Tales from the Marble Hills of Bhedaghat

Introduction

The concept of the divine Yoginis has long existed in Hindu mythology, although their real nature is still to be a mystery. The word ‘Yogini’ is a generic term and can be interpreted in many ways. In various literatures the Yoginis have been associated with different aspects of divinity like them being female ascetics who gained magical powers by performing strict yogic regimens; females practicing various secret practices of cult which include the panch makaras; them being attendants of the divine mother goddesses; them being equivalent to dakinis (she demons) and sakinis, and so on. In some tantric literature, like Kaula-uddisha-tantra, the theory of Yoginis originally being yakshinis, has also been coined. Although in the Puranic texts like Agni Purana, Markandeya Purana, Matsya Purana, Chandi Purana, and others; the Yoginis have been said to origin from the great mother goddesses and are thus semi-divine in nature. In these texts we find the concept of Sapt-Matrikas and Ashta-Matrikas, or 7 divine mothers and the 8 divine mothers respectively, these are the female embodiments of the great male deities. A set of Yoginis originating from a Matrika, embodies a set of her qualities, thus making 8 different sets of Yoginis, having 8 Yoginis each and thus summing up to a circle of 64 Yoginis.

The Yogini temples are found all across India but are mainly concentrated in central states of the country, especially in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha. These temples typically feature a circular or rectangular arrangement of Yogini images with an open to air courtyard in the middle, reflecting their ritual significance and cult practices. The Yogini cult rose to prominence in the late 9th century CE, reaching its zenith between the 10th and 13th centuries CE. During this period, it gained substantial support and patronage from regional ruling dynasties, who integrated local cultural and religious elements into the cult’s practices and temple architecture.

One such temple is situated at Bhedaghat, Jabalpur district, Madhya Pradesh. The Chausath Yogini Temple is situated at barely a kilometer from the famous Dhuadhar falls, at the coordinates- 23.1297°N, and 79.8013°E. Due to lack of actual inscriptional evidences regarding the commissioning of the Yogini temple, the historians and scholars have dated the temple with other methods- studying the characters of the inscribed names on the pedestal of the divine yoginis, the iconography of the images, the art and architecture of the temple, and regional history of the place. The results of all the investigations, led to the belief that The Chausath Yogini Temple, or Golaki Math, was commissioned by the Kalachuri King, Yuvraja II during his reign in the 10^th Century. Sir Alexander Cunningham, in his travel logs of 1874-75, first mentions this temple. He describes the location and its scenic beauty aptly,

“In the fork between the little Saraswati and the great river (Narmada), the rocks rise into a small hill, which is crowned by a temple, surrounded by a very curious circular cloister of considerable antiquity…………The position of this temple is singularly fine and commanding. Close beneath, on the south, the blue waters of the Narbada seem to sleep, spell bound, under the snow-white walls that shut them in. To the north and west the view is bounded by thickly wooded heights; but on the east the eye looks down on a long reach of the river, stretching away for miles towards Jabalpur.”