¤ The Cradle of the Yogini Cult

Simple circular enclosures without a roof are an unusual phenomenon among the religious shrines in India. In addition, the circular walls of these enclosures have niches that enshrine sixty-four female images known as Yoginis. These shrines are referred to as the Chausati (sixty-four) Yogini temples, and the cult associated with them is known as the Yogini cult,forbidden archaeological sites of India. All told, nine Yogini temples have been discovered so far in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Orissa has two of these outstanding temples located at Hirapur, a deltoid village just outside Bhubaneswar, and another at Ranipur Jharial in the western strip of Bolangir district.


¤ Yogini Temples of India

of all the Yogini temples of India, the Hirapur Temple is the best preserved forbidden archaeological site. The Yoginis of this temple are shown as voluptuous women with slim waists wearing a ‘skirt’ held together by an ornate girdle worn low on the hips. From head to toe, these figures are adorned with necklaces, garlands, armlets, bangles, anklets, earrings and elaborate headdresses. The hairstyles vary from the more frequent large ornate buns piled one side of the head to small tight curls arranged on the head like a crown. While some of the Yoginis of Hirapur are portrayed as huntresses with bows and arrows, others are shown balancing on a pair of wheels, or playing a drum. Most of them have two hands, but a few are also shown with four. Some of them are poised over a mount that could commonly be a fish, parrot, turtle, frog, snake, scorpion, rat, or a decapitated male head, an archer, to name a few. Some of the Yoginis also have non-human faces of animals such as the horse, ass, rabbit, elephant and lion.


¤ The Origin of Yogini

The Yogini cult has its origin in the simple tribal and folk tradition of India that, by the 7^th-8^th centuries A.D., in conjunction with the Sakta-Tantric (worship of the Mother Goddess combined with certain magical rituals) form had acquired a more definite shape. A large body of Tantric texts and a similar number of shrines found in various parts of the country clearly reveal that several inexhaustible attempts made by its exponents and followers went a long way to popularise this esoteric cult between the 9^th and 12^th century.


¤ The Practice of Cult

Some later inscriptions found in certain Yogini temples further indicate that the cult was practised even in the 16^th century. It is still not clear as to when exactly the Yogini cult bowed out of limelight, and equally intriguing as to why its temples were abandoned.

In the ancient scriptures, often Yoginis are depicted as consorts of Yogis, and like their male companions practiced yoga (mediation) to gain mastery over science and acquire magical powers. Kaula marga, a tantric form of worship further includes Yoginis of different categories in its cakra (circle) associated with Shiva(Destroyer in the Hindu Holy Trinity of Creator-Preserver-Destroyer). The cakra is alternatively known as Yogini cakra, Kaula cakra (the circle of time) or the Bhairavi cakra(the circle of Bhairavi, the female companion of the terrifying form of Shiva known as Bhairava).


¤ To Attain Libration

The marga, or path, that defines five ways to perform penance to attain liberation and happiness are matsya (fish), mamsa (meat), mudra (parched grain), madya (liquor) and maithuna (sexual intercourse). A large collection of historical texts mention that to attain siddhi (spiritual powers), the Sadhakas (the Tantric worshippers) unanimously offered flesh, blood and wine to the Yoginis, a tradition still in practice in several parts of Orissa. Devotees offer all these things to most of the village goddesses on important festive occasions, in times of crises, and each time these goddesses manifest themselves in dreams or otherwise to the devotees, demanding such sacrifices.

oftentimes, the sadhakas took recourse to maithuna to attain the power of the Yoginis. According to the Kaula path, women of lower caste such as the rajaki (washerwomen), carmakari (leather worker), vesya (prostitute), matangi (an outcaste) and madhumati (vintner’s caste) are the most suitable partners in the ritualof maithuna. It further suggests that maithuna practised along with yoga leads to the most consummate and soul-lifting physical experience.

¤ The Great Tales of Yoginis Power

Yoginis are also associated with sorcery or witchcraft. A number of ancient texts recount terrifying stories highlighting this aspect of the Yoginis. According to these stories, Yoginis could acquire certain magical powers with which they could transform human beings into animals and birds. A few other stories talk of a category of witches referred to as dakinins, known for their ability to fly, besides their appetite for human flesh. In Orissa, surprisingly the ancient practice of witchcraft has still survived in certain areas. To cite an example, among the Santals of Mayurbhanj district, witchcraft is still prevalent. The Santali witches often leave behind their husbands in bed in the midst of the night to assemble in a forest. Completely naked, they spend the rest of the night dancing and singing with bongas (spirits or deities) and lions as their partners. At the break of dawn, they return to their beds, back to being what they originally were. The Santals believe that the ‘talent’ for witchcraft is not innate, but is attained through strict discipline.


¤ Chandi Purana Text

a 15^th century A.D. text, written by Sarala Das of Orissa, refers to Yoginis as forms of the Devi or the Supreme Goddess of the Saktas. According to the text, the Yoginis constitute the different parts of the body of the Goddess. Vidya Deheja in her book ‘Yogini Cult and Temples – A Tantric Tradition’ feels that the Yoginis’ association with Devi was a much later development, added to the existing Yogini temples, when it became necessary to incorporate the Brahmanical system into the Yogini cult. In some other religious texts, Yoginis are also referred to as the attendant deities of the Great Goddess. In contrast, another tradition categorises the 64 Yoginis into potent numeral groupings of 8 forms – those that signify the eight Great Goddesses or the Asta Matrakas. The images of these Asta Matrakas are widely found in India, and especially in Orissa in their larger-than-life forms.

¤ Great Stories of Sakta Workship

Certain streams of Buddhism set great stores by Yogini or Sakta worship.  The Vajrayana or the Tantric form of Buddhism, which had evolved against the principles of earlier Buddhism that was preached by the Buddha himself, had laid great emphasis on the theory of emancipation. The preachers of Vajrayana Buddhism redefined Nirvana (liberation) as Sunya (void), Vijnana and Mahasukha (extreme pleasure) that could be achieved by embracing a woman. In this newly-restructured nirvana, women were designated as Shakti, and their union with the Sadhaka came to be known as yoga. Further, Vajrayana Buddhists were empowered to violate laws, kill human beings, seduce women. They propounded a common slogan – identical actions by which mortals struggling for hundreds of billions of cycles could liberate the Yogin (the Enlightened Man). 


¤ The Yogini Temple Planning

The circular plan of a Yogini temple is a self-contained symbol that expresses either the complementary aspect of completeness and separateness, or the relationship between man and nature. Sixty-four, usually the number of deities of a Yogini temple is often considered as a potent and effectual figure in several Hindu texts – a phenomenon that became quite marked after the arrival of the Tantras. Tantric texts refer to the sixty-four Bhairavas, who, united with their respective Yoginis, have attained Siddhi or magical perfection.


¤ Worshipped Yoginis To Attain The Divine Occult Powers

It is quite apparent that a Sadhaka worshipped Yoginis in order to be initiated into a forbidden world of secret powers that he could exploit to gain control over body and mind, regulate natural elements, and obtain wealth. A Sadhaka also wished to acquire several destructive powers. Black magic was fascinating as it could help make a person lose consciousness, trigger off a sudden flood, annihilate a person, amidst other things.


¤ The Temple Lays In The Phase of Darkness

Astonishingly, a cult as widely prevalent as the Yogini cult, mentioned in several historical texts, as well as its forbidden archaeological temples located in different parts of India, had been largely left in the dark till quite recsently. One of the reasons could have been the deep sense of fear that prevented people from visiting its curious shrines, and could possibly explain as to why till 1953, the Hirapur Temple in Orissa remained undisturbed despite being located barely 15 kilometres from Bhubaneswar, a major temple centre.


¤ Hirapur Picturesque Village

Located over the vast plains of the Mahanadi delta, on the bank of the sacred Bhargavi River, Hirapur is a small picturesque village, set amidst a peaceful environment, just outside the modern bustling town of Bhubaneswar. The Yogini Temple, otherwise known as the Mahamaya Temple, situated near the village entrance has an ambience that is quite charged. The temple conveys an impression of the overwhelming power of its sixty-four Yoginis. Mahamaya, the presiding deity of the temple is found adorned with red cloth and vermilion. The deity is still worshipped by the local villagers.


¤ Hirapur Temple

The Hirapur Temple is the smallest of the Yogini temples in India. It measures only thirty feet in diametre, and is hardly eight feet high. The temple is built of coarse sandstone blocks with laterite as its foundation. The Yoginis are carved out of fine-grained gray chlorite. The inner walls of the temples have sixty-four niches with sixty Yoginis still in place. The recently reconstructed small central pavilion has eight niches. Four of these have the images of the remaining four of the sixty-four Yoginis, while the other four have images of the Bhairavas depicted with erect phalluses as is customary of the images ofShiva in Orissa. The images are about 2 feet tall, and the niches in which they are placed were probably treated as miniature shrines.


¤ The Sculptures Inside The Temple

TheHirapur Temple is the only Yogini temple that has female figures on its outer walls. The sandstone sculptures in the nine niches rise above large severed human heads. Each Yogini holds a curved knife or javelin in one hand, and a cup carved in the shape of a skull, in the other. Another unusual feature of this temple is a projecting entranceway flanked by doorkeepers. On either side of the narrow vestibule is a skeletal male of fearsome mien wearing a garland of skulls, and snake anklets. One of these male figures holds a severed human head. On the pedestal below are two more similar skeletal figures holding skullcaps, with jackals besides them.


¤ The Main Deities

Among the deities absent at Hirapur are the Matrakas, and the Chamundas (terrifying form ofParvati, Shiva’s consort), which indicates that they were not worshipped in this temple. 


¤ Bhauma & Somavamsi --The Constructors of Yogini Temple

The credit for building the Yogini temple of Hirapur goes to the illustrious Bhauma and Somavamsi rulers of Orissa who were known for their tolerance, liberality and eclecticism. Their rule, which lasted for two centuries (mid-8^th to mid-10^th century A.D.), has been depicted as the ‘Golden Age’ mainly due to their contribution in the field of religion, philosophy, art, architecture and literature. During this period, there was a gradual amalgamation of Shaivism (worship of Shiva), Shaktism (worship of the Mother Goddess) and the Vajrayana, or Tantric form of Mahayana Buddhism (for more information, see Religion) in the region. It is believed that the Yogini Temple at Hirapur was built towards the end of the Bhauma rule, in the 9^th century A.D., as the sculptures strongly resemble those of the famous Mukteshwar Temple of Bhubaneswar, constructed in the 9^th century.


¤ The Temple of Vaitala

The temple of Vaitala at Bhubaneswar, for example, is a representative specimen containing Sakta, Shaiva and Buddhist images. With the introduction of Tantrism, the Kapalika (an extreme form of Shaivism practised by certain streams of Tantrism) form of worship was introduced in certain temples. The name ‘Vaitala’ for instance, is derived from the word ‘Vetala’ (spirit) with the help of which the Kapalikas (the followers of the Kapalika sect) attained Siddhi. That the Kapalika form of worship was introduced in the temple of Vaitala, is attested by the fact that Chamunda, the presiding deity of the temple, is popularly known as Kapalini. The Kapalikas are most likely associated with the cult of the Yoginis along with other Sakta-tantric cults, and served as priests-magicians. The description of the Kapalikas in various texts, and the rituals they performed to propitiate Shiva and Shakti seem to link this mysterious sect to the mystic cult of the Yoginis.


¤ Yogini Temple Showcases the Extreme Form of Tantrism

For a visitor to the Yogini Temple at Hirapur, it would be certainly a surprise that the Yogini cult has been almost wiped out. However, the elements that were part of the cult abound in the temple and adjoining village shrines in the form of vermilion-stained stones. Slaughtered goats are often offered in oblation, testifying perhaps to the continuity of a deep-rooted earlier system of beliefs and practices.  This takes the visitor back to the 15^th century A.D., when the famous Oriya manuscript, the Chandi Purana was composed by Sarala Das, a devotee of the Goddess Sarala. The Chandi Purana, based on the story of the Goddess Chandi or Durga killing Mahisasura or the buffalo-demon, is a clear reflection of the extreme form of Tantrism practised in coastal Orissa of those times. According to the text, the Goddess Chandi is said to have liberated an innumerous number of female soldiers known as Yoginis, who were excessively fond of flesh, blood, bone and marrow. and to fulfill these desires, the soldiers fought incessantly with the demons till they were killed and could be consumed. The text says that numerous goats, rams and buffaloes were killed every day to propitiate the Goddess Sarala and the Yoginis.


¤ A Tour of Divine Path

Hirapur Temples also throws light on the role the worship of feminine cults played in promoting harmony through the synthesis of major religious traditions of medieval Orissa. and as long as the beautifully carved faces of the Yoginis wear their intriguing smiles, we might always fall short of the final word on them.