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This book explores the cross- and trans-cultural dialectic between Tantra and intersecting ‘magical’ and ‘shamanic’ practices associated with vernacular religions across Monsoon Asia. With a chronological frame going from the mediaeval... more
This book explores the cross- and trans-cultural dialectic between Tantra and intersecting ‘magical’ and ‘shamanic’ practices associated with vernacular religions across Monsoon Asia. With a chronological frame going from the mediaeval Indic period up to the present, a wide geographical framework, and through the dialogue between various disciplines, it presents a coherent enquiry shedding light on practices and practitioners that have been frequently alienated in the elitist discourse of mainstream Indic religions and equally over- looked by modern scholarship.
The book addresses three desiderata in the field of Tantric Studies: it fills a gap in the historical modelling of Tantra; it extends the geographical parameters of Tantra to the vast, yet culturally interlinked, socio-geographical construct of Monsoon Asia; it explores Tantra as an interface between the Sanskritic elite and the folk, the vernacular, the magical, and the shamanic, thereby revisiting the intellectual and historically fallacious divide between cosmopolitan Sanskritic and vernacular local.
The book offers a highly innovative contribution to the field of Tantric Studies and, more generally, South and Southeast Asian religions, by breaking traditional disciplinary boundaries. Its variety of disciplinary approaches makes it attractive to both the textual/ diachronic and ethnographic/synchronic dimensions. It will be of interest to specialist and non-specialist academic readers, including scholars and students of South Asian religions, mainly Hinduism and Buddhism, Tantric traditions, and Southeast Asian religions, as well as Asian and global folk religion, shamanism, and magic.
RoSA vol. 14 nos. 1-2 (Special Issue on Tantra) Guest Editorial Paolo E. Rosati (Author) A Poet with His Philosopher's Hat On A Preliminary Study of the Philosophical Section In the Seventeenth Canto of Mankha's Srikanthacarita... more
RoSA vol. 14 nos. 1-2 (Special Issue on Tantra)

Guest Editorial
Paolo E. Rosati (Author)

A Poet with His Philosopher's Hat On A Preliminary Study of the Philosophical Section In the Seventeenth Canto of Mankha's Srikanthacarita
Chiara Livio (Author)

Ontological Transformations in Hindu Tantric Ritualisms of Kathmandu Valley A Neurocognitive Perspective about Self and Bodies
Fabio Armand (Author)

Vernacular Tantra? An Analysis of the Bengali Text The Garland of Bones
Lubomír Ondračka (Author)

The Roots of the Two Sides of Kamakhya The Blending of Sex and Death in Tantra
Paolo E. Rosati (Author)

'Devi Needs those Rituals!' Ontological Considerations on Ritual Transformations in a Contemporary South Indian Srividya Tradition
Monika Hirmer (Author)

Sakta Tantric Traditions of Kerala in the Process of Change Some Notes on Raudra-Mahartha Sampradaya
Maciej Karasinski (Author)

Book Reviews

Unfortunate Destiny: Animals in the Indian Buddhist Imagination, by Reiko Ohnuma
Herman Tull (Author)

Buddhism, Education and Politics in Burma and Thailand: From the Seventeenth Century to the Present, by Khammai Dhammasami
Nathan McGovern (Author)

Tibetan Buddhism and Mystical Experience, by Yaroslav Komarovski
Jackson Stephenson (Author)
The shrine of Kāmākhyā (Assam) was supposed to be the eminent yoginī-pīṭha. Inside the sanctum of Kāmākhyā a yoni (vulva) stone is concealed as the main cultic image of the Goddess, which Kaulism identified as the ‘mouth of the yoginīs’.... more
The shrine of Kāmākhyā (Assam) was supposed to be the eminent yoginī-pīṭha. Inside the sanctum of Kāmākhyā a yoni (vulva) stone is concealed as the main cultic image of the Goddess, which Kaulism identified as the ‘mouth of the yoginīs’. This article analyses the symbolism related to the Tantric cult of the yoni and its historical evolution through the combined lens of History of Religions and Cognitive Science of Religions. Kāmākhyā thus emerges as a hyper-blended space, whose origin should be tracked down to the intersection of death symbolism related to the non-Brahmanic cult of Heruka and his retinue of yoginīs and the Kaula erotic reformation of the cult of the yoginīs. Therefore, the yoginīs played a fundamental role in the construction of Kāmākhyā—as either a caring mother or as a dreadful mother—conveying other blended spaces to the yoni metonymic symbol. Hence, this article aims, through the analysis and interrelation of textual, epigraphic and material evidence, to debate the dialectic between eros and thanatos in order to shed light on the overlap, superimposition and blend of trans- and cross-cultural elements in the multifarious goddess Kāmākhyā.
The mythology of the yoni of Satī was introduced in the early medieval Kālikāpurāṇa (ninth-eleventh century ce), a śākta text that linked the sexual symbol of the Goddess to the Kāmākhyā-pīṭha in Assam. This article will analyse the... more
The mythology of the yoni of Satī was introduced in the early medieval Kālikāpurāṇa (ninth-eleventh century ce), a śākta text that linked the sexual symbol of the Goddess to the Kāmākhyā-pīṭha in Assam. This article will analyse the medieval Purāṇas and Tantras compiled in northeastern India-focusing on their mythological accounts of the cosmogony of the yoni pīṭha-in order to outline a historical evolution of the yoni symbol through the Middle Ages. Combining leftist Freudian, post-structuralist and post-gender theories with religious studies, the yoni will be considered both as a source of power and as a battlefield of sex-gender identity. In conclusion, this article will challenge the idea of a static yoni but will underline a sex-gender evolution of its identity, which encompasses and transcends both male and female powers.
Kingship in early medieval Kāmarūpa (Assam) was influenced by the collision of orthodox and heterodox Brahmanic traditions with various tribal cultures. Since the last part of the Śālastambha period (seventh–tenth century) the royal... more
Kingship in early medieval Kāmarūpa (Assam) was influenced by the collision of orthodox and heterodox Brahmanic traditions with various tribal cultures. Since the last part of the Śālastambha period (seventh–tenth century) the royal tutelary deity of Kāmarūpa was the menstruating Kāmākhyā, an ancient kirāta goddess. According to the Puranic tradition, the cult of Kāmākhyā was absorbed within Hindu religious folds by the mytho-historical king Naraka of Kāmarūpa. According to textual and epigraphic records, Naraka was conceived by Pṛthvī (Earth goddess) during her menstrual period, through a sexual intercourse with varāha (boar form of Viṣṇu ). All early medieval dynasties of Kāmarūpa traced back their origins to Naraka, connecting their lines to the divine power but also to the menstrual blood—a substance considered extremely impure though powerful in Vedic and post-Vedic traditions. The king operated as a cross-cultural mediator: he was the only actor who was able to harness the produced polluted forces, through the Tantric rituals, in order to strengthen the political power. Thence, this essay aims to demonstrate, through inter- and intra-textual evidences, epigraphic records, and ethnographic data, that in Assam throughout the early medieval ages, the kingship grounded its roots in an osmotic cross-cultural process which was influenced by tribal traditions and orthodox and heterodox Hindu sects.
This article examines the cross-cultural influence that worked on the absorption process of the goddess Kāmākhyā (Assam) within the Brahmanic pantheon, through a correlation of textual and historical-religious pieces of evidence.2 In... more
This article examines the cross-cultural influence that worked on the absorption process of the goddess Kāmākhyā (Assam) within the Brahmanic pantheon, through a correlation of textual and historical-religious pieces of evidence.2 In Assam, the cross-cultural interaction, between local tribes and Indo-Aryan speakers, began around 200 BCE–100 CE—when the Vedic culture had already changed from its earlier theological pattern.  Therefore, after had been influenced by a long cross-cultural negotiation, the early medieval north-eastern purāṇas.
transformed the dakṣayajña myth, legitimising the temple of Kāmākhyā on Nīlācala as the greatest śākta pīṭha (seat of power), where the yoni (vulva) of Satī was preserved. In this way, the śākta purāṇas reconnected Nīlācala–Kāmākhyā not only to the sexual symbolism, but also to an ancient cremation ground and its death imaginary–a fact that the systematisation of the yoginī cult (ninth–eleventh century) into the Yoginī Kaula school corroborated. In this cross-cultural context, the early medieval Assamese dynasties emerged tied to the danger of liminal powers—linked to both the heterodox śākta-tantra sects and tribal traditions that were harnessed by the kings through the exoteric and esoteric rituals practised at Kāmākhyā.
In ancient Assam the mythology of Dakṣa’s sacrifice and the consequent suicide of Satī was transformed, in order to incorporate the yoni (vulva) symbol in the Brahmanic context. According to the North-eastern Purāṇas the limbs of the... more
In ancient Assam the mythology of Dakṣa’s sacrifice and the consequent suicide of Satī was transformed, in order to incorporate the yoni (vulva) symbol in the Brahmanic context. According to the North-eastern Purāṇas the limbs of the dismembered goddess’s corpse fell to the earth, originating the śākta pīṭhas (seats of the goddess); in particular, the yoni of Satī fell on Kāmagiri, a place that became well-known as either the place where Śiva and Śakti met to make love, or the goddess’s tomb. Before Brahmanic cultural contact with the local traditions of Kāmarūpa, the autochthonous religion was the kirāta dharma (religion of Kirātas), and it was already developed within the Kāmākhyā cult, later absorbed in the Brahmanic religious fold. In her shrine, Kāmākhyā has been worshipped in the shape of a yoni-stone. This non-anthropomorphic cult is the result of cross-cultural dialectic between autochthonous tribes and the Vedic and heterodox Brahmanic traditions, which lead to the fusion of local deities and the mainstream Hindu goddesses, resulting in the goddess Kāmākhyā. Later, Kāmākhyā was raised to the rank of royal tutelary deity to integrate local tribes and the Hinduized kings of Kāmarūpa. Using inter-textual and intra-textual analysis as well as ethnographic data, this essay aims to demonstrate that tribal traditions strongly influenced the śākta-tantra developments of the yoni cult at Kāmākhyā.
This chapter explores the connection between Tantra and magic tradition of Nīlācala in Assam in order to explain the encounter between Brahmanism and magic. The chapter first discusses the doctrinal, ritual, and mythical background of the... more
This chapter explores the connection between Tantra and magic tradition of Nīlācala in Assam in order to explain the encounter between Brahmanism and magic. The chapter first discusses the doctrinal, ritual, and mythical background of the cult of the Goddess Kāmākhyā, whose roots go back to the esoteric sexual path of Kaula Tantra praxis. Having traced the history to this path, which around the 10th century switched from blood sacrifice to a mystic-erotic ritual centred on the yoni pūjā (worship of the vulva), homologizing blood offerings and erotic rituals focusing on the human body as a source of sexual fluids necessary to obtain such supernatural accomplishments (siddhi), the chapter then examines the concept of siddhi as a ‘magical power’ that can be acquired only by who belong to the kula (clan), the only ones that know the yoni’s secret. The restricted transmission of siddhis over kula’s generations is complement the ideology of blood sacrifice. Finally, it considers the intersection of indigenous traditions and Brahmanical ritual praxis in Assam as the source of the peculiar cult of the yoni of Kāmākhyā. From this discussion, Assamese Tantra emerges as a religious phenomenon that crosses socio-cultural boundaries and encompasses apparently irreconcilable categories.
In Kāmarūpa (Assam) after the Hindu invasion headed by Naraka, the brāhmaṇas in order to legitimise the yoni (vulva) tribal symbol within the Brahmanic ideology manipulated the mythology of Dakṣa’s sacrifice. Therefore, only the... more
In Kāmarūpa (Assam) after the Hindu invasion headed by Naraka, the brāhmaṇas in order to legitimise the yoni (vulva) tribal symbol within the Brahmanic ideology manipulated the mythology of Dakṣa’s sacrifice. Therefore, only the North-eastern purāṇas narrate the origin of the śākta-pīṭhas (seats of the goddess) from the limbs of Satī, after her body’s dismemberment; her yoni landed on the Nīlācala in Kāmarūpa, where Kāmadeva (Desire) regained his shape after he had been incinerated by Śiva. Thence, the tribal yoni was transformed in the “yoni of Satī” and Nīlācala became the yoni-pīṭha. The Kāmarūpa is connected either with sexual or death imaginary, and both are inherited from tribal traditions. Yet the local goddess Kāmākhyā was absorbed into the Hindu pantheon, though her tribal roots survived within the mythologies of desire, death and rebirth which linked Kāmadeva and Satī to the temple of Kāmākhyā on Nīlācala, as well as in her aniconic cult and in its related ritual praxis.
Thence, this essay aims to explain the cross-cultural negotiation which took place at Nīlācala, through the analysis of Sanskrit mythologies connected to the sacred hill as well as the study of ritual praxis linked to the temple of Kāmākhyā that was observed during a field-work period.
Editorial on Tantra to introduce the special issue I edited for RoSA (vol. 14 nos. 1-2)
for the published version, see: https://journal.equinoxpub.com/ROSA/article/view/19632
Kāmākhyā is the presiding goddess of the temple complex that is on top of Nīlācala (blue mountain) in the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam. In the Sanskrit sources, the hill is also known as Kāmagiri (love-making mountain). There, the Goddess... more
Kāmākhyā is the presiding goddess of the temple complex that is on top of Nīlācala (blue mountain) in the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam. In the Sanskrit sources, the hill is also known as Kāmagiri (love-making mountain). There, the Goddess is worshipped in the non-anthropomorphic form of a yoni (vulva) stone that is housed inside the garbhagṛha (sanctum) of her temple. The garbhagṛha is an extremely dark and claustrophobic chamber under the ground level, where a natural stream flows through the rocks and is poured out from a cleft of the yoni stone. Hence, the sacred stone is covered permanently by the water, so that the devotees have to touch it in order to experience darśana (seeing). Recent scholarship refers to Kāmākhyā as a trans- and cross-cultural goddess who intersected, fused, and superimposed elements from Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical milieux. The main festival dedicated to her, the Ambuvacī melā, occurs every year in the month of āṣāḍha, during the monsoon, to celebrate her menstrual cycle. At the beginning of the festival, the temple’s doors are closed for three days. On the fourth day, the doors are opened and many thousands of pilgrims belonging to different strands (e.g., tantric, Śākta, tribal) enter the complex to worship Mā Kāmākhyā. The worship of a menstruating yoni closely relates this peculiar Assamese cult to the Earth goddess. In fact, according to the early medieval Kālikāpurāṇa—a northeastern purāṇa devoted to the worship of Kāmākhyā—the Kirāta cult of Kāmākhyā was incorporated into the Brahmanical tradition by King Naraka, who was conceived by the Earth goddess during her menstrual period. The yoni pūjā (worship) is justified within the Hindu-tantra tradition through a northeastern variation of the Purāṇic story of Satī’s sacrifice—which is part of the dakṣayajña (the sacrifice that was organized by Dakṣa) myth. According to this regional variation, after the death of Satī, her corpse was dismembered, and her body parts fell on earth originating the śakti pīṭhas (seats of power). Among her dismembered parts, the yoni fell on Nīlācala, which became the most eminent among the śakti pīṭhas. According to a less-known late medieval myth—which is preserved in the Yoginītantra, another northeastern source—the yoni pīṭha originated from the tejas (energy) of Kālī, who was identified in the text with Kāmākhyā.
AISS (Turin, 3-5 October 2019). Unpublished paper's draft for the biennial conference of the Italian Association for Sanskrit Studies.
The shrine of Kāmākhyā (Assam) was supposed to be the eminent yoginī-pīṭha (Dehejia 1986), because of its deep link with the Kālikāpurāṇa, an early medieval śākta text that preserves the most ancient lists of yoginīs (54.35–39; 63.37–43).... more
The shrine of Kāmākhyā (Assam) was supposed to be the eminent yoginī-pīṭha (Dehejia 1986), because of its deep link with the Kālikāpurāṇa, an early medieval śākta text that preserves the most ancient lists of yoginīs (54.35–39; 63.37–43). Inside the sanctum of Kāmākhyā a yoni (vulva) stone is concealed as the main cultic image of the goddess Kāmākhyā, which was identified as the ‘mouth of the yoginīs’, primeval source of religious gnosis, by the early medieval Kaula school (Dyczkowski 1988).
Who the yoginīs were before their inclusion within the heterodox Kaula tradition? How did they influence the Tantric ritual praxis at Kāmākhyā? The yoginīs, indeed, before to burst in the Kaula folds, were a cluster of goddesses deeply associated to cremation grounds (Hevajratantra 1.7.19). They maintained, however, a deep connection with the dead world and blood sacrifices up to the tenth–eleventh century, when their related ritual praxis switched to a mystic-erotic ritual centred on the worship of the human yoni (Sanderson 1988).
What was the impact of this reformation on the symbolic meaning of the ritual praxis? Have been, thereof, the link between the yoginīs with the death imaginary cut? The offering of the ritual victim’s blood and head did hide a deep sexual symbolism that was uncovered with the affirmation of the yoni pūjā (worship). The sexual rites, on the other hand, tended to hide any explicit link with death, although they were often performed during the night in secret places such as cremation grounds.
Hence, this paper aims, through the analysis and interrelation of textual and ethnographic data (ethno-Indology), to debate the dialectic between sex and death at Kāmākhyā in order to shed light on its pre-Brahmanic yoginīs cult’s roots, which overlapped, intertwined and blended with Brahmanism, resulting, thus, in the specific Tantric cult of Kāmākhyā.
According to the early medieval Kālikāpurāṇa, a text compiled in the North-eastern part of India, the Tantric network of the śakti pīṭhas was originated when Satī burned her body in the sacrificial fire. Afterwards, the gods dismembered... more
According to the early medieval Kālikāpurāṇa, a text compiled in the North-eastern part of India, the Tantric network of the śakti pīṭhas was originated when Satī burned her body in the sacrificial fire. Afterwards, the gods dismembered her corpse, whose limbs fell on earth (India), each originating a different śakti pīṭha. Then, Śiva reached the Goddess in his liṅga shape in every śakti pīṭha, permeating them with sexual symbolism.
The male role in the Puranic description of the cosmogenesis of the Tantric network of the śakti pīṭhas is subsidiary, although still necessary. Kāmākhyā, in the Brahmaputra Valley (Assam), emerged as the greatest among the śakti pīṭhas. There, indeed, the yoni of Satī – the most powerful female organ – has been preserved. This Puranic myth traced back a connection between the śakti pīṭhas and the Kaula sexual rites. More specifically, the Yoginī Kaulas believed the human yoni to be the source of religious gnosis and an instrument to obtain siddhis.
In a previous study (Rosati 2016),  this Puranic story emerged to stratify various Vedic mythologems blended with non-Brahmanic traditions, thus underlining, the cross-cultural dialectic standing at the origin of Kāmākhyā as the yoni pīṭha. Kāmākhyā, hence, was the place where purity and impurity, asceticism and eroticism, norms and violation of the norms coexisted. There, the yoni, concealed inside the sanctum, is primarily a sexual symbol that needs the male phallus to seed the world.
This concept of sexual union was overwhelmed in the late medieval Yoginītantra, another North-eastern text involving the origin of Kāmākhyā. It narrates a very different origin of the yoni pīṭha, which was created by Kālī without any male help. Yet, the myth, stratified a number of ancient Vedic and Puranic mythologems, but underlines the yoni as the source of everything.
This paper aims, through an interrelation of textual sources and ethnographic data (ethno-indology), not only to introduce the less-known late medieval myth of the Kāmākhyā temple’s origin, but also to shed light on the late medieval interpretation of the fundamental yoni symbol. It, indeed, was transformed from a sexual symbol that remembered the endless union with the Śiva’s liṅga to a cosmogenetic symbol, the only one being able to start the cosmogonic process. The myth, thus, deprived the Kāmākhyā-pīṭha of every obvious sexual connotation, placing the śakti as the main actor in the primordial scene.
Thereof, it is supposed that early medieval gender dialectic on the origin of Kāmākhyā-pīṭha will be identified; while a subsequent, late medieval, clearer establishment of the śakti supremacy within the Assamese Tantra ideology will be identified as the ground where an interaction between implicit and explicit sexual acts developed in the religious context. This dialectic will be equated to the fundamental dialectic between pure and impure which is the core of Tantra.
The Yoginī Kaula reformation occurred around the tenth century. At this time, the Kaula praxis switched from blood sacrifice to a mystic-erotic ritual centred on the yoni pūjā (worship). In medieval Assam, this esoteric sexual path... more
The Yoginī Kaula reformation occurred around the tenth century. At this time, the Kaula praxis switched from blood sacrifice to a mystic-erotic ritual centred on the yoni pūjā (worship). In medieval Assam, this esoteric sexual path emerged as a homologation of the bloody path; both, indeed, grounded their roots in the Puranic myth of Satī’s sacrifice, which stands at the origin of the śākta-pīṭhas (seats of power).
Although both the Tantric paths aimed to gratify the goddess Kāmākhyā—symbolised by the yoni of Satī preserved inside her shrine on Nīlācala—the erotic path, focusing on the woman and her sexual fluids, explains the vulva as the source of Kaula gnosis. However, Tantrikas aimed to obtain siddhis (accomplishments) through erotic practices beyond reaching mokṣa (liberation).
This paper aims, through the analysis of texts and material evidence, to understand whether a diachronic woman’s rank uprising affected the Yoginī Kaula ritual in medieval Assam.
Kingship during the Pāla period was established on the ritual consumption of sexual fluids. This secret path of tantra is evidenced in both Pāla art and religion, reflecting the necessity of the samkarajāti kings to strengthen their... more
Kingship during the Pāla period was established on the ritual consumption of sexual fluids. This secret path of tantra is evidenced in both Pāla art and religion, reflecting the necessity of the samkarajāti kings to strengthen their political power through the violation of the Vedic normativity.
Le dinastie del primo medioevo del Kāmarūpa fanno risalire le proprie origini a Naraka, un sovrano mito-storico nato dall’unione di Varāha (cinghiale) con la dea Terra, durante il periodo mestruale di quest’ultima. Naraka è considerato... more
Le dinastie del primo medioevo del Kāmarūpa fanno risalire le proprie origini a Naraka, un sovrano mito-storico nato dall’unione di Varāha (cinghiale) con la dea Terra, durante il periodo mestruale di quest’ultima. Naraka è considerato sia l’eroe che fondò il regno del Kāmarūpa sia colui che integrò nella tradizione religiosa brahmanica il culto di Kāmākhyā, dea che è descritta nel Kālikāpurāṇa (un testo śākta la cui attuale recensione è databile all’XI secolo) essere una divinità kirāta.
Il contatto tra il feto e il sangue mestruale, durante il concepimento, conferì a Naraka un potere impuro legato al mondo asurico, potere che secondo i compilatori del Kālikāpurāṇa da un lato metteva in pericolo l’ordine religioso brahmanico, mentre dall’altro era necessario per mantenere la stabilità politica nell’Assam primo medievale.
Lo stretto legame del potere regale assamese con ciò che l’ortodossia vedico-brahmanica percepiva come estremamente impuro lascia supporre che le dinastie assamesi fossero dinastie samkarajāti, le quali furono originate da secoli di negoziazione transculturale che vide come protagonisti l’élite indo-aria – arrivata nell’India del nordest in un periodo compreso tra il II secolo P.E.V. e il I secolo E.V. – e il variegato cosmo delle popolazioni tribali, le quali sono descritte nel Kālikāpurāṇa con il generico “kirāta”.
Lo studio delle fonti testuali ed epigrafiche, supportato dal dato etnografico, fa emergere i sovrani del primo medioevo del Kāmarūpa come coloro in grado di mediare l’ortodossia brahmanica e le tradizioni religiose tribali, patrocinando la tradizione religiosa eterodossa śākta-tantra.
In questo contesto storico-politico e religioso, la yoni (vulva), conservata nel gabhagṛha (sanctum sanctorum) del tempio di Kāmākhyā, e il suo culto – legato al consumo dei fluidi sessuali e alle offerte di sangue – emergono come il mezzo necessario per ottenere l’estinzione finale (paranirvāṇa), ma anche come fonte di quei poteri soprannaturali (siddhi) necessari al rafforzamento del potere politico del sovrano.
According to the śākta-tantra literature, the temple of Kāmākhyā (1565 CE) on Nīlācala (Blue mountain), Assam, is the most revered śākta pīṭha (seat of the goddess), because it preserves inside its garbhagṛha (womb-chamber) the yoni... more
According to the śākta-tantra literature, the temple of Kāmākhyā (1565 CE) on Nīlācala (Blue mountain), Assam, is the most revered śākta pīṭha (seat of the goddess), because it preserves inside its garbhagṛha (womb-chamber) the yoni (vulva) of the Goddess ever since her lifeless body was dismembered. The present paper aims to highlight the transcultural aspects of this site by considering both the Hindu-Tantric and Tribal roots of the yoginīs at Kāmākhyā through the interrelation of inter- and intra-textual data with artistic and ritual practices.
Vidya Dehejia suggested that the temple of Kāmākhyā was an ancient yoginī centre, although it is neither circular in plan nor hypaethral, formal characteristics shared by most of the yoginī temples. The yoginīs are semi-divine female beings—often represented as theriomorphic/theriocephalic—an aspect that grounds their roots in the Tribal substratum. Their cult was systematised within the Hindu-Tantric tradition through the Kaulajῆānanirṇaya, a text compiled in Assam during the ninth-tenth century, which preserved the cult’s Tribal traits. Thus, the temple of Kāmākhyā mirrors the cross-cultural negotiations between Tribal and Hindu traditions, which resulted in the worship of the yoni through blood sacrifices and secret sexual rites.
According to the Kālikāpurāṇa—a śākta text compiled during the tenth-eleventh century in Assam—the yoginīs were the protectress of the yoni, a role corroborated through their sculptural representation around the outer-wall of the garbhagṛha. Therefore, the genesis of yoginīs derived from the yoni and its splitting into more pieces when fell down on Nīlācala—which alludes either to the multiplication of generative power or to the dismemberment of the Goddess’s body.
This is pre-print version of my published article: Rosati, Paolo Eugenio, "The Goddess Kāmākhyā: Religio-Political Implications in the Tribalisation Process," History and Sociology of South Asia 11(2): 1-19. DOI:... more
This is pre-print version of my published article:
Rosati, Paolo Eugenio, "The Goddess Kāmākhyā: Religio-Political Implications in the Tribalisation Process," History and Sociology of South Asia 11(2): 1-19. DOI: 10.1177/2230807517703014.
SAGE Publications.

ABSTRACT:

This article examines the absorption process of the goddess Kāmākhyā (Assam) within the Brahmanic pantheon. The Hindu people in order to obtain the political support from the local inhabitants manipulated the mythology, transforming the tribal yoni in the “yoni of Satī,” which is preserved inside the sanctum of the temple of Kāmākhyā. Therefore her temple has been considered as the most important śākta pīṭha, a place linked with either sexual symbolism or death imaginary - both the elements strongly connected to the tribal world. Even if Kāmākhyā was incorporated within the Hindu sphere, she has maintained many tribal traits as demonstrated by either her mythologies or her connected ritual praxis dominated by blood sacrifices and sexual practices. Thereby it emerges in the Kāmākhyā case-study the ‘Sankritization’ as a too generic concept, while a strong cultural negotiation has operated on the traits of the goddess.
The name Naraka was documented in the epigraphic records and in the Epic–Puranic literature either as the son of Varāha (boar form of Viṣṇu) and Pṛthvī (Earth) or as the founder of the Kāmarūpa kingdom, after he defeated the local Kirāta... more
The name Naraka was documented in the epigraphic records and in the Epic–Puranic literature either as the son of Varāha (boar form of Viṣṇu) and Pṛthvī (Earth) or as the founder of the Kāmarūpa kingdom, after he defeated the local Kirāta tribes.
According to the Kālikāpurāṇa (tenth–eleventh century), the conquest of Assam headed by Naraka mirrored from the one hand, one of the Aryan migration waves that afflicted also the North-eastern India; from the other hand, it reflected the absorption and adaptation of tribal goddesses and rituals within the Brahmanic religiosity. Hence, Kāmākhyā the foremost deity of Assam is still today worshipped through her non-anthropomorphic symbol—a yoni (vulva) stone inside her sanctum—a trait of tribal cults. Furthermore, she is worshipped through (public) blood sacrifices and (secret) sexual rites, both practices inherited from tribal world.
Thence, this paper aims to demonstrate the cross-cultural roots of the Assamese kingship through the inter- and intra- textual evidences and the ethnographic data collected during a field-work period in Assam.
There is a Hindu myth which narrates that during the dakṣayajña (the great sacrifice officiated by Dakṣa) the goddess Satī—Śiva’s wife—burned her body in the sacrificial ground, through her tapas (ascetic power). Following the narrative... more
There is a Hindu myth which narrates that during the dakṣayajña (the great sacrifice officiated by Dakṣa) the goddess Satī—Śiva’s wife—burned her body in the sacrificial ground, through her tapas (ascetic power). Following the narrative her corpse was dismembered by the gods, and its limbs fell on the earth originating the śākta pīṭhas’ (seats of the goddess) network.
The yoni (vulva) of Satī fell on Nīlācala in the Brahmaputra Valley, Assam; on that place arose the temple of Kāmākhyā that preserves the yoni inside its garbhagṛha (inner chamber). The yoni represents the aniconic symbol of the Mother Goddess Kāmākhyā—the main deity of Assam—and for this reason the place is considered as the most sacred śākta pīṭha.
Still Kāmākhyā is nourished through daily he-goats offers, which are officiated outside the main temple: the heads of the victims are brought into the garbhagṛha to satisfy the Goddess’s thirst of blood and heads.
The power that the Goddess obtains during the daily offers is given back during the Ambuvācī Melā, a festival that celebrates her menstrual period.
Aniconism, blood sacrifices, head offers, and the celebration of menstrual blood connect the Hindu śākta–tantra cult practiced in the temple of Kāmākhyā to the matrilineal tribal cultures of Assam. Indeed, according to the Kālikāpurāṇa—a text composed in the North-East between the sixth and the eleventh century—before the Hindu conquest, local non-Aryan tribes were already devoted to the goddess Kāmākhyā. After the invasion, a cross-cultural negotiation began between the Hindu conquerors and the local tribes: it resulted in the fusion between ancient local deities and their transformation into Kāmākhyā, a cross-cultural Mother Goddess worshipped by either Hindu or tribal devotees.
Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the institutionalisation of public ritual violence as well as the worship of the yoni, both connect the temple of Kāmākhyā to an anti-Vedic ritual system which grounds its roots in the tribal traditions, and to the women’s high status observed among the matrilineal tribes of Garo and Khasi’s hills.
(A longer and revised version of this paper is forthcoming as: Paolo E. Rosati. (Forthcoming, 2017). “Nīlācala: The Mountain of Desire, Death and Rebirth.” In Colonial Transformation and Asian Religions in Modern History, ed. by David W.... more
(A longer and revised version of this paper is forthcoming as:

Paolo E. Rosati. (Forthcoming, 2017). “Nīlācala: The Mountain of Desire, Death and Rebirth.” In Colonial Transformation and Asian Religions in Modern History, ed. by David W. Kim. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing)

In Kāmarūpa (Assam) after the Hindu invasion headed by Naraka, the brāhmaṇas in order to legitimise the yoni (vulva) tribal symbol within the Brahmanic ideology manipulated the mythology of Dakṣa’s sacrifice. Therefore, only the North-eastern purāṇas narrate the origin of the śākta-pīṭhas (seats of the goddess) from the limbs of Satī, after her body’s dismemberment; her yoni landed on the Nīlācala in Kāmarūpa, where Kāmadeva (Desire) regained his shape after he had been incinerated by Śiva. Thence, the tribal yoni was transformed in the “yoni of Satī” and Nīlācala became the yoni-pīṭha. The Kāmarūpa is connected either with sexual or death imaginary, and both are inherited from tribal traditions. Yet the local goddess Kāmākhyā was absorbed into the Hindu pantheon, though her tribal roots survived within the mythologies of desire, death and rebirth which linked Kāmadeva and Satī to the temple of Kāmākhyā on Nīlācala, as well as in her aniconic cult and in its related ritual praxis.
Thence, this essay aims to explain the cross-cultural negotiation which took place at Nīlācala, through the analysis of Sanskrit mythologies connected to the sacred hill as well as the study of ritual praxis linked to the temple of Kāmākhyā that was observed during a field-work period.
(An enlarged and revised version of this paper has been accepted for the publication by Religions of South Asia) In ancient Assam the mythology of Dakṣa’s sacrifice and the consequent suicide of Satī was transformed, in order to... more
(An enlarged and revised version of this paper has been accepted for the publication by Religions of South Asia)

In ancient Assam the mythology of Dakṣa’s sacrifice and the consequent suicide of Satī was transformed, in order to incorporate the yoni (vulva) symbol in the Brahmanic context. According to the North-eastern Purāṇas the limbs of the dismembered goddess’s corpse fell to the earth, originating the śākta pīṭhas (seats of the goddess); in particular, the yoni of Satī fell on Kāmagiri, a place that became well-known as either the place where Śiva and Śakti met to make love, or the goddess’s tomb. Before Brahmanic cultural contact with the local traditions of Kāmarūpa, the autochthonous religion was the kirāta dharma (religion of Kirātas), and it was already developed within the Kāmākhyā cult, later absorbed in the Brahmanic religious fold. In her shrine, Kāmākhyā has been worshipped in the shape of a yoni-stone. This non-anthropomorphic cult is the result of cross-cultural dialectic between autochthonous tribes and the Vedic and heterodox Brahmanic traditions, which lead to the fusion of local deities and the mainstream Hindu goddesses, resulting in the goddess Kāmākhyā. Later, Kāmākhyā was raised to the rank of royal tutelary deity to integrate local tribes and the Hinduized kings of Kāmarūpa. Using inter-textual and intra-textual analysis as well as ethnographic data, this essay aims to demonstrate that tribal traditions strongly influenced the śākta-tantra developments of the yoni cult at Kāmākhyā.
In this essay, Paolo Rosati discusses one of the numerous factors that contributed to the emergence of the Tantric cult of the Goddess Kāmākhyā: the relationship between death imaginary and sexual symbolism. Mythological sources reveal... more
In this essay, Paolo Rosati discusses one of the numerous factors that contributed to the emergence of the Tantric cult of the Goddess Kāmākhyā: the relationship between death imaginary and sexual symbolism. Mythological sources reveal that when Naraka—the first mytho-historical king of Kāmarūpa—ascended to the throne of Prāgjyotiṣapura, the cult of the Goddess Kāmākhyā was institutionalised within the folds of Brahmanism. The Kāmarūpa kingship, through the legitimation of Naraka as the royal ancestor and his related symbols of sexuality and death, integrated and justified the Tantric cult of Kāmākhyā centred on blood sacrifices and sexual rites, while the ritual violence of shedding blood emerged as the prescribed ritual in acceding to the kingship of Kāmarūpa.
The aim of this article is to shed light on the intersection of memory and power at Kāmākhyā – the most eminent among the śakti-pīṭhas, because there the Goddess is worshipped in her non-anthropomorphic form of a yoni-stone. According to... more
The aim of this article is to shed light on the intersection of memory and power at Kāmākhyā – the most eminent among the śakti-pīṭhas, because there the Goddess is worshipped in her non-anthropomorphic form of a yoni-stone. According to the Kaula-Tantra of mediaeval Assam, the yoni was an inestimable source of power, worshipped through extreme sexual rites. Today, instead, public worship of the yoni has been distorted and normalised. In fact, eroticism fell into the oblivion of religious amnesia, although traces of it are still implicitly present in ritual and festivals.
This panel considers Monsoon Asia as a geographical area-which includes the Indian subcontinent, Tibet, mainland and maritime Southeast Asia, and Southern China-where several religious practices are shared, hence, a socio-cultural unity... more
This panel considers Monsoon Asia as a geographical area-which includes the Indian subcontinent, Tibet, mainland and maritime Southeast Asia, and Southern China-where several religious practices are shared, hence, a socio-cultural unity of the region is marked. In fact, Indic mainstream (e.g. Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism), tantric, vernacular, and tribal religions, share several socio-religious traits whose origin could be traced back to an ancient common, and complex substratum. The resilience of magic-shamanic elements is among these common traits. This panel aims to shed light on that (material or intangible) instruments, which have been used as ritual, magic, or shamanic tools since pre-modern history of Monsoon Asia. Indeed, usually mastering magic and shamanic powers is closely related to meditation, yogic practices, severe penances, manipulation of bodily fluids, the consumption of intoxicating substances, the use of bones and skulls as talismans, the use of ashes, mantras, spells and spell-books, geometric diagrams (such as maṇḍalas and yantras), music instruments (particularly drums and other percussions), etc. Panel's papers discuss in depth the role of these and other tools in magic-shamanic contexts and how they affected practices such as ecstatic possession, shapeshifting, trance and other altered states of consciousness, healing and/or harmful capacities, alchemy, divination (such as scapulimancy and plastromancy) in mainstream, tantric, folk, and tribal traditions across pre-modern and modern Monsoon Asia. Furthermore, this panel invites to analyze the ecology of magic-shamanic contexts in order to better understand the role of the locus sacer as a sacred space where the practitioners can cross the borders with the supra-human world or may reach the enlightenment or other transcendental states. Perspective authors are expected to use both empirical and theoretical methodology and to engage the subject with a multidisciplinary approach, considering disciplines such as textual studies, history, art history, archaeology, ethnography, anthropology, folkloric studies, religious studies, etc.
Tantra, since the middle of the first millennium CE when it made its first step in the Brahmanic religious folds, challenged the dualistic view of the cosmos as an opposition between purity and impurity. Through its ritual violation and... more
Tantra, since the middle of the first millennium CE when it made its first step in the Brahmanic religious folds, challenged the dualistic view of the cosmos as an opposition between purity and impurity. Through its ritual violation and subversion of what was perceived as orthopraxy by the mainstream religions in many regions of Asia, Tantra emerged as a source of power, which was closely related to the milieux at the "margins" of Indic mainstream religions. Through a multidisciplinary approach, this panel aims to shed light on experiences, practices and practitioners which have been frequently alienated by the mainstream Indic religions across South and Southeast Asia. Particular attention will be paid to the cross-and trans-cultural dialectic between mainstream, tantric, and intersecting magic-shamanic "marginal" phenomena across history and geography, and their instantiations in textual corpora, myths, folk and oral traditions, visual and performative arts, rituals, and festivals.
The South Asian Goddess emerges as a multifarious deity, who intersected, transformed, and fused many contrasting traits and symbols. The origin of her ambivalence is traced back not only to the process of Sanskritization or Hinduization,... more
The South Asian Goddess emerges as a multifarious deity, who intersected, transformed, and fused many contrasting traits and symbols. The origin of her ambivalence is traced back not only to the process of Sanskritization or Hinduization, but also to the processes of tribalization, parochialization, folklorization, and mutual cross-pollination. The Goddess's aspect as a terrifying mother is indeed closely related to liminal, and dangerous elements-such as blood sacrifices (balidāna), sexual rites (yonipūjā, rajapāna, etc.), shamanic and magic practices, possession-dance, cremation grounds, ghosts, spirits and corpse, wild and nocturnal animals, flying beings, non-anthropomorphic and natural elements (e.g. stones, trees, caves, mountains). Thereof, most of her liminal symbolism was dismissed by Brahmanism as non-orthodox one. Hence, this panel firstly addresses the Tantric, folk, and tribal Goddess's iconography as a frightening mother. Then, correlating art history with other disciplines-such as, but not limited to, anthropology, archaeology, ethnography, religious studies, textual studies-this panel aims to explore the intersection, transformation, and fusion of mainstream and heterodox traits of the Goddess at the 'margins' of South Asia, in order to shed light on her heterogeneous substratum.
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NEW D/L Call for Papers: 17th conference of the EuropeanAssociation for the Study of Religions (EASR) Host Institution: University of Tartu, Estonia Date: 25-29 June... more
NEW D/L
Call for Papers: 17th conference of the EuropeanAssociation for the Study of Religions (EASR)

Host Institution: University of Tartu, Estonia

Date: 25-29 June 2019

Panel Title: The Blend of Tantra: Continuity and Discontinuity within South Asian Mainstream Religions

Submits abstract (max 300 words) and short CV (max 1 page) by the 20 October 2018
Research Interests:
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