The Yoni Cult at Kamakhya

Abstract

In ancient Assam the mythology of Daksa's sacrifice and the consequent suicide of Sati was transformed, in order to incorporate the yoni (vulva) symbol in the Brahmanic context. According to the North-eastern Puranas the limbs of the dismembered goddess's corpse fell to the earth, originating the sakta pithas (seats of the goddess); in particular, the yoni of Sati fell on Kamagiri, a place that became well known as either the place where Siva and Sakti met to make love, or the goddess's tomb. Before Brahmanic cultural contact with the local traditions of Kamarupa, the autochthonous religion was the kirata dharma (religion of Kiratas), and it was already developed within the Kamakhya cult, later absorbed in the Brahmanic religious fold. In her shrine, Kamakhya 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 led to the fusion of local deities and the mainstream Hindu goddesses, resulting in the goddess Kamakhya. Later, Kamakhya was raised to the rank of royal tutelary deity to integrate local tribes and the Hinduized kings of Kamarupa. Using inter-textual and intra-textual analysis as well as ethnographic data, this essay aims to demonstrate that tribal traditions strongly influenced the sakta-tantra developments of the yoni cult at Kamakhya.

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