DR. V. V. B. RAMA RAO
“Thou, silent form, dost
tease us out of thought
As doth eternity.” –John Keats
The sixty-four Yogini
temples are few and far between. There appear to be only just four in the
entire country. One is Bheraghat near Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh and another in
the renowned Khajuraho, though not so known for its Yogini temple. The other
two are in Orissa – one at Ranipur-Jharial near Titilagarh and the other at
Hirapur about 9 km. from Bhubaneshwar, the Ekamrakshetra of the distant past.
Orissa has been the land
of temples down the ages. The Lingaraj Mandir at Bhubaneshwar, the Sun temple
at Konark and the Jagannath temple at Puri have become immensely popular.
Puri-Konark-Bhubaneshwar, the Golden Triangle, have become centres not only for
religious and cultural tourism but also for pleasure tourism over the last few
decades and Independence. The pleasure principle in travel has been a recent
trend. Orissa has a hoary past attracting pilgrims from all over the country
and even abroad. The Shakti and Tantric cults have been dominant in particular
ages as have the Vaishnava and Shaivite worships both before and after the
advent of Buddhism.
The hypaethral temple of
sixty-four Yoginis in Hirapur has been the treasure of an enigmatic monument
for art historians. Perhaps this temple too had been the pride of our brethren
in Odhradesa in the distant past. This temple is circular in shape. Though a
little difficult of access, it is an identified National Monument. The diameter
of the circular shape inside is about 25 feet and the height of the wall from
the level is 6 feet. In the middle of the enclosure there is a rectangular
Mandapt, a sanctum enshrining originally the principal deity, Lord Shiva. The
Mandapa has four openings (not exactly doors) facing the East, West, North and
South. The east-west openings are three feet four inches wide and the
north-south two feet and one inch each.
In the circular wall
round the enclosed space there are sixty niches holding the icons of the
Yoginis. The conception of the Yoginis as mentioned in the scriptures is
approximated to by means of more Yoginis represented on the outer walls of the
Mandapa.
The Mandapa too is open
to the sky and known as Chandi Mandapa. It is 9 feet 6 inches wide and 8 feet
long which was adorned with eight images. One of these had been missing for
decades. There are two icons on the inner sides of the narrow passage which is
2 feet 6 inches wide and 8 feet long and two more on the outer side. Besides these
there are nine Katyayani icons on the outer wall of the circular construction.
In all, of the 81 icons
80 remain, though mutilated. Of these, though there are four-armed ones and
ten-armed ones, the number of the two-armed icons predominates. The Yogini
figures are the most important of these; the size of the icons varies from 1
foot 8 inches and 1 foot 11 inches in height and 9 inches and 1 foot width. The
images on the outer walls of the Chandi Mandapa are somewhere between 1 foot 8
Inches and 2 feet high and 10 inches to 1 foot 1 inch wide. The four images on
both sides of the passage are between 2 feet 10 inches and 3 feet 8 inches in
height and 1 foot 7 inches to 2 feet in width. The Katyayani images on the
outer wall of the temple are between 2 feet 6 inches and 2 feet 11 inches in
height and 1 foot 5 inches to 1 foot 7 inches in width.
The Yogini figures are
highly ornamented female forms (there are some male forms also) some frightful,
some graceful though awe-inspiring. They may be Yoginis dedicated to the
service of the Supreme Mother as believed by the adherents of the Kaula and
Vamachara ways of the mysterious and awe-inspiring Tantric cult.
Charles Fabri in his History of the Art of
Orissa tries to get at the bottom of the mystery, unsuccessfully though. Writes
Fabri:
Who are these sixty-four
Yoginis? I have been unable to find out much about them; and I seem to be in
good company, for no one seems to have been able so far to give an explanation
about their function, their cults and tribes, not even their names – though we
have a plethora of names, far more than presumed to belong to them – and what
they symbolize or stand for is unknown. The images seem to be given different
names by different people. Fabri mentions that there are as many as a hundred
names to these sixty Yoginis. Some are simply called Yoginis by the generic
name, while the others are given names such as Narmada, Yamuna, Gouri, Indrani,
Vaishnavi, Charchika, Vindhyavasini, Ghatabhara, Kakavali, Saraswati, Kauberi,
Bhalluka, Navasimhi, Kaumari, Rudrakali, Matangi, Brahmani, Jwalamukhi, Agneya,
Agnihotri, Chamundi, Maruti, Ganga, Tarini, Ajaikapada Bhairava and Chanda
Bhairava.
The strange cult (or,
was it an order?) of the sixty-four feminine godlings strikes us as sensuous
and erotic, nearer to the Kaula and Kapalika ways. The cult, or order if you
will, may not be entirely Brahmanical or Buddhist.
Academically speaking
the Hirapur shrine was the discovery of Kedarnath Mahapatra as stated in his
article in the Orissa Historical Research Journal, July 1953. Around 1965 it was repaired. Today it
remains a rare sequestered spot of awesome beauty. Fabri described at length
the various aspects of the structure. Finding the architectural qualities
vastly different from the Indian temple architecture of various times and
styles, Fabri suggests the raison d’etre for the form must have been functional, to be open
to the sky and yet secretive, be secluded allowing admission in ones or twos at
the most. The kind of ritual and observance must have made the design so. It is
circular, roofless and was more away from human habitation than it is today. In
the 9th century the structure must have been witness to esoteric, orgiastic
rites – may be sacred, may be profane. Against the background of the Yoginis in
the niches, under the sky, orgies of all corporal forms must have splashed. In
the words of Fabri, there hovers about the enigmatic monument” a mystery of
creation, re-creation, the origin of all life, all happiness, all beauty, in the
feminine element.” Writes Fabri:
The temple of the
sixty-four. Yoginis at Hirapur is a great work of art, an exquisite monument,
born out of emotional inspiration. There is an atmosphere here such as pervades
the great cave temples of India or the fine Cathedrals of the West; yet the
circular temple of Hirapur is hardly bigger than a room.
Fabri considers the
shrine aesthetically more inviting than the one at Ranipur-Jharial. Small is
beautiful. He waxes poetical and lyrical as many an aesthetecian when he
writes:
With its smaller size,
its compact design, admirable proportions, its hard close-grained stone
sculptures neatly arranged in small niches, and exquisite variety and beauty of many poses it is only
a fascinating monument, it exercises a strange effect on the spectator .. what
touches the entranced spectator is the fleshly humanity and the sensual beauty
of these belles (the Sanskrit word Sundari means precisely that).
In Tantrism the
acquisition of primordial energy and the male-female union in corporal ecstasy
was a central tenet. Copulation is the nearest approximation to heavenly bliss:
Yoni is the place nearest to heaven. Yoga, among several things it connotes and
stands for, means junction and union. Yogini may not be exactly a goddess but
is certainly a devotee of a high order. Yogini Kula and Shajayana cult demand
propitiating and satisfying human nature with its sex passions. Copulation is a
mystic process. Initiation into the order through sexo-Yogic practices leads to
Mahasukha and the realization of Sunyata – the void – which may mean anything
from Nirvana to uninhibited copulation as a religious rite.
Are the icons or idols
given worship? Are they Tantric figures associated with Vamachara and practices
like Yoni Puja? Were they godlings or merely rare incarnations of devotees with
libidos unleashed? What were the rites, orgies and sprees they, their
followers, or their worshippers, experienced? These remain ponderables for
ever.
The Yogini Peethas are
believed to have been established when Tantric cult became popular and began to
vie with the Vajrayana of the Buddhist belief which originated in Orissa in the
7th and 8th centuries. The Kalikapurana embodies in depth and detail the
origin, development and religious significance of the rituals associated with
it. The Lalithasahasranama Stotra describes the Supreme Mother as Chatushshathti koti
yogini gana sevita – the
one worshipped by sixty-four crore strong group of Yoginis. These may be
followers of a very special cult.
Today their Tantric halo
may have been lost, their religious glory clouded and their benignancy or
otherwise may be of no particular credence and so of no consequence – but they
remain an invaluable treasure-house for the art-lover, the historian and the
cultural tourist. The structure is well-maintained. We find no hectic rush of
pleasure-seeking drifters here as we see in places like, say, Agra. The Shiva
temple at the entrance of the monument appears to be receiving worship. The
charred and spot-covered icons in the niches are awesome: the loneliness and
the seclusion of the spot augmenting the effect. The Yoginis are approached
with fear. Though Fabri waxed poetic and the icons reveal exquisite art, the
purport remains enigmatic. It struck me that the people of the area (as in the vicinity of
Bhetal Deval in the capital) seem to believe that the Yoginis are not benign
forces altogether occasionally to be propitiated though out of an inspired awe.
Except in the hot summer
months the place is almost inaccessible. Even when the state is reeling under
drought (to the point of attracting the personal attention of the Prime
Minister and his frantic visit) the Hirapur shrine is surrounded by the cool
effulgent green of paddy fields. An adequate description of the spot in tourist
guides and maps and an approach road to the place straight from the national
highway would go a long way in restoring the importance the shrine must have
had – if only for a few – for centuries.
REFERENCE
Fabri, Charles Louis, History of the art of Orissa (Orient Longmans), 1974.