4

Mouth of the Yogini

94-122

p. 94

"The S`ilpa Prakas`a (S`P), a ... work on temple architecture, is signed by a certain Ramacandra Kulacara ... of Orissa {Od.ivis`a}, ... with the medieval Orissi style : the older temples of Bhubanesvar {Bhuvana-is`vara} and its environs, renowned ... for the proliferation of erotic sculptures on their walls. In Ramacandra's text, the most comprehensive extant work on Tantric temple architecture, we find ... the construction, consecration, and depositing of various yantras in the foundations and underneath various sections of temples as well as below or behind their sculpted images. Especially distinctive are the installation of two particular yantras.

The first [Boner & Sarma 1966, p. viii] of these, termed the "yogini yantra," is to be installed beneath the inner sanctum, called the "womb house" (garbhagr.ha) {better translated "embryo house"} (S`P 1.90-96);

the second [Boner & Sarma 1966, pp. xi-xii], called the "kamakala yantra," is most pivotal decoration of the entire temple's pavilion's (vimana) outer walls, from which are generated, in accordance with Kaula rites, all of that structure's erotic sculptures (kamakala-bandha : S`P 2.508).

This is ... the author's ... method, which requires that all images of divinities that

p. 95

adorn the temple be composed on yantras (here the term means "blueprint" ...) and visualized by their sculptors through meditation on them.” (Boner & Sarma 1966, p. xv)

p. 299, n. 4:2

"A new translation of S`P 1.90-106 and 2.498-539 is Rabe ... (2000)."

p. 95

"The yogini yantra, comprised for the most part of intersecting upturned and downturned triangles, bears a certain structural resemblance to the famous ... diagram of S`rividya ... . ...

The S`P kamakala yantra ... consists of a standing (i.e., erect) lingam ... with sixteen triangles grouped in geometric fashion around it ... . Above the lingam is ... the "drop of love" (kamabindu) {better translated "desire-dot"}. The lingam is S`iva, the triangles ... are explicitly identified as vulvas (bhagas) ... . These "energy-triangles," called the kala-s`aktis, bear the names of sixteen different goddesses ... . [S`P 2:508-29]

p. 96

These interlocking {mutually adjacent but not overlapping} triangles combine to form a square, on the perimeter of which are located eight protective Yoginis, called the Yoginis of the outer entourage (bahyavaran.a). [S`P 2:526b-8] This yantra ... was to be concealed by a love scene carved over it ... . Radiating outward ... from this yantra were the erotic sculptures of the kama-bandha, which, in the case of the early-tenth-century Varahi temple in Caurasi, Orissa, depicted the eight-stage process of the powerful Kaula rite known as as.t.a-kamakala-prayoga, the "practice of the eight types of kamakala," ... alluded to in Bhavabhuti's eight-century C.E. play, Malati-Madhava, whose fifth act opens with a Kapalika consort, a Yogini ... :

[quoted from Malati-Madhava, act 5, scene 1 -- Kale [1967], p. 95 :] ... situated in the midst of the wheel of sixteen channels (nad.icakra) ... in the heart ... . ... .

{Actually, the 16-petaled waterlily is Vis`uddhi, located at the throat (not at the heart).}

... the names of the sixteen kala-s`aktis ... of the kamakala yantra ... are identical to those of the sixteen Nitya goddesses of the later tradition." (Kama-kala-vilasa, verses 15-17, transl. in Avalon, p. 33)

[quoted from S`ilpa Prakas`a 2:534-5, 538-9] "In the "jewel-area" (man.ides`a) ... is S`iva Kamakales`vara ... always in union with Kamakales`vari, established in the ajn~a cakra, always delighting in drinking the female discharge (rajapana). He ..., the yogin Kamakales`vara, the S`ankara of dark color, is the Lord of Kamakala Mahayantra. ... This yantra is utterly secret ... . For this reason a love-scene (mithuna-murti) is to be carved on the lines of the yantra."

p. 97

"The placement of these erotic images ... : beginning with the circa 800 C.E. Vaital {vaitala 'vampiric'} Deul {devala 'an attendent on a idol (who subsisteth on offerings made to it)'} at Bhubanesvar, they replace the entourage deities (avaran.a-devata-s) ... .

p.299, n. 4:20

"These eight images are clustered around a central diamond- {lozenge, parallelogram} shaped window ... of the Caurasi temple : ... see Dehejia ... (1979), pp. 127-8. See also Donaldson ... (1975), p. 95."

p. 98

"the content of the Varahi sculptures ... J. N. Banerjea ... identified, on the basis of an unpublished manuscript of the Kaulacud.aman.i ("Crest-Jewel of the Kaula"), as illustrations of the "practice of the eight types of kamakala.""

p. 99

[Banerjea 1965 :]

"1) vas`ikaran.a, "bringing the Kumari under control";

2) sammoha, "enchanting her"; and

3) akars.an.a and uccat.ana, "attracting and preparing her for ritual sex[ual intercourse]." ...

4) yoni-abhis.eka and

5) puras`caran.a, "the preliminary stage of the act." ...

6) rajapana ..., ...

7) nivr.tti with the Vira and the Kumari returning to the normal state after the sexual act."

p. 99

"rajapana, the drinking of female discharge, ... is "substituted" on the Varahi temple with a depiction of fellatio, ... between the tenth and twelfth centuries C.E., rajapana, the drinking of female discharge, was a commonplace of Kaula ... temple structure in Orissa ... . No less {fewer} than twenty sculptural representations of this practice, found on over a dozen temple from ... Orissa, have survived from this period, the earliest likely being from the tenth-century Kin~cakes`vari {/kin~culaka/, /kin~culuka/ 'earthworm'} temple at Khiching. [Donaldson 1986, p. 158] Its representation was gradually phased out in favor of scenes of fellatio" [Donaldson 1987, pp. 326-7].

p. 300, n. 4:25

"Donaldson ... (1987), figs. 45, 47, 186, 194, and discussion, pp. 280-82; ...and id., ...[1986] figs. 37, 38, 40, 41, 44-46. ... For two examples, see Mookerjee ... (1988), pp. 38, 42.

Scenes of cunnilingus (auparis.t.aka) may have also been portrayals of rajapana : Donaldson [1987], p. 334."

{Surely the sacrament of raja-pana was simply an eucharistic justification for cunnilingus.}

"the use of the term "jewel area" (man.ides`a) ... in the case of the Tantric Buddhist expression "the jewel in ... the lotus," ... refers first and foremost to the clitoris, the egg-shaped ... point ... (kamabindu) located just above

the linga-pit.ham, and that place at which S`iva drinks the feminine discharge."

{Surely a metaphoric use of the word /pit.ha/ ('seat, stool') could be the face of the man whereon the woman is seated while he is sucking her clitoris. (Thus, e.g., the tripod-stool whereon the pythoness-priestess sat at the oracle of Delphoi may have been intended to represent the face of the god Apollon.)}

"Kaula traditions would posit a ... "nether mouth" or "mouth of the Yogini" the source of its teachings ... . [Dyczkowski 1988, pp. 64, 168-9 nn. 54-7. Cf. KM 3:7-10] This is called picuvaktra ("cotton mouth"), whence the name by which the Brahmayamala calls itself in its colophons : Picumata, the "Doctrine of the [Nether] Cotton Mouth."

{Although the term "Cotton Mouth" would admirably fit the North American water-snake (Agkistrodon piscivorus the water-moccasin) so-named [and hence would be applicable to the pythoness (a water-snake) at Delphoi]; yet nevertheless as an Asiatic term it would more naturally refer to a drug which is desiccant of the mouth.}

We have already postulated that ... the nether mouth -- of the Tantric Yogini was ... her vulva."

{Cotton is often employed (in order to hindre procreative conception of a child) to stuff the far end of the woman's vagina (in order to block spermatozoa from entring the womb via the cervix of the uterus).}

p. 101

"It is, moreover, this ... that constitutes the "edible grace" (prasada) ... in S`iva{-in-Parvati} temples : fluid offerings poured over the lingam run into the sculpted labia of yoni, along which they are channeled through an opening in the northern wall of the shrine. There, these conjoined sexual fluids of the divine pair may be collected by devotees.

A mythic precedent for this practice of drinking

p. 102

the waters in which the Goddess's yoni has been bathed (yonisalila) {douche-water} is found in the Kalika Puran.a [72:78-84, 89], in which it is the gods who do so, at the goddess Kamakhya's command."

p. 102

"the sixteenth chapter of the KJn~N ... opens with the Goddess asking Bhairava to enumerate the sites at ... the "three times," past, present, and future. After evoking Srisailam {S`ri-s`aila}, Mahendra, and Kamakhya ("the Place Called Love" {'Desire', not 'Love' : cf. the "Streetcar Named Desire"}) as the sites at which mingling ... (melapakam) with the Yoginis and the obtainment of supernatural powers from them occurs, Bhairava concentrates on ... Kamarupa (Love's Body {'Desire's Shape'}), where he and the Goddess are present together, and Candradvipa, Moon Island, where he dwells alone in a non-manifest form."

p. 301, n. 4:44

"KJn~N 16.21a, 22b. The Yogini Tantra (2.3.6, 2.4.6; cited in Yoni Tantra, ed. Schoterman, p. 5) location of a "Moon Peak" (candrakut.a) within Kamarupa may be a reference to the same site."

{Cf also the "Mountains of the Moon" located by Claudius Ptolemaios in U-ganda. Was Kama-RUpa originally a name for Uganda-RUanda-BuRUndi? If so, the /-ndi/ (of Burundi) might reflect [proto-Hellenic] */nethjo-/ (> /neso-/) 'island' (for "Moon Island").}

p. 102

"at Moon Island their child, the boy-god Karttikeya, ... taking the form of a mouse, stole the clan scripture (s`astra). Bhairava located the stolen scriptures in the belly of a fish ...,

{The "mouse" (GM 90.c) and the "fish" (GM 90.j) are both associated with Glaukos, who "forgot" (GM 90.f) the gnosis.}

to recover that "tablet of gnosis" (jn~anapat.t.a), which he hid in a secret place. [KJn~N 16:27b-30b]

The entire scenario is then repeated : the clan scripture is again stolen by the mouse Karttikeya, again thrown into the sea, and ... swallowed by a great fish. This time, however, the fish's strength proves to be equal to that of the god himself, so Bhairava "abandons

p. 103

his brahminhood" to become a low-caste fisherman. ... Bhairava becomes a "Lord of Fishes,"

Matsyendra, to recover the Kula scripture with a "net of feminine energy" (s`aktijalam). [KJn~N 16:31a-36a] It is this [net] ... that is memorialized by Abhinavagupta ... TA (1.7) : "May Macchandanatha be propitious to ... the rosy net ... ."" [p. 301, n. 4:51 : "See also TA 29.32 and Jayadratha's commentary to TA 1.18."]

{Matsya-indra is sometimes regarded as identical with MINA-natha, whose name would be cognate with that of MINos, the father of Glaukos.} {The "net of feminine energy" would be that rescuing (GM 89.b) the Minos-pursued heroine Diktunne, whose name "means net" (GM 89.2).}

By means of the process of nigama (revelation of scripture by a goddess) : [quoted from KJn~N 16:49a-51c :] "[The teaching known] by the name of ["the Bringing Forth of the Kaula"] Gnosis came through this Clan of Yoginis. In the [course of its] bringing forth, the Yogini, together with the Goddess, was immediately {erotically?} aroused. But, [the male] Vinayaka [and] the four Kula Siddhas ["the four semidivine male founders of the clan {Kaula religion} in the four ages {yuga-s}"]

became possessed, with all their hair standing on end, and flowers ["used in ... rites"] in their hands. Awakened, they fell to the ground, stiff as rods, speaking in tongues."

{Similarly, when the whitewaterlily-blossom was displayed by hand of the Buddha, Kas`yapa (according to the Kas`yapiya, viz. the Dhyana/C^>an/So^n/Zen tradition) understood its significance, by attaining buddhi ('awakenment'). [Pun.d.arika (whitewaterlily) blossom is a psychedelic drug.]}

Explanation of the man's hand : "the possessing power of the deity caused his hand to cast a flower into ... these goddesses. ... This established a link between him and the human Yoginis" [Sanderson 1988, pp. 696-9].

"Moon Island is the cranial vault ... .

{In yaugik terminology, "the moon" may refer to Id.a nad.i (commencing at the rear of the head).} {Geographically, "Moon Island" might be some island in Lake Nyanza.}

Both ... (Kamarupa) and ... (Kamakhya) signify the vulva. ... .

{If /Kama-RUpa may be RUanda, then /Kama-akhya/ ('KaMa named') might geographically be identified as KMj/KMt = lower Aiguptos.}

... (catus.pit.ha) becomes situated above Moon Island,

{The term /PiT.ha/ might geographically be identified as [one of the districts of Mis.rayim,] namely with PuT. (the abode of Po^T.ipar), and thus with MaPuTo, Mozambique.}

at the dvadas`anta, the "End of Twelve," a point ... ."

{Are these 12 to be geographical identified as 12 peaks spread athwart Kivu, Katanga, Zambia, and Zimbabwe?}

"In sculptural representations of the worship of the vulva ..., we see male practitioners crouching beneath the vulva of a female figure, in order to catch her ... menstrual discharge in their mouths ... . [p. 302, n. 4:77 : "Kumari-puja occurred during the maiden's menses : Nandi ... (1973), p. 125."]

In addition, the most powerful yantras are those drawn with the "ink" of this female discharge." [Donaldson 1986, p. 167 n. 7]

[quoted from KJn~N 18:7a-14b] "[Menstrual] blood, a woman's nectar (vamamr.tam), ... are mixed with ... [the essence of] the buka flower and the [fermented] extract of the kr.s.n.a flower. ... . ... cannabis ... should be wrapped in red cloth together with the five precious gemstones.

[These are accompanied by] molasses, milk, yoghurt, ... and sugarcane juice. ...

{These are some of the comestible fluids which comprise the separations between the concentric ring-continents (according to the Puran.a-s).}

Together with a prostitute ..., the preceptor should place "that which is to be raised into the head" ... . Thereafter, he [the initiate] becomes a yogin."

Praesiding "In the present Kali age, ... are Macchanda and his consort Kunkun.amba, the "Mother of Konkan.a," ... the coastal strip of modern-day Maharashtra, Goa, and Karnataka. [TA 29:32b; and Ks.emaraja's commentary to Netra Tantra 12:1] Of their sons, the twelve "princes" (rajaputras), six are ... specially revered as qualified (sadhikara) to transmit the Kaula cult. They are revered as the founders of the six initiatory Kaula lineages (ovallis). At the time of consecration, an initiand enters into one of these lineages and receives a name whose second part indicates this clan affiliation." [TA 29:32b-36b; see Gnoli 1999, p. 553 n. 1; and Sanderson 1988, p. 681]

"In fact, the semidivine Kaula "princes" and their consorts continue to participate in the Kaula rites. How they do so is explained in the Kalikula Tantra (quoted by Abhinavagupta in the TA) : these disembodied beings spontaneously sport with one another in the bodies of the human Kaula practitioners, male and female. [TA 29:43] That is, the human partners in these sexual rituals are in fact inhabited, posessed by the semidivine Siddhas and Yoginis themselves.

{Another instance of spirit-possession of devotees by dead "princes" and by dead "princesses" is the spirit-possession cult of Viet-Nam, whence spirit-mediumship was originally imported into France in the 19th century Chr.E.}

This follows the ... manner of male and female Seizers {who} inhabited the bodies of persons open to penetration by them, and

... the Caraka Samhita in fact evokes the case of [spirit-]possession by Siddhas in its bhutavidya section [CS 6:9:20-1]."

p. 117

"In Keralan mythology ... depicting Bhadrakali's ... female vehicle and minion, named Vetalam, is portrayed as a hideous haggard old woman whose pendulous tongue hangs down precisely to the level of her vulva." (Caldwell 1999, pp. 20, 178-9) {cf. supra, the myth of Kubjika's licking of her own vulva}

p. 118

"an Oriyan myth relates that when the furious Kali impaled herself on the penis of the sleeping S`iva, her tongue came out of her mouth as he penetrated her." [Apfel-Marglin 1985, p. 215]

{This may imply that Kali's taking Siva's penis into her vagina caused her to desire also to lick his penis (or to taste his semen).}

her body

her perfume-name

flowers to be given to her

slim

"Perfumed Flower"

saffron flowers

tall, long-eyed, dark

"Perfumed Bilva Leaf"

"her {bilva?} "flowers.""

fair, plump, pudgy

"Intoxicating Fragrance"

"kharjura (Phoenix sylvestris) and palas`a (Butea frondosa) flowers"

"the female Seizer Lohitayani is said, in the MBh, to reside in the kadamba tree.

Furthermore, the tree of ... Kubjika traditions is said to grow from the vulva of the Goddess's "command" (ajn~a), specifically identified with the kadamba flower, which is perfectly spherical in shape, and

whose color changes from white to red as it matures" [Dyczkowski 2000, p. 56; citing the Manthana-bhairava Tantra, "Kumarika Khan.d.a"].

{"a heifer-calf which changed its colour ... -- from white to red" (GM 90.c)}

"in ... the Siddhayoges`varimata [12:4-11 -- quoted in Sanderson 1990, pp. 36-7], ... the goddess Para is to be visualized in the midst of a kadamba grove and wearing a necklace strung with gems having the "appearance of the globular kadamba (kadambagolakakaraih.)".

p. 121

"a stream of milky water was poured ... over a ban.-lingam (a portable metal lingam set into a yoni) ...

p. 122

"to cool S`iva {and likewise Parvati's?} head, which was heated up by yoga, ganja, and datura"".