Thursday, November 22nd, 2012 Between Buddhism and Shaivism: The Figure of the Yogini in the Tantric Traditions of Medieval India

Description

This presentation concerns the figure of the yogini or dakini in Indian tantric Buddhism. One of the aims is to demonstrate the degree to which yoginis represent a goddess typology shared across the Buddhist-Hindu sectarian divide. While there is much that is similar in the early medieval esoteric traditions, it is within Buddhist and Shaiva yogini cults that parallels in ritual, text, and iconography attain their most remarkable levels, to the extent that one can speak of parallel ritual systems focused, to a surprising degree, upon yoginis. The presentation will examine this phenomenon historically, tracing the yoginis’ non-Buddhist antecedents and shifting representations in Buddhist tantric literature, and examining the roles of yogini veneration in Shaivism.

Shaman Hatley researches the literature, ritual, and social history of Esoteric or Tantric Śaivism in medieval India, and religion in premodern Bengal. Appointed at Concordia in 2007, his teaching spans Hindu Studies, religion in South Asia, ritual studies, religion and the performing arts, and Sanskrit. He completed his Ph.D. in Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania in 2007, under the direction of Harunaga Isaacson. He has authored several articles and book chapters concerning goddess cults and the history and practices of the tantric traditions, and is a contributor to the Tāntrikābhidhānakośa (“A Dictionary of Technical Terms from Hindu Tantric Literature”). Currently, he is preparing a monograph entitled Goddesses, Women, and Ritual: Yoginī Cults of Early Medieval India; and a multi-volume study and critical edition of the Brahmayāmalatantra, one of the earliest surviving works of Hindu tantric literature focused upon goddesses.