Samdarshi_Pranshu._Yoginis_as_Goddesses Book Review

Samdarshi, Pranshu. ‘Yoginis as Goddesses’ Frontline, vol 32, issue 26, Dec.26,2015-Jan.08,2016: 86-87.
(Book Review of Anamika Roy’s Sixty-Four Yoginis: Cult, Icons and Goddesses, Primus Books, 2015)

BOOKS
Yoginis as goddesses
PRANSHU SAMDARSHI
Chennai: 06/10/2015: The Hindu: Front Line: Book Review Column: Title: Sixty-Four Yoginis. Cult, Icons and Goddesses.
Author: Anamika Roy. Publisher: Primus Books Publications release.
Author: Anamika Roy
Publisher: Primus Books, 2015
Pages: 354
Price: Rs.1,395
The book attempts to formulate the Yogini cult in a multilayered way, taking into account multiple
perspectives. By PRANSHU SAMDARSHI
CERTAIN scholarly habits, once ingrained, are difficult to change, especially when they have yielded some plausible
interpretative models, which have been used consistently and are rarely subjected to further critical analysis. The search for
“origins” is one such habit that can be clearly seen within the domain of studies on religion and its history in India. In order
to contextualise religious traditions in their sociopolitical, cultural and material milieu, scholars often get fixated on some
well-trodden origin theory so that those traditions can be appropriated to justify their ideology.
Although Anamika Roy’s Sixty-four Yoginis is a meticulously researched book, its effect is somewhat mitigated by a similar
display of scholarly repetition or redundancy. One of the main themes of this book, which recur in several chapters, is the
positing of cultic and tribal origins of Yoginis.
Readers of historical literature are familiar with this rhetoric of tribal origin, which has been redeployed and reinforced for
the religious traditions that were esoteric in nature and were not part of popular religion. Once a religious practice is
concluded to have a tribal origin, it can easily be designated as cultic, marginal and sometimes also superstitious. Thus, such
religious traditions become exotic, primitive, and, therefore, rather non-intriguing to academics. Academics, thereafter, just
have to construct a paradigmatic sociopolitical context within which associated motifs of deities and rituals can be
appropriated.
Anamika Roy tries to contextualise Yoginis by positing them as “real” women with shamanistic associations and as human
beings who came to be deified over time. She also follows the Sanskritisation theory and acknowledges the incorporation of
Yoginis into the Brahmanical fold and their final culmination into the retinue of an overarching Great Goddess tradition.
The book then puts forth the possibility of political reasons for the construction of Yogini temples. The author argues that by
accepting local deities, kings wanted to please and win over their conquered subjects. She points out another pragmatic
orientation for this worship; that is, the priestly association of the Yogini cult and its promising to bestow worldly gains, such
as good health, prosperity and victory in warfare.
Without much in-depth interrogation, the book tries to demonstrate the overlapping layers of Brahmanical clergy and tribal
shamanism. The relationship between kings and their patronage to Yogini temples is haphazardly illustrated by citing some
Tantric manuals. However, the author acknowledges that in the absence of any concrete archaeological and textual evidence,

Tantric manuals. However, the author acknowledges that in the absence of any concrete archaeological and textual evidence,
the royal patronage of Yogini worship remains a hypothesis.
The book attempts to formulate the Yogini cult in a multilayered way, taking into account multiple disciplines and
perspectives, ranging from art history to anthropology and theology to astrology. Some of the interpretative frameworks are
also drawn from gender studies and subaltern discourses, which try to address the question of the relationship of Yoginis
with women and the marginal communities of ancient India.
The book is divided into 10 chapters, which are followed by a conclusion, and a short appendix. The chapters are concise and
easy to read. Illustrations of Yoginis and charts, which occupy around 200 pages, outnumber the pages with textual content.
In the preface, the author intends to remove the “veil of secrecy that seems to shroud the reality of Yoginis”. Enthused by her
visit to a Yogini temple, the author was led into “a long academic journey of mysterious and esoteric world”, which eventually
resulted in the book.
Anamika Roy inquires about animal-headed Yogini figures, an aspect of Yoginis that she thinks has been neglected by art
historians. She argues that such masks for Yoginis are a symbolic representation of those extraordinary female ascetics who
acquired supernatural powers through shamanistic rituals and witchcraft. Taking the lead from Skanda Purana, the author
puts forward another possibility that Yoginis could be celestial beings who descended upon the earth in the guise of animals.
In an attempt to “demystify” the dancing Yoginis from Ranipur-Jharial in Odisha, the author posits them as historical female
figures with deep-rooted tribal connections. She aruges that as representations of these figures did not evolve in total
isolation, they must have incorporated several trends of those periods. The textual account of Balaram Dasa’s Bata Abakash is
provided to show the Devadasi connection of the dancing Yoginis and their probable associations with the Jagannath temple
in Puri.
The arguments in the chapter titled “The Terrifying Beauties” are well articulated and touch on a few pressing issues relating
to the art history of the Yogini icon. It suggests the need to focus on the dialogue that takes place between the artistic and
ritualistic aspects of these icons. By pointing out discrepancies between the Yogini names as listed in the Puranas and as
inscribed on the statues, the author argues for the need for dual articulation of Yogini images, that is, discerning autonomous
Yogini cults, which once “actually” existed in those religious settings, from the mythic model of Yoginis, as present in various
Sanskrit textual accounts.
Another important argument the book tries to build up is the need to discern these Yoginis from those in Tantra traditions. To
support this argument, the author points to the retention of Prakrit names inscribed on Yogini statues. However, the Prakrit
names of Yoginis do not necessarily imply their non-Tantric association. There are Hindu Tantra texts such as the
Maharthamanjari and the Buddhist Hevajra Tantra which frequently use Prakrit verses for their liturgical expositions.
The textual evidence cited in Sixty-four Yoginis is limited to texts belonging to Shakta Tantra and Nath traditions such as
Kularnava Tantra and Kaulajnananirnaya. The book lacks engagement with the soteriological discourses associated with
Yogini practices, which happen to be the major subject of non-dualist Saiva tradition. The author has also not touched on the
esoteric Buddhist tradition, which preserves a large corpus of Yogini Tantra texts, along with its vibrant living tradition in
Nepalese and Tibetan religious settings.
A portion of the book discusses the process of internalisation of Yoginis into the microcosmic form of the human body, where
they play the role of deities presiding over different chakras within the subtle yogic body. However, the somewhat limited use
of primary texts does not do justice to the in-depth accounts of practices presented in those cryptic texts. The book, for
instance, does not recognise the fact that the symbolic representation of Yoginis within non-dualist Tantra are essentially
meant for their internalised mode of rituals, where Yoginis are not considered to be external entities. While dualist tantric
traditions place Yoginis at a subordinate level, non-dualist Tantra places them at the pinnacle of their pantheon, even above
their male consort Bhairava. The haphazard mixing of dualist and non-dualist Tantra traditions in the book fails to present a
coherent narration.
Excessive employment of adverbs and expressions such as “may be”, “presumably”, “supposed to”, and “seem to” denotes the
speculative nature of arguments and non-definitive conclusions drawn by the author. Although the book does not articulate
its target audience clearly, the level of discourse seems more attuned to academics and researchers. The charts listing Yogini
names, concise information about icons and illustrations, along with the appended information about the location of Yogini
sites, would prove valuable for the inquisitive traveller or pilgrim. The book avoids diacritical marks for Sanskrit words and
indigenous terms. This makes it more accessible to the general reader.
The author claims in the preface that she “did manage to engage in valuable dialogue with acharyas of living tradition”. Such
discussions are not reflected in the discourse of the book.
In the appendix, the author mentions an “unreported” Yogini temple; however, the motifs associated with the temple indicate
that they are the eight Matrika goddesses, normally carved on the exterior walls of temples associated with Saiva or Shakta
traditions.
Although the book adds to the available resources on the subject and to a certain extent advances some thought-provoking
ideas, some of the hypotheses presented in the book should be reconsidered as research on the subject progresses. And such
progress will, in fact, be furthered by the resources provided in the book. As the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges
perceptively said, “In the East there yet exists the concept that a book should not reveal things; a book should simply help us
discover them.” The author should be applauded for her effort.
Pranshu Samdarshi is a PhD candidate and Senior Research Fellow, Department of History, University of Delhi.