Y
Yoginī
Shaman Hatley
Department of Asian Studies, University of
Massachusetts, Boston, MA, USA
Synonyms
Yogeśī ; Yogeśvarī
Definition
(1) A female tantric initiate or practitioner of
yoga; (2) a kind of medieval tantric goddess,
frequently therianthropic and endowed with
flight, embodying myriad aspects of the cosmic
creative power (śakti)
Introduction: Yoginīs and Their Yoga
Yoginī is the feminine of Sanskrit yogin (i.e.,
yogi), “practitioner of yoga.” In both premodern
and modern usage, yoginī may simply refer to a
female yogi or tantric initiate. In the early medie-
val period, however, the word also came to desig-
nate a variety of goddess prominent in Śaiva and
Buddhist tantric traditions and influential in pop-
ular religion as well. Temples dedicated to groups
of yoginī s were constructed across India, mainly
from the tenth to twelfth centuries, and yoginī s
# Springer Nature B.V. 2019
P. Jain et al. (eds.), Hinduism and Tribal Religions, Encyclopedia of Indian Religions,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1036-5_211-1
also left their mark in religious and narrative lit-
eratures. This entry mainly concerns the god-
desses known as yoginī s, rather than female
tantric adepts or practitioners of yoga, though in
some contexts the two are conflated. Indeed, one
of many meanings of yoginī and closely related
terms is “tantric sorceress” or “witch,” a notion
carried into the modern world, sometimes with
tragic consequences for the women so
imagined [1].
The designation yoginī , and even more so the
synonyms yogeśī and yogeśvarī, emphasizes the
goddesses’ extraordinary yogic powers. Although
yoga is typically associated with meditation,
asceticism, and bodily praxis, newer scholarship
emphasizes the extraordinary powers that have
been equally constitutive of the category ‘yoga’
[2]. The yoginī embodies yoga in this sense of
numinous power: supernatural attainments that,
according to Patañjali’s Yogasūtra, unfold
through perfect mastery of yogic discipline
[3]. Explanations of the word yoginī emphasize
this connection: the goddesses are so called
because they possess and may bestow “the majes-
tic powers of yoga” (yogaiśvarya) [4]. The classi-
cal view is that these comprise eight supernatural
abilities, such as the power to become infinitesi-
mally small, light, or gargantuan at will (aṇiman,
laghiman, and mahiman, respectively) [5]. In
some tantric traditions, these and other powers
are a major focus in the own right. Chapter 20 of
the Netratantra presents a distinctive vision of the
yoginī s’ yoga, which includes disciplines by
2 Yoginī
which they sap the life force or even “liberate”
souls from their bodies unwillingly, against which
protective measures are required [6]. As with the
ancient deities from whom yoginī s emerged, they
are not always benign.
While yoginī s defy simple characterization, a
multifactorial or “polythetic” definition is possi-
ble on the basis of their literary and sculptural
depictions [7]. First, yoginī s usually occur in
groups, which vary both in number and in the
deities’ individual identities. Sets of 6, 24, and
64 are particularly common. Second, yoginī s
blur the boundaries between goddesses and
women, for female adepts are viewed as poten-
tially becoming yoginī s through sudden gnosis, or
through perfection in tantric ritual. Third, yoginī s
are organized into clans (kula), though some clas-
sifications are based on yoginīs’ domains of activ-
ity (terrestrial, aerial, particular sacred places,
etc.). Fourth, yoginī s are therianthropic, distin-
guished by their animal forms and association
with shapeshifting. Sculptural and textual repre-
sentations endow some yoginī s with the heads of
animals, from horses and lions to birds and
snakes. Fifth, yoginī s are simultaneously associ-
ated with danger and impurity and commensurate
powers. While linked by etymology to the eight
“majestic powers” of yoga, tantric literature in fact
provides vast lists of the magical abilities yoginī s
both command and bestow, from the Six Acts
(ṣaṭkarman) of tantric sorcery, such as driving
away or killing enemies, to the preparation of
magical elixirs, entry into subterranean paradises,
or joining the ranks of the celestial wizards
(vidyādhara). Sixth, yoginī s are attributed the
dual roles of protecting and transmitting esoteric
tantric teachings. Lethal to those who violate the
tantras and the initiatory vows, yoginī s may also
gift devotees the secret teachings of their clans.
Finally, yoginī s are ubiquitously ascribed the
power of flight, foremost among the magical
attainments sought by their votaries [8].
Mother-Goddesses (mātr) and the
˙
Yoginīs’ Historical Background
Yoginī s first appear in textual sources of around
the seventh century C.E. but have earlier anteced-
ents. Their genesis is closely linked to another
goddess typology: that of mātṛs, “Mothers” or
“Mother-goddesses.” Nonelite goddesses of con-
siderable antiquity, mātṛs appear in both the visual
record and texts of the early first millennium,
including the Kuṣāṇa-era sculpture of Mathurā,
the Mahābhārata, and early medical literature.
The yoginīs’ animal features, shapeshifting, mul-
tiplicity, martial roles, and simultaneous beauty
and danger all find precedent in these early
Mother-goddesses, as does their connection with
flight. While taking on the mantric identities and
powerful iconography of tantric deities, yoginī s
have clear continuities with the Kuṣāṇa-era
Mother-goddess typology. Their connections are
even closer with a set of mātṛs known as the Seven
Mothers (sapta mātaraḥ or saptamātṛkā). By the
fifth century, public veneration of mātṛs increas-
ingly centered on this newly emergent goddess
heptad, comprised of Brāhmī, Māheśvarī,
Kaumārī, Vaiṣṇavī, Vārāhī (or Yāmī), Aindrī,
and their leader, the fierce and skeletal hag
Cāmuṇḍā. An eighth, transcendent goddess some-
times joins the seven, especially in tantric sources.
Tantric Śaiva treatises on “the characteristics of
yoginī s” (yoginī lakṣaṇa) classify these goddesses
as belonging to clans of the Seven or Eight
Mothers, in whose natures yoginī s partake as
“portions” or “partial manifestations” (aṃśa).
The Seven or Eight Mothers are perhaps the
most commonly occurring deities in yoginī sets,
in both texts and sculpture [9].
While intimately tied to mātṛs, yoginī s have
connections with other divine and semi-divine
beings as well, such as yakṣī s (dryads). In their
power of flight, they inherit the mantle of the
vidyādhara and vidyādharī, the celestial wizards
of early Indic myth. In their variegated, often wild
appearances and martial prowess, they take after
Yoginī
Śiva’s gaṇas – male deities who often, like their
lord Gaṇeśa and many yoginī s, sport animal-
faces. At their most malevolent, yoginīs have
affinity with vampiric female spirits known as
ḍākinī s, who are in fact often incorporated into
yoginī taxonomies. Yoginī s have as their most
direct antecedents the goddesses called
yogakanyās (“yoga maidens”) in the Guhyasūtra
of the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā, the earliest surviving
Śaiva tantra. The cosmology of this source attests
a variety of goddesses later brought within the
rubric of the yoginī : multiple kinds of Mother-
goddess, goddesses called the Sisters (bhaginī s),
and yogakanyās, maiden goddesses possessed of
yogic powers [10]. While yoginī s thus have ample
antecedents and a traceable Indic genealogy,
remarkable parallels in the ancient Persian and
Greco-Roman worlds suggest the existence of a
shared nexus of ideas concerning divine females
and witchcraft across cultures. Furthermore,
beliefs concerning yoginī s and related goddesses
spread from India with Buddhism as far east as
Japan. David White’s “Ḍākinī , Yoginī , Pairikā,
Strix: Adventures in Comparative Demonology”
provides a vivid hypothetical reconstruction of
these processes of cultural transmission [11].
Yoginīs as Tantric Goddesses
Tantric cults of yoginī s find attestation in the
Vidyāpīṭha (“Wisdom Mantra Corpus”) division
of Śaiva Bhairavatantras (“Tantras of Bhairava”),
and in Vajrayāna Buddhist Yoginī tantras (“Tan-
tras of the Yoginīs”) or Yoganiruttaratantras
(“Highest Yoga Tantras”). Although much
remains unknown about the dating and relative
chronology of this literature, Alexis Sanderson
makes a compelling argument that key Buddhist
Yoginī tantras and their ritual systems are heavily
indebted to Vidyāpīṭha sources and models [12,
13]. Regardless of the direction of influence,
yoginī s and their cults are a key shared feature
of these forms of Buddhism and Śaivism.
Tantras of the Vidyāpīṭha, some of which may
date to as early as the seventh century, feature
largely female pantheons in which yoginī s,
mātṛs, and related goddesses form the entourage
3
of various forms of Bhairava and/or Bhairavī. The
Tantrasadbhāva presents what might be the earli-
est reference to a pantheon of 64 yoginī s, a numer-
ical configuration that came to be standard by the
second millennium. These texts’ ritual systems
are for the most part highly antinomian, drawing
on older traditions of cremation-ground asceti-
cism augmented by mantra-based magical rites,
ritualized sexuality, and impure offerings (such as
alcohol and meat). The iconography of the cult
deities is replete with images of violence, death,
and eroticism. One of the paradigmatic aims of
ritual is attainment of power-bestowing encoun-
ters with the goddesses, referred to as
yoginī melaka or -melāpa (“rendezvous with
yoginī s”) [14]. Doctrinally, these sources con-
ceive of yoginī s and related goddesses as mani-
fold aspects of the supreme deity Śiva’s creative
and grace-giving śakti (power). As such, they
pervade the universe like rays, permeating the
hierarchy of worlds, cycles of time, sacred geog-
raphy, and even the human body, where they are
present as deities of the bodily constituents
(dhātu) and cakras of yoga [15]. The sophisti-
cated nondualist Śaiva exegesis of Kashmir
reconceptualizes yoginī s as the “rays of cogni-
tion” (cinmarīcayaḥ), union with which is the
embrace of the cognizing subject and object of
knowledge, where the duality of knower and
known dissolves into the void of
consciousness [16].
Yoginī s became increasingly integral to Tantric
Buddhism from the eighth century, beginning with
the Sarvabuddhasamāyogaḍākinī jālasaṃvara.
They are especially prominent in the Laghucak-
rasaṃvara, foremost of the cycle of texts dedicated
to Cakrasaṃvara and his consort, Vajrayoginī. In a
departure from Śaivism, Buddhist Yoginī tantras
use the terms ḍākinī and yoginī more or less inter-
changeably, notwithstanding the association of
ḍākinī s with vampiric violence in most non-
Buddhist sources. While the earlier Yogatantras
organized deities according to clans (kula) of the
five Buddhas of the Vajradhātu maṇḍala, texts such
as the Laghucakrasaṃvara introduce new, matri-
archal deity clans, much as Śaiva yoginī s were
classified according to clans and subclans of the
Mother-goddesses. Representations of ḍākinī s in
4 Yoginī

Indian Buddhist sources tally well with Śaiva Temples of the Yoginīs
conceptions of yoginīs: the goddesses are fully
representative of the yoginī typology described Veneration of yoginī s took on more public forms
above, combining in their mortuary (kāpālika), from the ninth century, when monumental temples
therianthropic iconography images of power, mys- dedicated to them began to be constructed across
tery, and eroticism [17]. By the second millennium, the subcontinent. Alongside yoginī s’ growing
sophisticated Vajrayāna scriptural and exegetical prominence in the Purāṇas, these temples mark
traditions gave yoginī s or ḍākinī s new roles and the goddesses’ entry into a more public religious
levels of meaning. A set of 36 yoginī s is integral to sphere. Prominent, well-preserved yoginī temples
the elaborate maṇḍala and bio-cosmology of the include those of Bheraghat, in Madhya Pradesh,
Kālacakratantra, for instance [18]. Conceptions of and Hirapur village, near Bhuvanesvar, Orissa.
ḍākinī s as mysterious wisdom goddesses remain Virtually unique to yoginī temples is that many
prominent in Tibetan Buddhism’s rich living are round and open to the sky. The enshrined
traditions [19]. goddesses most often number 64, and several
temples feature a central image of Śiva as well
as a smaller number of male and female guardian
figures [22]. Suiting the aspirations of their elite
Yoginīs, Women, and Goddesses
patrons, these temples seem to represent an adap-
tation of tantric yoginī pantheons and rituals to a
A major interpretive problem surrounds yoginīs:
more public, calendrical liturgy performed in per-
the term can apply to both goddesses and female
manent structures. While evidence is limited, the
practitioners, the boundary between which is fre-
rituals performed apparently included image wor-
quently blurred. This is partly because the yoginī
ship, fire ritual, night vigils, and animal sacrifice,
represents a state of being attainable by women
with a variety of aims reflecting the goddesses’
through perfection in tantric ritual. Taxonomies
diverse identities. Tantric initiates may have had a
reflect this, bringing within the rubric of the
strong presence at these sites, officiating over
yoginī not only powerful cult deities and minor
worship and perhaps conducting their own, more
goddesses of the skies, netherworlds, and places
esoteric practices [23]. Constructed and
of pilgrimage, but also women of the town and
maintained through at least the thirteenth century,
village, any of whom might secretly be a yoginī .
these temples ceased to be in active worship many
Female divinization is thus integral to tantric
centuries ago, although more humble yoginī
yoginī cults, and study of yoginīs is crucial to
shrines remain in use here and there. The medieval
reconstructing women’s roles in tantric traditions.
temples lie largely in ruins, and scattered yoginī
Scholarship has veered in different directions in
statuary may now be found in museums through-
navigating this issue, sometimes finding historical
out the world [24].
women where their presence is debatable, and at
other times inadequately considering the degree to
which depictions of yoginī s and women may con-
Modern Legacies
verge. Recent studies of early Vidyāpīṭha sources
suggest that the terms used for women reflect
The figure of the yoginī and closely related ḍākinī
multiple ritual roles and statuses: while the
have complex legacies in contemporary South
expressions śakti and dūtī tend to mean
Asia. In the living “high” śākta tantric traditions,
“consort” – a female participant in sexual rites –
yoginī s have relatively minor roles, appearing, for
the term yoginī is generally avoided in this con-
instance, among the goddesses in the pantheon of
text. In contrast, yoginī tends to signify compara-
the śrīcakra of Śrīvidyā [25]. The legacy of tantric
tively independent female practitioners,
yoginī s is relevant to contemporary nonelite tra-
counterparts of the male sādhaka, as well as
ditions as well, for example, to female religious
divine beings [20, 21].
specialists (jōgini, mātamma, etc.) in the villages
Yoginī
of Andhra Pradesh [26]. Traditional beliefs
concerning sorcery and witches remain influen-
tial, especially in rural communities; witchcraft
and other forms of supernatural agency are regu-
larly invoked as causes of misfortune and afflic-
tion, such as mental illness [27]. Cases of violence
against women accused of being witches (ḍākī ,
ḍāin, etc.) still come to light from time to time
[1]. Belying the awe and fear they evoke in some
rural societies, yoginī s have had something of a
revival in more urban and urbane circles. Though
long abandoned, temples of the yoginī s have
received renewed attention as tourist attractions,
sites for cultural revival and the performing arts,
and as places of active worship. For some, both in
and beyond India, the yoginī has re-emerged as a
potent feminine spiritual ideal [28, 29]. The trans-
national flowering of yoga, including its tantric
forms, has engendered renewed fascination with
yoga’s enigmatic flying goddesses.
Cross-References
▶ Kāpālikas
▶ Kaula
▶ Śaivāgamas
▶ Śākta Āgamas
▶ Saptamātṛkā
▶ Tantra
▶ Yakṣīs
▶ Yoga
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