p. 5; Van Kooi, Worship of the Goddess, cit.,
pp. 3-4).
19. Hazra, Studies in Upapurānas, cit., pp. 194-259.
20. See Biswanarayan Shastri (ed.), Yoginī Tantra, Bharatiya Vidya Prakashan, Delhi
174 paolo e. rosati

of which ranked Kāmākhyā as the greatest among the pīthas21. Yet, the Yoginī
Tantra described the garbhagrha (sanctum) of the temple of Kāmākhyā as
a manobhavaguhā (cave of Kāma)22, while the Yoni Tantra – an exegesis of
the yoni cult23 – stressed on sexual rites related to the worship of the non-an-
thropomorphic symbol, which was performed at the yonigarta (cave of the
yoni)24. The goddess Kāmākhyā resided there in multifarious forms: inside
her yoni-stone symbol25, and also as raktapāniyarūpinī (in the form of red wa-
ter)26 – an attribute that recall the relevance of Kāmākhyā’s menstrual period,
that every year in the month of āsādha ( June-July) is celebrated during her
Ambuvācī festival.
Given these premises, it can be argued that a sacred guhā connected
to a goddess of desire was incorporated within the temple of Kāmākhyā
during an ancient period. Then, the cave switched from being a sacred,
perhaps, Kirāta pīt ha to the yoni pīt ha27, the primeval symbol from which
everything was originated28. Therefore, the yoni symbol  –  which has
been speculated to be a symbol imported by the Austroasiatic speaking
groups29, because they were often associated to the worship of sexual fet-

1982; Jan A. Schoterman (ed.), The Yonitantra. Critically edited with an introduction, Man-
hohar, Delhi 1980.
21. The Yoginī Tantra was probably compiled during the middle of the xvi century
(Apurba C. Barthakuria, The Tantric Religion of India: An Insight into Assam’s Tantra Lit-
erature, Punthi Pustak, Calcutta 2009: pp. 33-4; Shastri, Yoginī Tantra, cit., pp. xxxvii-xl).
Mikael Aktor, in a recent study (The Cāndalī as Śakti: Untouchable Women in some Tantric
Texts, in Bjarne W. Olesen, ed., Goddess Tradition in Tantric Hinduism: History, Practice
and Doctrine, Routledge, London-New York 2016, pp. 96-108), claimed the xi century as
the composition date for the Yoni Tantra (see Bjarne W. Olesen, ed., Goddess Tradition in
Tantric Hinduism: History, Practice and Doctrine, Routledge, London-New York 2016, p. 9).
However no consistent evidence of such an early date were proposed; on the contrary, the
xv-xvi century seems to fit well with the religious background outlined in the tantra, which
was compiled in Koch Bihar (currently West Bengal) or Assam (see Antonio M. Sacco, Il
culto della yoni (Yonitantra), Edizioni dell’Orso, Alessandria 2014, pp. 10-1).
22. Shastri, Yoginī Tantra, cit., 1.11.35.
23. Sacco, Il Culto della Yoni, cit., p. 9.
24. Schoterman, Yonitantra, cit., 4.2.
25. Biswanarayan Shastri (ed.), Kāmākhyā-Tantra, Bharatiya Vidya Prakashana, Delhi-
Varanasi 1990, 1.4.
26. Shastri, Yoginī Tantra, cit., 1.11.37a.
27. Shin, Yoni, Yoginīs and Mahāvidyās, cit., p. 6. See G. P. Bhatt, Ganesh Vasudeo Tagare
(ed. and transl.), Vāyupurāna. Translated and Annotated, vol. 1, Motilal Banarsidass-unesco,
Delhi-Paris 1987, 1.45.135-7).
28. Shastri, Yoginī Tantra, cit., 1.15.52.
29. Banikanta Kakati, The Mother Goddess Kāmākhyā, or, Studies in the Fusion of Aryan
 the death of satī and the worship of her yoni 175

ishes30 – was adapted by Puranic Hinduism and, indeed, transformed in-

to the «yoni of Satī»31, originating the transcultural śākta-tantra cult of
Kāmākhyā.
On the one hand, this essay takes into consideration the northeastern
śākta purānas as being the only Puranic sources that narrated the dismem-
berment of the goddess Satī and the following rise of the śākta pithas – and
of the yoni pitha in particular  –  through the Indian subcontinent32. On
the other hand, the northeastern early medieval Kaulajñānanirnaya and
Kulacūdāmani Tantra33 are considered to relate the myth of Satī’s death to
the x century rise of the renowned Yoginī Kaula school – a heterodox śāk-
ta-tantra school which reflects the final stage of the dialectic between the
Brahmanic élite and the Assamese local traditions34. Unfortunately, being
the tribal traditions oral-based, we lack of textual or epigraphic documents
to outline religions, uses and customs of the early medieval tribes of North-
east India35.
Therefore, the only available point of view on the tribal traditions of an-
cient and early medieval Assam is provided by material evidence produced
by the Hinduized élite. Furthermore, the role covered by the tribal tradi-
tions into the formation of the Yoginī Kaula school and its fundamental
ritual of yoni pūjā (worship) is entrusted to the ethnographic studies of the
variegated northeastern tribal cosmos and its religious and ritual customs
and practices.

and Primitive Beliefs of Assam, Punya Prasad Duara for the Assam Publishing Corporation,
Guwahati 1948, p. 43.
30. Hem Barua, The Red River and the Blue Hill, Lawyer’s Book Stall, Guwahati 1962
(1st ed. 1954), pp. 68-72.
31. Shin, Yoni, Yoginīs and Mahāvidyās, cit., p. 15.
32. The only exception is the Devīpurāna; see Rosati, Nīlācala, cit., pp. 38-40; and Ro-
sati, Yoni Cult, cit., pp. 285-8.
33. The edited Kulacūdāmani Tantra is supposed to be a transformed version of an
ancient tantra whose title was maintained; see Mark S. G. Dyczkowski, The Canon of the
Śaivāgama and the Kubjikā Tantras of the Western Kaula Tradition, State University of New
York Press, Albany (ny) 1988, pp. 12, 141 note 49.
34. According to Manjil Hazarika (Ancient Population Movements in Northeast In-
dia: A Closer Look at the Ethnolinguistic Prehistory, in “Men in India”, vol. 97, n. 1, 2017,
pp. 234-5) this cross-cultural negotiation began during the iv century ce and it had as
main actors the Indo-Aryan élite and the Tibeto-Burmese speaking people of the north-
eastern hills.
35. See Christian K. Wedemeyer, Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism: History, Semiology
and Transgression in the Indian Traditions, Columbia University Press, New York 2012, p. 25.
176 paolo e. rosati

2
The splitting of Satī’s yoni: A Yoginī Kaula contrivance

A recurrent theme of the Puranic literature is the story of daksayajña (sac-

rifice organized by Daksa) and its destruction at the hands of Śiva and his
army of ganas (troops) headed by Vīrabhadra, which was instigated by the
suicide of Satī into the sacrificial pyre36. The Kālikāpurāna37 – whose actual
recension is dated no later than the xi century38 – recasts the story adding
two fundamental and intertwined śākta elements: 1. the dismemberment of
the corpse of Satī after her death39, which originated 2. the rise of the śākta
pītha network from its limbs that fell down on India40.
Among the goddess’s limbs her yoni fell on Nīlācala, where it is still pre-
served inside the garbhagrha of the temple of Kāmākhyā, which became the
yoni pītha, the most powerful goddess’s sacred site – primeval matrix of the
universe41. Kāmākhyā was already considered one of the original catuspīthas
(four original seats) in the Hevajra Tantra42, a Buddhist Tantric text that
pre-dates the Kālikāpurāna of around 150 years43. However, there the pīthas
are not linked to the mythology of Satī’s death but they are related from a
philosophical point of view to the bodhisattva’s bhūmis (grounds)44, while

36. The hostility between Śiva and Daksa was due to the fact that Śiva was a kāpālin
(skull bearer), a condition that remembered his Brahmanicidal act against Brahmā ( Jag-
dish L. Shastri [ed.], The Śiva Purāna, vol. 1, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 2002, 1st ed. 1950,
2.2.29.20). The origin of this myth can be traced back to the Vedic incest between the father
and the daughter which was stopped by the cosmic archer – one of the primary mythologems
that, together the Rigvedic sacrifice of the purusa (cosmic man), influenced the later Puranic
plot (see Rosati, Yoni Cult, cit., pp. 281-3).
37. The full story from the wedding of Śiva and Satī to the destruction of daksayajña is
narrated in Shastri, The Kālikāpurāna, cit., chaps. 16-18.
38. Van Kooij, Worship of the Goddess, cit., pp. 3-4.
39. Shastri, The Kālikāpurāna, cit., 18.39-40; see also Pandey, Devībhāgavatapurāna,
cit., 7.30.44-50; Kumar, Mahābhāgavata, cit., 12.19b-21.
40. Shastri, The Kālikāpurāna, cit., 18.41-3; see also Pandey, Devībhāgavatapurāna, cit.,
7.30.53-102; Kumar, Mahābhāgavata, cit., 11.106-18.
41. Hugh B. Urban, Matrix of Power: Tantra, Kingship, and Sacrifice in the Worship of
Mother Goddess Kāmākhyā, in “South Asia: Journal of South Asia Studies”, vol. 31, n. 3, p. 503.
42. David L. Snellgrove (ed. and transl.), Hevajra Tantra: A Critical Study, vol. 1, Oxford
University Press, London 1959, 1.7.12.
43. See Péter-Dániel Szántó, Selected Chapters from Catuspītatantra. 1/2: Introductory
Study with the Annotated Translation, Unpublished DPhil Thesis, University of Oxford,
Oxford 2012, p. 14.
44. Snellgrove, Hevajra Tantra, cit., p. 69 nota 1. The bhūmis represent the ten highest
reaches of the bodhisattva’s path leading to the buddhahood.
 the death of satī and the worship of her yoni 177

from a ritualistic point of view to śmaśānas (cremation grounds), described

as yoginī pīthas45.
Therefore, the Kālikāpurāna appropriated and transformed an earlier
non-Brahmanic tradition, switching the philosophical and religious focus
from the bodhisattva to the goddess and connecting the yoginīs to the yoni
of Satī. Indeed the śākta text narrated that when the yoni fell on the moun-
tain it broke up into pieces, and then they reunited into a single stone
where the goddess Kāmākhyā resides46. As J. -E. Shin pointed out, the ep-
isode alluded to the existence of more yonis, which originated the main
eight yoginīs (Guptakāmā, Śrīkāmā, Vindhyavāsinī, Kotīśvarī, Vanasthā,
Pādadurgā, Dīrgheśvarī and Bhuvaneśvarī) whose abodes surrounded the
temple of Kāmākhyā47, in their primary fluid form of water48. Hence, the
yoginīs found their legitimization within the Brahmanic religions in the
Puranic narrative of the splitting of the yoni, a micro-replica of the original
dismemberment of Satī; however, the episode evoked the ancient non-Ar-
yan past of the yoginīs, being originated from a non-anthropomorphic
symbol. In fact, according to V. Dehejia the worship of the yoginīs and the
construction of their temples were originated «outside the fold of the or-
thodox Brahmanical tradition» and probably the origin of their cult must
be researched into «rural and tribal traditions»49. Unfortunately, there is
no substantial evidence to claim a non-Aryan origin of the yoginīs50, and D.
G. White disproved the theory that «Indian goddess traditions and Tantra
are forms of tribal cults»51, while he considered the cult neither non-Aryan
nor Hindu, but formed through centuries of transcultural negotiation52.
The yoginīs appeared for the first time in the Brahmanic literature in
the vi century ca. Agnipurāna53, although their cult was systematized in

45. Ibid., 1.7.10-9.

46. Shastri, The Kālikāpurāna, cit., 62.74-5.
47. Shin, Yoni, Yoginīs and Mahāvidyās, cit., p. 16.
48. Shastri, The Kālikāpurāna, cit., 62.91-5.
49. Vidya Dehejia, Yoginī Cult and Temples: A Tantric Tradition, National Museum,
New Delhi 1986, p. 1.
50. Shaman Hatley, Goddess in Text and Stone: Temples of the Yoginīs in Light of Tantric
and Purānic Literature, in Benjamin J. Flaming, Richard D. Mann (eds.), Material Culture
and Asian Religions: Text, Image, Objects, Routledge, New York-London 2014, pp. 209-10.
51. David G. White, Kiss of the Yoginī. “Tantric Sex” in Its South Asian Contexts, Paper-
back, Chicago University Press 2006 (1st ed. 2003), p. 29.
52. Ibid., p. 4.
53. Manmatha N. D. Shastri (ed.), Agnipurāna. A Prose English Translation, 2 vols,
Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, Varanasi 1967-68, chaps. 52, 146.
178 paolo e. rosati

Kāmarūpa around the ix or x century54, throughout the compilation of the

Kaulajñānanirnaya55, the eminent source of the Yoginī Kaula school. Ac-
cording to the text, the Yoginī Kaula was established by a siddha (perfect be-
ing) called Matsyendranātha, and was the earliest Tantric school56. Its foun-
dation throughout the ix and x century is corroborated by two lists of 64
yoginīs preserved in the Kālikāpurāna, the second of which is incomplete57.
There, the 64 yoginīs emerged as the attendants and protectresses of both the
goddess Kāmākhyā and of her yoni symbol.
The Kālikāpurāna also accounted a shorter passage that briefly reinter-
preted the destruction of the sacrifice. In this version Satī, after her death,
assumed a terrifying form and, together with Śiva and millions of yoginīs,
destroyed the sacrificial session:

[h]aving thus abandoned her body Satī afterwards revealed herself in the fierce form
(candamūrti) [...] Satī, assumed a terrible form, and then she being associated by tens
of millions of Yoginis, the retinue of Śaṅkara and with Śaṅkara himself carried on
the destruction of the sacrifice58.

The Kālikāpurāna, reformulating the daksayajña destruction, evidenced

that it was made of more strata belonging to different historical periods; in
fact, it is in its ritualistic section (chaps. 52-76) that the yoginīs appeared as
prominent deities. Hence, the Kālikāpurāna emerged as the fundamental
source of the northeastern theological pattern, being not only a śākta purāna
but also a Tantric text that influenced:
1. the later medieval northeastern śākta purānas, which transformed the
yoginīs of the daksayajña’s destruction into a group of ten goddesses called
Mahāvidyās59;
2. the early medieval and medieval northeastern tantras, whose theology is
focussed on both the worship of the 64 yoginīs60 and the yoni pūjā61.

54. White, Kiss of the Yoginī, cit., p. 278 note 98.

55. Urban, Power of Tantra, cit., p. 199 note 34.
56. Alexis Sanderson, Śaivism and Tantric Tradition, in S. Sutherland (ed.), The World’s
Religion: Religions of Asia, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London 1988, pp. 664-6.
57. Shastri, The Kālikāpurāna, cit., 54.35-45, 63.37-43.
58. Ibid., 61.6-10.
59. See Shastri, Brhaddharmapurāna, cit. 2.40; Pandey, Devībhāgavatapurāna, cit., 7.30;
Kumar, Mahābhāgavata, cit., chap. 11.
60. Bagchi, Kaulajñāna-nirnaya, cit., chap. 16; Woodroffe, Kulacūdāmani, cit., 3.46-57.
61. Schoterman, Yonitantra, cit., 8.13.
 the death of satī and the worship of her yoni 179

3
The śākta-tantra worship
of the yoni

According to the textual regional sources, the ritual praxis observed at the yo-
ni pītha was the result of a dialectic that involved vaisnava and śaiva strands
and various tribal groups inhabiting Northeast India.
The emergence of a śākta theology within the Brahmanic folds is a pro-
blematic issue, being its origin debated. The first recognized Brahmanic
śākta text is the Devīmāhātmya section of the Mārkandeyapurāna62, compi-
led during the vi century in the northwestern part of India63; on the other
hand, earlier literature can be described as proto-śākta. N. N. Bhattacharyya
claimed an indigenous origin of the śākta religions64, although other scho-
lars, such as K. Erndl, considered this an oversimplified theory65, which does
not take into consideration the complexity of the cross-cultural negotiation
process – which implies a wide dialectic between contrasting sub-processes
such as localization and universalization66.
The roots of Tantrism, an «alternative religious system» often related
to Shaktism, are debated too. C. Wedemeyer is of the opinion that no tribal
roots can be traced in the Tantric traditions67, because there are no early
medieval primary tribal sources that describe their cultural and religious
customs68. Following this method there is no evidence too of an orthoge-
netic development of a proto-śākta-tantra ideology within the Brahman-
ic theology. According to R. Davidson among the factors that influenced

62. See Frederick E. Pargiter (ed.), The Mārkandeya Purāna, The Asiatic Society, Cal-
cutta 1904 (1st ed. 1888), chaps. 81-93.
63. See Yuko Yokochi, The Warrior Goddess in the Devīmāhātmya, in Masakazu Tanaka,
Musashi Tachikawa (eds.), Living with Śakti: Gender, Sexuality and Religion in South Asia,
National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka 1999, p. 71; Thomas Coburn, Devī Māhātmya: The
Crystallization of the Goddess Tradition, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 1984, p. 241 note 101; cfr.
Rocher, Purānas, cit., p. 195.
64. Narendra N. Bhattacharyya, History of the Śākta Religion, Munshiram Manoharlal
Publishers, New Delhi 1974, pp. 1-2.
65. Kathleen M. Erndl, Śāktism, in Sushil Mittal, Gene Thursby (eds.), The Hindu
World, Routledge, London-New York, pp. 145-6.
66. Mackim Marriott, Little Communities in an Indigenous Civilization, in Id. (ed.),
Village India: Studies in the Little Community, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1955,
pp. 181, 197, 200.
67. Wedemeyer, Tantric Buddhism, cit., pp. 24-30.
68. Ibid.
180 paolo e. rosati

the emergence of Tantrism as an «alternative religious system»69 there are

«“pre-existing” elements [that] are not representative of the [...] emergent
system, but they provide some of the raw material – ritual, ideological, ter-
minological, functional, or other – for this development»70.
Unfortunately we are in front of an impasse, at the current state of the
art there is no evidence to deny or affirm the existence of pre-Aryan or
pre-existing elements influenced by Tantric developments. However, the
lack of primary tribal source is no evidence that tribal people did not in-
fluence regional Tantric systems71. Indeed the śākta-tantra is not a mono-
lithic system, so that it «is not everywhere a mainly tribal and non-Aryan
phenomenon»72, nor it is everywhere a very sophisticated philosophical
phenomenon73.
Comparing the results of the ethnographic studies on the distinct mod-
ern tribes currently inhabiting the hills and forests of Northeast India and
the śākta-tantra worship of the goddess Kāmākhyā, an affinity emerged in
both ritual praxis and theological conception. Furthermore, sexual symbol-
ism and death imaginary – both interrelated to blood sacrifices – cover a
relevant role in tribal religions74.
The śākta-tantra cult of Kāmākhyā subverted the Vedic ritual prescrip-
tions, transforming what was perceived as a taboo and an extremely impure
act into a source of power both religious and political – a power described by
H. Urban as «the power at the margins»75, being connected to the liminal,
often tribal, traditions76.
Two are the paths that the sādhaka (adept) follows to worship the god-
dess: the daksinabhāva (right-hand or exoteric path or orthodox meth-

69. Ronald M. Davidson, Magicians, Sorcerers and Witches, Considering Pretantric,

Non-Sectarian Sources of Tantric Practices, in “Religions”, vol. 10, n. 9 (188), 2017, p. 1.
70. Ibid.
71. See Paolo E. Rosati, The Cross-Cultural Kingship in Early Medieval Kāmarūpa:
Blood, Desire and Magic, in “Religions”, vol. 10, n. 10 (212), 2017, p. 11.
72. Ibid.
73. See Urban, Power of Tantra, cit., p. 10; see also Paolo E. Rosati, The Goddess
Kāmākhyā: Religio-Political Implications in the Tribalisation Process, in “History and Socio-
logy of South Asia”, vol. 11, n. 2, 2017, pp. 139-40.
74. This point was well explained in Rosati, Goddess Kāmākhyā, cit., pp. 146-52; however a
more psychoanalytic approach emerged in Rosati, Cross-Cultural Kingship, cit., pp. 8-10.
75. Urban, The Power of Tantra, cit., p. 26.
76. This violation of norms and the rulers’ ability to harness this dangerous power was
due to the fact that in the early medieval time Kāmarūpa was ruled by «mixed-blood sam-
karajāti kings», see Rosati, Cross-Cultural Kingship, cit., p. 11.
 the death of satī and the worship of her yoni 181

od) – which provides for vegetal and blood offerings – and the vāmabhāva

(left-hand or esoteric path or heterodox method) – which includes sexual
intercourse, consumption of sexual fluids and meat, and drinking alco-
hol77.
However, according to the Vedic prescriptions, blood sacrifices too were
prohibited acts, indeed the ritual victim should be killed through suffoca-
tion78 – the «divine method»79. Nonetheless, it is through decapitation and
bodily mutilation of the ritual victim that the splitting of Satī’s body is rep-
licated and hypostatised.
The vāmabhāva rituals, and more specifically the ritualization of the
maithuna (sexual intercourse) without any caste restriction, were performed
in secret and remote places, such as the śmaśānas80. While the Kaula ritual
focussed on blood offerings and the utilisation of inebriant beverages, the
Yoginī Kaula reformation switched the praxis to a «mystic-erotic» ritu-
al centred on the sexual worship of the human yoginīs81, often considered
semi-divine beings, counterpart of the male siddhas82.
Even if Tantric ritual paths are followed «for accessing and appropriat-
ing the energy or enlightened consciousness of the absolute godhead [...] that
infuses its creatures with life and the potential for salvation»83, the sādhakas
looked also to more immediate effects, such as supernatural powers or sid-
dhis (accomplishments)84, among them the power to fly, which perhaps in-
spired the hypaethral yoginī temple, an «open to the sky»85 architectural
typology, to the flying ability of the yoginīs.

77. Usually vāmabhāva ritual is associated to the pañcamakāras or five Ms, which con-
sisted in the consumption of madya (wine), māmsa (meat), matsya (fish), and in the perfor-
mance of maithuna (sexual intercourse); the fourth M, mudrā (parched grain), is the more
controversial in his metaphoric meaning, often connected with the body positions.
78. Julius Eggeling (ed.), Śatapatha Brāhmana: According to the Text of the Madhyandina
School, vol. 1, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 1963 (ed. or. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1882), 3.8.1.15.
79. Brian K. Smith, Ritual Perfection and Ritual Sabotage in the Veda, in “History of
Religions”, vol. 35, no. 4, p. 290.
80. Dyczkowski, The Canon, cit., pp. 6-7.
81. Dehejia, Yoginī Cult, cit., p. 13; White, Kiss of the Yoginī, cit., pp. 8-12.
82. Dyczkowski, The Canon, cit., pp. 63-5.
83. David G. White, Tantrism: An Overview, in Lindsey Jones (ed.), The Encyclopedia of
Religions (Second Edition), vol. 13, MacMillan, New York 2005, p. 8985.
84. Sravana Borkataky-Varma, The Ancient Elusive Serpent in Modern Time: The Prac-
tice of Kundalini in Kāmākhyā or the Elusive Serpent, in “International Journal of Dharma
and Hindu Studies”, vol. 1, n. 2, 2016, pp. 77-8.
85. Hatley, Goddess in Text and Stone, cit., p. 202.
182 paolo e. rosati

4
An ancient yoginī pītha on Nīlācala

The temple of Kāmākhyā is neither circular in plan nor hypaethral, for-

mal characteristics shared by most of the yoginī temples86. Nonetheless, the
sādhakas in Kāmākhyā still invoke the 64 names of the yoginīs during the
pūjā87, corroborating a link between the temple and the worship of the god-
desses cluster. Unfortunately, there are no architectural remains of a pre- or
early medieval temple of yoginīs, and not even a contemporary temple is
dedicated to this group of goddesses. However, the cult of the yoginīs was
prominent in Assam as well as in every śākta pītha88. Shin hypothesised that
when the yoginī cult was introduced at Kāmākhyā it was upraised to the
rank of a pan-Indian cult, finding a theological justification in the vi century
Devīmāhātmya89.
According to P. J. Deka a pre-medieval yoginī temple was demolished
after the Pālas’ collapse during the xiii century; however Deka was unable
to locate the shrine on Nīlācala90. His hypothesis is supported by a number
of sculptural remains of female deities scattered around the hill91, which are
supposed to belong to the x-xii century92.
In fact, two of the best preserved sculptures found on Nīlācala are
two Cāmundās (fig. 1), while a number of other possible yoginīs, such
as Bhairavī93, have been found preserved in the museum of the temple of
Kāmākhyā, other are near minor shrines or scattered across the mountain
(fig. 2). Unfortunately, the icons do not preserve their vāhanas (vehicles)
being ruined in their lower parts; further, neither theriomorphic nor the-
riocephalic sculptures were found – a typology often represented in yoginī
temples – although some sculptures were found without their heads, hence
it is dubious that theriocephalic yoginīs were ever produced94.

86. However there are few examples of no-circular plans, see Dehejia, Yoginī Cult, cit.,
pp. 103-44.
87. Ibid., p. 176.
88. Ibid., p. 78; Urban, The Power of Tantra, cit., p. 41.
89. Shin, Yoni, Yoginīs and Mahāvidyās, cit., pp. 14-5.
90. Deka, Nīlācala–Kāmākhyā, cit., p. 79.
91. Shanti Lal Nagar, Yoginī Shrines and Śaktipīthas, vol. 1, B. R. Publishing Corpora-
tion, Delhi 2006, p. 26.
92. Urban, The Power of Tantra, cit., p. 205 note 43.
93. Ibid., fig. 3.
94. Personal communication with H. Urban (email correspondence, 15-17 July 2017).
 the death of satī and the worship of her yoni 183

figure 1
Cāmun.d.ā on a pretāsana. Śrī Kedareśvara Śivālaya temple, Nīlācala. Pāla dynasty, x-xii
century

Source: photo © by the author.

Whether Kāmākhyā was an ancient yoginī pītha or not, their prominent role
is underscored by the representation of 36 yoginīs around the outer wall of
the garbhagrha, on its base moulding portion, such as protectresses of the
yoni. Unfortunately, the sculptural programme is dated to the late medie-
val period, and there are no elements to speculate whether it followed the
original programme95. It is plausible that the construction of the attached
chalanta96 covered other 12 sculptures of yoginīs. Through an interrelation

95. Cfr. Brenda Dobia, Śakti Yātrā. Locating Power, Questioning Desire: A Women’s
Pilgrimage to the Temple of Kāmākhyā, Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Western
Sydney, Sydney 2008, p. 145.
96. Chalanta is a square chamber attached to the garbhagrha.
184 paolo e. rosati

figure 2
Possible yoginīs. Nīlācala. Pāla dynasty, x-xii century

Source: photo © by the author.

between the Kālikāpurāna’s records and the philosophical concept related

to the architectural plan of the garbhagrha, it can be argued that Guptakāmā,
Śrīkāmā, Vindhyavāsinī, Kotīśvarī, Vanasthā, Pādadurgā, Dīrgheśvarī and
Bhuvaneśvarī protected the inner circle around the yoni, while both the ou-
ter and inner circles of yoginīs were emanated by the yoni stone, the abode of
Kāmākhyā and of Brahmānī, Māheśvarī, Kaumārī, Vaisnavī, Vārāhī, Aindrī,
Cāmundā, Mahālaksmī97, who confer a «very high status» to the cluster as
a 64 yoginī temple98.
The fact that the yoginī cluster in Assam comprised the yoginīs derived
from the ancient eight mātrs pointed out a substantial distinction with
Orissa, where in both Hirapur and Ranipur-Jarial 64 yoginī temples these 8
yoginīs were excluded99, perhaps because there was neither a super-regional
Yoginī Kaula school or a common iconographic programme followed by the
artistic atelier of Orissa and Assam.

97. These yoginīs derived from the eight mātrs (mothers); see Jae-Eun Shin, Changing
Dynasties, Enduring Genealogies: A Critical Study on the Political Legitimation in Early Me-
dieval Kāmarūpa, in “Journal of Ancient Indian History” 27, 2011-12, p. 52.
98. Dehejia, Yoginī Cult, cit., p. 187.
99. Ibid., pp. 98, 103-4.
 the death of satī and the worship of her yoni 185

5
The yoni stone: primeval “mouth of the yoginī”

The yoni stone emerges as a primordial symbol of Kāmākhyā and as the source
of the whole cosmos100. It is the material representation of the cosmos’ core
while the triangle pointing downward is its symbolic psycho-philosophical
transposition, being emblematically the bindu (dot) through which the axis
mundi flows towards the sky.
The yoni at Kāmākhyā is symbolically submerged by the cosmic waters,
such as the universe during the primeval chaos. The stone is red, flat and
square and it is always wet by a subterranean natural spring, which during
Ambuvācī festival turns into a reddish colour101, enhancing the connection
between Nīlācala and the menstrual blood of Kāmākhyā.
Thus, the primeval symbolism of the downward triangle burst into the
Kaula concept of the yoni as «mouth of the Yoginī», source of the Yoginī
Kaula gnosis102; indeed whether the yoni is Tripurāsundarī, Kālī or Kāmākhyā,
it is anyhow the triangular source of a mandalic cosmos103 created and dom-
inated by śakti. The worship of a non-anthropomorphic symbol underlines
the fundamental role played by the tribal traditions in the systematization of
the yoni cult of Kāmākhyā; often, tribal deities after having been absorbed
within Hinduism were anthropomorphized, while their non-anthropomor-
phic symbols were confined outside the garbhagrha104. The Puranic myth
of the yoni synthesized the local aniconism and Hindu iconism, a symptom
that «Hinduism has an extraordinary capacity to incorporate and amalgam-
ate other religions and alien cults»105, and that during the past time Brah-
manic and tribal religions shaped an intertwined religious continuum, which
was based on a mutual cross-fertilization106. In this way, the yoni is linked

100. Shastri, The Kālikāpurāna, cit., 72.74-6.

101. Claudia Ramasso, Il tempio di Kāmākhyā e il culto delle Daśa Mahāvidyā, in “Annali
Ca’ Foscari”, vol. 46, n. 3, 2007, p. 186.
102. White, Kiss of the Yoginī, cit., p. 101.
103. Ibid., p. 93.
104. See Anncharlot Eschmann, Hinduization of Tribal Deities in Orissa: The Śākta and
Śaiva Typology, in Anncharlot Eschmann, Hermann Kulke, Gaya C. Tripathi (eds.), The Cult
of Jagannath and the Regional Tradition of Orissa, Manohar Publishers, New Delhi 1978, pp.
81-9; see Cornelia Mallebrein, Local and Tribal Deities: Assimilation and Transformation, in
Vidya Dehejia (ed.), Devi: The Great Goddess. Female Divinity in South Asian Art, Smithso-
nian Institute, Washington dc 1999, pp. 141-2.
105. Eschmann, Hinduization, cit., p. 79; cfr. Shin, Changing Dynasties, cit., p. 46.
106. Hermann Kulke, Tribal Deities at Princely Courts: The Feudatory Rajas of Central
186 paolo e. rosati

back to its tribal origin, while the role that is usually covered by the anthro-
pomorphic icon switched to a human medium possessed by the goddess107,
who could be a priest or a special person selected by the goddess108.
In the temple of Kāmākhyā not only the yoni stone, but also the survival of
blood sacrifices recall a connection with tribal beliefs and their rituals for earth
fertilization109; however, being the bloody rituals confined to the outside of the
main temple, it is evident that also an Hinduization process affected the cult110.

6
Conclusion

Art remains, sexual and blood rituals, and the non-anthropomorphic main
yoni symbol corroborate the idea that the yoginī cult has its roots in the tribal
universe and that during the early medieval period it was of fundamental
relevance for the political stability of the kingdom of Kāmarūpa.
The yoginīs were originated from the splitting of Satī’s corpse, a mytho-
logical act that was recast by the Kālikāpurāna through the symbolic break-
up of the yoni in pieces, which justified the close relation between Kāmākhyā
and the yoginīs. The yoni stone was not substituted with an anthropomor-
phic icon of Kāmākhyā even though she became, since the ix century, the
istadevatā (chosen deity) of the samkarajāti (mixed-blood) dynasties of
Kāmarūpa, thus facilitating the Hindu state formation process111. Therefore,
the Yoginī Kaula school arose during the early medieval ages as the result of a
Kaula reformation, which began around the x century112, and was influenced
by a cross-cultural negotiation between the Brahmanic tradition, extreme
śākta ideologies and distinct tribal cultures.

Orissa and Their Tutelary Deities, in Sitakant Mahapatra (ed.), Realm of the Sacred: Verbal
Symbolism and Ritual Structures, Oxford University Press, Calcutta 1992, p. 56.
107. Eschmann, Hinduization, cit., pp. 81-2.
108. Cornelia Mallebrein, Ruler, Protector and Healer: The Clan Gods Sulia, Patkhanda,
and Sikerpat of the Kondh Tribe, in “Journal of Social Science”, vol. 8, n. 2, 2004, p. 143.
109. Francesco Brighenti, Śakti Cult in Orissa, D. K. Printworld, New Delhi 2001, pp.
11, 28-30.
110. Eschmann, Hinduization, cit., p. 89.
111. Rosati, Cross-Cultural Kingship, cit., p. 5; Sharma, Inscriptions, cit., p. 104; cfr. Kulke,
Tribal Deities, cit., pp. 57-8, 77-8.
112. Alexis Sanderson, Purity and Power among the Brahmins of Kashmir, in Michael C.
Carrithers, Steven Collins, Steven Lukes (eds.), The Category of the Person: Anthropology,
Philosophy, History, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1985, p. 203.