27 Mar The Yogini Cults
One of the lesser-known sects of the Kaula tradition that has been ignored by scholars and art historians are the yogini cults (Dehejia,1986). These cults appear to have survived untouched by the influence of the patriarchal (or Buddhist) invasion. A series of circular temples honoring the yoginis were built in the northern part of India that were ringed by voluptuous images of the 64 yoginis, often with nonhuman heads and wearing necklaces of human skulls. The temples were unlike any other shrines in India, more closely resembling the circular, open monuments of Stonehenge, Avenbury, or Delphi – perhaps remnants of an earlier worldwide Goddess religion.
For the yogini cults there was no higher means for attainment of liberation than maithuna, or sexual union. It is believed that a central rite may have been multiple couples practicing maithuna in ritual circles inside the temples. The rituals were full of wine, animal sacrifice, and sexual desire. The focus was more on the enjoyment of the world and all its treasures than on liberation.
By 1000 AD the Jains claimed they had gained control over the 64 yoginis, and perhaps they had outwardly. Daniel Odier, however, states that the yogini tradition has never disappeared and has continued to be handed down one-to-one from powerful yoginis to carefully chosen initiates (2020). He wrote the book Tantric Quest (1996) about his own personal initiation by the yogini, Devi. He says that the reason this is hidden is because it is an oral tradition that is passed on by personal transmission, and that the yoginis are uninterested in power or fame. Odier also dates the yogini tradition as developing from 700 BCE – 300 CE, which would put it clearly as an outgrowth of the original Goddess religion untouched by Buddhism.
“Many of the masters were, and still are, women. Certain lineages are transmitted only through women, and, as an adept, the woman has greater credit than the man in terms of power, courage, and depth of vision. The texts clearly state: “What a male tantrika realizes in one year, a female adept attains in one day” (Odier, 1996, p. 21).
Allione (2000) also writes of wandering yoginis who would have avoided the monasteries where patriarchal bias predominated.
© 2024 Catherine Auman
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