YOGINI: The Shady Side of Devi

New Delhi: D.K Printworld, 2016. First English Language Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. xiv + 206pp. Pictorial boards with matching dust jacket. Illustrated with 60 (mosty color) photographs. A near fine copy in like dust jacket. The Yoginis are awful expressions of the divine in feminine form of which evidence is found in Tantric contexts in both the Hindu and Vajrayana Buddhist traditions. Endowed with a multitude of aspects and functions, they may take the form of women or witches devoted to obscure rituals, of primordial forces linked with illness, poisoning and possession, of subtle beings present in supporting one for meditation like yantra and mantra, or of genuine gods who frighten and fascinate. Gathering in circles in the depths of the forest or in cremation grounds, the Yoginis engender powers and secret knowledge, granted to those who evoke them through practices which may be extreme. Ultimately the Yoginis keep company with death, offering to the initiates who surrender to their embrace the prospect of liberation beyond the glittering world of illusion. This book is a journey in search of these mysterious figures who nestle in the shadow of the Goddess. A journey which unfolds in the frontier zones of Indian tradition, constantly hanging in the balances between Tantric rituals, sacrifices and subtle knowledge - a perilous quest which is the heritage of all traditional searches. Chapter headings are as follows: The Nature of the Yoginis; Yoginis as Deities; Yoginis as Subtle Guides; Yoginis as Navagraha and Costellations; Yoginis as Intermediate Beings; Human Yoginis; Illness, Poisoning and Possession; Yogini and Sacrifice; Odisha and Assam: Goddesses, Horses and Hidden Knowledge; The Triad of Knowledge; Yoginis as Shadows of the Middle Path of Srividya.