The Yoni of Kamakhya: The Intersection of Power and Gender in its Mythology
The mythology of the yoni of Sati was introduced in the early medieval Kalikapurana (ninth-eleventh century ce), a sakta text that linked the sexual symbol of the Goddess to the Kamakhya-pitha in Assam. This article will analyse the medieval Puranas and Tantras compiled in northeastern India—focusin...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Equinox
2019
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| In: |
Religions of South Asia
Year: 2019, Volume: 13, Issue: 3, Pages: 317–347 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Satī, Goddess
/ Kālikā-purāṇa
/ Yoni
/ Cult
/ Kāmākhyā-Tempel (Gauhati)
/ Myth
/ Gender-specific role
/ Power
/ History 800-1100
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| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AG Religious life; material religion BK Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism |
| Further subjects: | B
Śakti
B Tantra B pansexualism B Goddess B Kaula B Butler B Foucault |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The mythology of the yoni of Sati was introduced in the early medieval Kalikapurana (ninth-eleventh century ce), a sakta text that linked the sexual symbol of the Goddess to the Kamakhya-pitha in Assam. This article will analyse the medieval Puranas and Tantras compiled in northeastern India—focusing on their mythological accounts of the cosmogony of the yoni pitha—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. |
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| ISSN: | 1751-2697 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religions of South Asia
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1558/rosa.19013 |