Yoni of Kamakhya

The Intersection of Power and Gender in its Mythology

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9286992
AutoresPaolo Rosati (0000-0001-8143-0026, Film Independent, autor correspondente)
Ano2021
Volume13
Fascículo3
Data de publicação2021-03-04
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoReligions of South Asia (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1751-2689 • E-ISSN: 1751-2697
EditoraEquinox Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1558/rosa.19013
OpenAlexW3134509939
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas32

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

Aesthetics · Ancient history · Art · Cosmogony · Eleventh · Freudian slip · Identity (music · Linguistics · Literature · Medieval Literature · Middle Ages · Mythology · Ninth · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Symbol (formal · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Classics · Gender Studies · History · Marriage and Sexual Relationships · Philosophy · Psychology · Violence, Religion, and Philosophy