Papers by Paolo Eugenio Rosati
Tantra, Magic, and Vernacular Religions in Monsoon Asia, Sep 6, 2022
In Kāmarūpa (Assam) after the Hindu invasion headed by Naraka, the brāhmaṇas in order to legitimi... 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. T...
Religions of South Asia, 2021
The mythology of the yoni of Sati was introduced in the early medieval Kalikapurana (ninth–eleven... more 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.
Religions, 2017
Kingship in early medieval Kāmarūpa (Assam) was influenced by the collision of orthodox and heter... 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 theŚālastambha 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 Pr. thvī (Earth goddess) during her menstrual period, through a sexual intercourse with varāha (boar form of Vis. n. u). 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.
Religions of South Asia, 2021
The shrine of Kamakhya (Assam) was supposed to be the eminent yogini-pitha. Inside the sanctum of... more The shrine of Kamakhya (Assam) was supposed to be the eminent yogini-pitha. Inside the sanctum of Kamakhya a yoni (vulva) stone is concealed as the main cultic image of the Goddess, which Kaulism identified as the 'mouth of the yoginis'. 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. Kamakhya 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 yoginis and the Kaula erotic reformation of the cult of the yoginis. Therefore, the yoginis played a fundamental role in the construction of Kamakhya--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, ...
Religions of South Asia, 2017
In ancient Assam the mythology of Dak?a’s sacrifice and the consequent suicide of Sat? was transf... more In ancient Assam the mythology of Dak?a’s sacrifice and the consequent suicide of Sat? was transformed, in order to incorporate the yoni (vulva) symbol in the Brahmanic context. According to the North-eastern Pur??as the limbs of the dismembered goddess’s corpse fell to the earth, originating the ??kta p??has (seats of the goddess); in particular, the yoni of Sat? fell on K?magiri, a place that became well known as either the place where ?iva and ?akti met to make love, or the goddess’s tomb. Before Brahmanic cultural contact with the local traditions of K?mar?pa, the autochthonous religion was the kir?ta dharma (religion of Kir?tas), and it was already developed within the K?m?khy? cult, later absorbed in the Brahmanic religious fold. In her shrine, K?m?khy? has been worshipped in the shape of a yoni-stone. This non-anthropomorphic cult is the result of crosscultural 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 K?m?khy?. Later, K?m?khy? was raised to the rank of royal tutelary deity to integrate local tribes and the Hinduized kings of K?mar?pa. Using inter-textual and intra-textual analysis as well as ethnographic data, this essay aims to demonstrate that tribal traditions strongly influenced the ??kta-tantra developments of the yoni cult at K?m?khy?.
History and Sociology of South Asia, 2017
This article examines the cross-cultural influence that worked on the absorption process of the g... 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 2 This article is an enlarged and revised version of a paper that I presented on 18 September 2015 during the sixth Coffee Break Conference (17–19 September) held at the Italian Institute of Oriental Studies of ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome. 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 Sat ī was preserved. In this way, the Purāṇas reconnected...
Tantra, Magic, and Vernacular Religions in Monsoon Asia
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Papers by Paolo Eugenio Rosati