A New Glimpse on Hypaethral Yoginī Temples of India. In : South Asian Archaeology and Art 2014 , edited by Eva Myrdal. New Delhi : dev Publishers & Distributors, 2020

Résumé En

As hypaethral sanctuaries, generally of circular shape with in their centre a structure bearing a mūrti of Śiva (usually Bhairava), yoginī temples are an extremely rare type in the landscape of Indian religious architecture. Defined in time (between the 9th and the 12th century, except for Mitawali) and space (the sites are mainly in Odisha and Madhya Pradesh), their originality is expressed both by their architectural features and their iconographical program with the spreading of a great number of goddesses (between 42 and 81) identified as yoginī. Although several studies have been dedicated to them since the pioneer work by Vidya Dehejia on this theme (Yogini Cult and Temple, 1986), the yoginī temples still raise many questions. The first difficulty is the definition of the inner nature of these goddesses. Indeed, the Sanskrit literature give an extremely heteroclite vision of their identity: evil witches, ogresses, evil goddesses from whom the devotee need to be protected, śakti of Bhairava, servants or hypostasis of the Great Goddess who can help the divya to reach the mokṣa … The nature of their cult is also very different according to the tantric tradition of the texts where they are described and none of them really refer to any stone sanctuaries. Furthermore, the lists of yoginī proposed by the texts are all different, sometime in the same text, and the study of the temples is not of a great help as they themselves spread different panels of the goddesses, which can include, or not, the seven or eight mātṛkā. Based on the study of the material remains of those hypaethral temples, the paper will define the common features of the temples and their divergences, with a comparison with other śākta sanctuaries of the same period which can help to distinguish other specificities. The study of common points and differences in their iconographical program will allow us to raise the question of the potential integration of local grāma-devatā among them and to reassess the issue of the sectarian affiliation.