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{{short description|Aniconic representation of the Hindu goddess Shakti, consort of Shiva}}
{{other uses}}
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'''''Yoni''''' ([[Sanskrit]]: [[wikt:योनि|योनि]], {{IAST3|yoni}}), sometimes called '''''pindika''''', is an abstract or [[aniconic]] representation of the [[Hinduism|Hindu]] [[Hindu deities|goddess]] [[Shakti]].<ref name="dasgupta107">{{Cite book |last=Dasgupta |first=Rohit |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bHytBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA107 |title=Cultural Encyclopedia of the Penis |date=26 September 2014 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7591-2314-4 |editor-last=Kimmel |editor-first=Michael |page=107 |editor2-last=Christine Milrod |editor3-last=Amanda Kennedy}}</ref><ref name="britannica">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Yoni (Hinduism) |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]] |location=[[Edinburgh]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/yoni |access-date=22 May 2021 |date=24 December 2014 |author-link=Wendy Doniger |last2=Stefon |first2=Matt |author1-last=Doniger |author1-first=Wendy |orig-date=20 July 1998}}</ref> It is usually shown with ''[[linga]]'' – its masculine counterpart.<ref name=dasgupta107/><ref name="Beltzp204">{{Cite journal |last=Beltz |first=Johannes |date=2011-03-01 |title=The Dancing Shiva: South Indian Processional Bronze, Museum Artwork, and Universal Icon |journal=Journal of Religion in Europe |publisher=Brill Academic Publishers |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=204–222 |doi=10.1163/187489210x553566 |s2cid=143631560}}</ref> Together, they symbolize the merging of microcosmos and macrocosmos,<ref name="Beltzp204" /> the divine eternal process of creation and regeneration, and the union of the feminine and the masculine that recreates all of existence.<ref name="britannica" /><ref name="lochtefeld784">{{Cite book |last=Lochtefeld |first=James G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g6FsB3psOTIC&pg=PA784 |title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Volume 2 |publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8239-3180-4 |page=784}}</ref> The ''yoni'' is conceptualized as nature's gateway of all births, particularly in the esoteric [[Kaula (Hinduism)|Kaula]] and [[Tantra]] practices, as well as the [[Shaktism]] and [[Shaivism]] traditions of Hinduism.<ref name="JonesRyan2006p516" />

''Yoni'' is a Sanskrit word that has been interpreted to literally mean the "womb",<ref name=lochtefeld784/><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Indradeva |first=Shrirama |year=1966 |title=Correspondence between Woman and Nature in Indian Thought |journal=Philosophy East and West |volume=16 |issue=3/4 |pages=161–168 |doi=10.2307/1397538 |jstor=1397538}}, Quote: "Nature is my yoni (womb), [...]"</ref> the "source",{{sfn|Grimes|1996|p=361}} and the female organs of generation.<ref name="Adams1986p339">{{Cite journal |last=Adams |first=Douglas Q. |year=1986 |title=Studies in Tocharian Vocabulary IV: A Quartet of Words from a Tocharian B Magic Text |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |publisher=JSTOR |volume=106 |issue=2 |pages=339–341 |doi=10.2307/601599 |jstor=601599}}, Quote: "Yoni- 'womb, vulva', Yoni- "way, abode' is from a second PIE root [...]";<br />{{Cite journal |last=Indradeva |first=Shrirama |year=1966 |title=Correspondence between Woman and Nature in Indian Thought |journal=Philosophy East and West |publisher=JSTOR |volume=16 |issue=3/4 |pages=161–168 |doi=10.2307/1397538 |jstor=1397538}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Abhinavagupta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v5_Wk8QKSF4C&pg=PA175 |title=A Trident of Wisdom: Translation of Paratrisika-vivarana |translator=Jaideva Singh |publisher=State University of New York Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-7914-0180-4 |pages=122, 175}}, Quote: "yoni or womb [...]" p. 122, "[...] in the female aspect, it is known as yoni or female organ of generation [...], p. 175"</ref> It also connotes the female sexual organs such as "[[vagina]]",<ref name="britannica" /> "[[vulva]]",<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Cheris Kramarae |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QAOUAgAAQBAJ |title=Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women's Issues and Knowledge |last2=Dale Spender |publisher=Routledge |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-135-96315-6 |page=1840}}, Quote: "The sculpted image of the lingam usually stands erect in a shallow, circular basin that represents the yoni."</ref><ref name="MeulenbeldLeslie1991p57" /> and "[[uterus]]",<ref name=renou/><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gerd Carling |year=2003 |title=New look at the Tocharian B medical manuscript IOL Toch 306 (Stein Ch.00316. a2) of the British Library - Oriental and India Office Collections |journal=Historische Sprachforschung / Historical Linguistics |volume=116. Bd., 1. H. |issue=1 |pages=75–95 |jstor=40849180}}, Quote: "[...] diseases of the yoni (uterus and vagina) [...]";<br />{{Cite journal |last1=Shivanandaiah |first1=TM |last2=Indudhar |first2=TM |year=2010 |title=Lajjalu treatment of uterine prolapse |journal=Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=125–128 |doi=10.4103/0975-9476.65090 |pmc=3151380 |pmid=21836800 |doi-access=free }}, Quote: "[...] vaginal-uterine disorders (Yoni Vyapat) [...]";<br />{{Cite journal |last=Frueh |first=Joanna |year=2003 |title=Vaginal Aesthetics |journal=Hypatia |publisher=Wiley |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=137–158 |doi=10.1111/j.1527-2001.2003.tb01416.x|s2cid=232180657 }}</ref> or alternatively to "origin, abode, or source" of anything in other contexts.<ref name="mmw858">{{Cite web |last=Monier-Williams |first=Monier |title=Yoni |url=http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/cgi-bin/monier/serveimg.pl?file=/scans/MWScan/MWScanjpg/mw0858-yoginI.jpg |website=Harvard University Archives |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090303220523/http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/cgi-bin/monier/serveimg.pl?file=/scans/MWScan/MWScanjpg/mw0858-yoginI.jpg |archive-date=3 March 2009 |page=858}}</ref><ref name="britannica" /> For example, the Vedanta text ''[[Brahma Sutras]]'' metaphorically refers to the metaphysical concept ''[[Brahman]]'' as the "yoni of the universe".<ref name="Klostermaier214">{{Cite book |last=Klostermaier |first=Klaus K. |title=A Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism |publisher=Oneworld Publications |year=1998 |isbn=978-178074-6-722 |page=214 |language=en}}</ref> The ''yoni'' with ''linga'' iconography is found in [[Shiva]] temples and archaeological sites of the [[Indian subcontinent]] and [[southeast Asia]],<ref name="Urban2009p2" /><ref name=hardy103/><ref name="Lopez1995">{{Cite book |last=Lopez |first=Donald S. |url=https://archive.org/details/religionsofindia00dona |title=Religions of India in Practice |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-691-04324-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/religionsofindia00dona/page/304 304]–307 |url-access=registration}}</ref> as well in sculptures such as the ''[[Lajja Gauri]]''.<ref name=bolon1997p40/>

==Etymology and significance==
Yoni appears in the ''[[Rigveda]]'' and other Vedic literature in the sense of feminine life-creating regenerative and reproductive organs, as well as in the sense of "source, origin, fountain, place of birth, womb, nest, abode, fire pit of incubation".<ref name=mmw858/><ref name="renou">Louis Renou (1939), ''L'acception première du mot sanskrit yoni (chemin)'', Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, volume 40, number 2, pages 18-24</ref><ref name="saunders1985p229">{{Cite book |last=Saunders |first=Ernest Dale |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZeE9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA229 |title=Mudra: A Study of Symbolic Gestures in Japanese Buddhist Sculpture |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-691-01866-9 |pages=88–89, 229 note 28}}</ref> Other contextual meanings of the term include "race, caste, family, fertility symbol, grain or seed".<ref name=mmw858/><ref name=saunders1985p229/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Davenport |first=Guy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YTgXAQAAMAAJ |title=Tel quel |publisher=Éditions du Seuil |year=1969 |pages=52–54}}</ref> It is a spiritual metaphor and icon in Hinduism for the origin and the feminine regenerative powers in the nature of existence.<ref name=lochtefeld784/><ref name="Amazzone2012p27">{{Cite book |last=Amazzone |first=Laura |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PM_TNDu8NHUC |title=Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power |publisher=University Press of America |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-7618-5314-5 |pages=27–30}}</ref> The ''[[Brahma Sutras]]'' metaphorically calls the metaphysical concept ''[[Brahman]]'' as the "yoni of the universe",<ref name=Klostermaier214/> which [[Adi Shankara]] states in his commentaries means the material cause and "source of the universe".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cornille |first=Catherine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tpkNBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT148 |title=Criteria of Discernment in Interreligious Dialogue |date=1 August 2009 |publisher=Wipf and Stock |isbn=978-1-63087-441-4 |page=148}}, Quote: "In his commentaries on BSBh 1.4.27, Sankara cites various passages where brahman is described as the yoni (source) of the universe: 'The word yoni is understood in the world as signifying the material cause as in 'the earth is the yoni (source) of the herbs and trees'. The female organ too (called yoni) is a material cause of the foetus by virtue of its constituents."</ref>

According to Indologists Constance Jones and James D. Ryan, the yoni symbolizes the female principle in all life forms as well as the "earth's seasonal and vegetative cycles", and thus is an emblem of cosmological significance.<ref name="JonesRyan2006p516">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2007 |title=Yoni |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Hinduism |publisher=[[Facts On File]] |location=[[New York City|New York]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OgMmceadQ3gC&pg=PA515 |editor-last=Melton |editor-first=J. Gordon |editor-link=J. Gordon Melton |edition=1st |series=Encyclopedia of World Religions |pages=260–261, 515–517 |isbn=978-0-8160-5458-9 |lccn=2006044419 |oclc=255783694 |last2=Ryan |first2=James D. |author1-last=Jones |author1-first=Constance A.}}</ref> The yoni is a metaphor for nature's gateway of all births, particularly in the [[Shaktism]] and [[Shaivism]] traditions of Hinduism, as well as the esoteric [[Kaula (Hinduism)|Kaula]] and [[Tantra]] sects.<ref name="JonesRyan2006p516" /> ''Yoni'' together with the ''lingam'' is a symbol for ''[[prakriti]]'', its cyclic creation and dissolution.<ref name="Kramrisch1994p246">{{Cite book |last=Kramrisch |first=S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O5BanndcIgUC |title=The Presence of Siva |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1994 |isbn=0-691-01930-4 |pages=246–248}}</ref> According to Corinne Dempsey – a professor of Religious Studies, yoni is an "aniconic form of the goddess" in Hinduism, the feminine principle ''Shakti''.<ref name="Dempsey2005p221">{{Cite book |last=Dempsey |first=Corinne G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XfDDInmBCNcC&pg=PA221 |title=The Goddess Lives in Upstate New York: Breaking Convention and Making Home at a North American Hindu Temple |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-19-804055-2 |page=221}}</ref>

The ''yoni'' is sometimes referred to as ''pindika''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gopinatha Rao |first=T. A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e7mP3kDzGuoC |title=Elements of Hindu Iconography |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publisher |year=1993 |isbn=978-81-208-0877-5 |page=56}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Satari |first=Sri Sujatmi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EqsqAAAAMAAJ |title=New Finds in Northern Central Java |publisher=Proyek Pengembangan Media Kebudayaan |year=1978 |page=12}}</ref> The base on which the linga-yoni sit is called the ''pitha'', but in some texts such as the ''Nisvasa tattva samhita'' and ''Mohacudottara'', the term ''pitha'' generically refers to the base and the yoni.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Keul |first=István |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H4ItDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA55 |title=Consecration Rituals in South Asia |publisher=BRILL Academic |year=2017 |isbn=978-90-04-33718-3 |pages=55–56}}</ref>

==History==
[[File:Linga-Yoni.jpg|thumbnail|right|[[Lingam]]-yoni at the [[Cát Tiên sanctuary]], Lâm Đồng province, Vietnam]] 
The reverence for yoni, state Jones and Ryan, is probably pre-Vedic. Figurines recovered from Zhob valley and dated to the 4th millennium BCE show pronounced breasts and yoni, and these may have been fertility symbols used in prehistoric times that ultimately evolved into spiritual symbols.<ref name="JonesRyan2006p516" /> According to David Lemming, the yoni worship tradition dates to the pre-Vedic period, over the 4000 BCE to 1000 BCE period.<ref name="Leeming2001p205">{{Cite book |last=Leeming |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QRwgAQAAQBAJ |title=A Dictionary of Asian Mythology |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-19-512053-0 |page=205}}</ref>

The yoni has served as a divine symbol from ancient times, and it may well be the oldest spiritual icon not only in India but across many ancient cultures.<ref name="Amazzone2012p27" /> Some in the orthodox Western cultures, states the Indologist Laura Amazzone, have treated the feminine sexual organs and sexuality in general as a taboo subject, but in Indic religions and other ancient cultures the yoni has long been accepted as profound cosmological and philosophical truth, of the feminine potential and power, one mysteriously interconnected with the natural periodic cycles of moon, earth and existence.<ref name="Amazzone2012p27" />

[[File:Jatalinga sur cuve à ablution (musée Guimet) (5153565239).jpg|thumbnail|A ''jatalinga'' with ''yoni''.]]
The yoni is considered to be an abstract representation of [[Shakti]] and [[Devi]], the creative force that moves through the entire universe. In [[tantra]], yoni is the [[origin of life]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Constance |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OgMmceadQ3gC&pg=PA516 |title=Encyclopedia of hinduism |last2=Ryan |first2=James D. |publisher=Infobase publishing |year=2006 |isbn=0-8160-7564-6 |page=156 & 157}}</ref>

=== Archaeology ===
The colonial era archaeologists [[John Marshall (archaeologist)|John Marshall]] and [[Ernest J. H. Mackay|Ernest Mackay]] proposed that certain polished stones with holes found at Harappan sites may be evidence of yoni-linga worship in Indus Valley civilisation.<ref name="aparpola1985">{{Cite journal |last=Parpola |first=Asko |author-link=Asko Parpola |year=1985 |title=The Sky Garment – A study of the Harappan religion and its relation to the Mesopotamian and later Indian religions |journal=Studia Orientalia |publisher=The Finnish Oriental Society |volume=57 |pages=101–107}}</ref> Scholars such as [[Arthur Llewellyn Basham]] dispute whether such artifacts discovered at the archaeological sites of Indus Valley sites are yoni.<ref name=aparpola1985/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Basham |first=Arthur Llewellyn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LscvuQEACAAJ |title=The Wonder that was India: A Survey of the History and Culture of the Indian Subcontinent Before the Coming of the Muslims |publisher=Sidgwick & Jackson (1986 Reprint) |year=1967 |isbn=978-0-283-99257-5 |page=24}}, Quote: "It has been suggested that certain large ring-shaped stones are formalized representations of the female regenerative organ and were symbols of the Mother Goddess, but this is most doubtful."</ref> For example, Jones and Ryan state that lingam/yoni shapes have been recovered from the archaeological sites at [[Harappa]] and [[Mohenjo-daro]], part of the [[Indus Valley civilisation]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Constance |title=Encyclopedia of Hinduism |last2=Ryan |first2=James D. |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2006 |page=516}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Chawla |first=Jyotsna |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EX3XAAAAMAAJ |title=The R̥gvedic deities and their iconic forms |publisher=Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers |year=1990 |isbn=978-81-215-0082-1 |page=185}}</ref> In contrast, Jane McIntosh states that truncated ring stones with holes were once considered as possibly yonis. Later discoveries at the Dholavira site, and further studies, have proven that these were pillar components because the "truncated ring stones with holes" are integral architectural components of the pillars. However, states McIntosh, the use of these structures in architecture does not rule out their simultaneous religious significance as yoni.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McIntosh |first=Jane |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1AJO2A-CbccC&pg=PA287 |title=The Ancient Indus Valley: New Perspectives |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-57607-907-2 |pages=286–287}}</ref>

According to the Indologist [[Asko Parpola]], "it is true that Marshall's and Mackay's hypotheses of linga and yoni worship by the Harappans has rested on rather slender grounds, and that for instance the interpretation of the so-called ring-stones as yonis seems untenable".<ref name=aparpola1985/> He quotes Dales 1984 paper, which states "with the single exception of the unidentified photography of a realistic phallic object in Marshall's report, there is no archaeological evidence to support claims of special sexually-oriented aspects of Harappan religion".<ref name=aparpola1985/> However, adds Parpola, a re-examination at Indus Valley sites suggest that the Mackay's hypothesis cannot be ruled out because erotic and sexual scenes such as ithyphallic males, naked females, a human couple having intercourse and trefoil imprints have now been identified at the Harappan sites.<ref name=aparpola1985/> The "finely polished circular stand" found by Mackay may be yoni although it was found without the linga. The absence of linga, states Parpola, may be because it was made from wood which did not survive.<ref name=aparpola1985/>

===Sanskrit literature===
The term ''yoni'' and its derivatives appear in ancient medicine and surgery-related Sanskrit texts such as the ''[[Sushruta Samhita]]'' and ''[[Charaka Samhita]]''. In this context, ''yoni'' broadly refers to "female sexual and procreative organs".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Meulenbeld |first=Gerrit Jan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rhc028gqXKIC |title=The Sitapitta Group of Disorders (Urticaria and Similar Syndromes) and Its Development in Ayurvedic Literature from Early Times to the Present Day |publisher=Barkhuis |year=2010 |isbn=978-90-77922-76-7 |pages=106 note 35}}</ref> According to Indologists Rahul Das and Gerrit Meulenbeld known for their translations and reviews of ancient Sanskrit medical and other literature, ''yoni'' "usually denotes the vagina or the vulva, in a technical sense it also includes the uterus along with these; moreover, yoni- can at times mean simply 'womb, uterus' too, though it [Cakrapanidata's commentary on ''Sushruta Samhita''] does so relatively seldom".<ref name="MeulenbeldLeslie1991p57">{{Cite book |title=Medical literature from India, Sri Lanka, and Tibet |date=1991 |publisher=E.J. Brill |isbn=90-04-09522-5 |location=Leiden |oclc=24501435}}</ref> According to Amit Rupapara et al., ''yoni-roga'' means "gynecological disorders" and ''yoni-varti'' means "vaginal suppository".<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rupapara |first1=Amit |last2=Donga |first2=Shilpa |last3=Harisha |first3=CR |last4=Shukla |first4=Vinay |year=2014 |title=A preliminary physicochemical evaluation of Darvyadi Yoni Varti: A compound Ayurvedic formulation |journal=AYU |volume=35 |issue=4 |pages=467–470 |doi=10.4103/0974-8520.159048 |pmc=4492037 |pmid=26195915 |doi-access=free }}</ref> The ''[[Charaka Samhita]]'' dedicates its 30th chapter in Chikitsa Sthana to ''yoni-vyapath'' or "gynecological disorders".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bhavana |first=KR |year=2014 |title=Medical geography in Charaka Samhita |journal=AYU |volume=35 |issue=4 |pages=371–377 |doi=10.4103/0974-8520.158984 |pmc=4492020 |pmid=26195898 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Charaka-samhita: translated into English |year=1978 |volume=4 |pages=1852–1863 with footnotes |translator=Avinash Chandra Kaviratna }}, Quote: "Yoni literally means vulva, and vyapat means disease, but the term yonivyapat has been used in a larger sense - meaning all diseases of the female organs of generation manifested in vulva. The chapter [of Charaka Samhita] comprises treatment of the diseases of uterus, vagina [...]"</ref>

In sexuality-related Sanskrit literature, as well as Tantric literature, yoni connotes many layers of meanings. Its literal meaning is "female genitalia", but it also encompasses other meanings such as "womb, origin, and source".<ref name="Blackledge2004p45" /> In some Indic literature, yoni means vagina,<ref name="Blackledge2004p45" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Korda |first1=Joanna B. |last2=Goldstein |first2=Sue W. |last3=Sommer |first3=Frank |year=2010 |title=Sexual Medicine History: The History of Female Ejaculation |journal=The Journal of Sexual Medicine |publisher=Elsevier BV |volume=7 |issue=5 |pages=1968–1975 |doi=10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.01720.x |pmid=20233286}}</ref> and other organs regarded as "divine symbol of sexual pleasure, the matrix of generation and the visible form of Shakti".<ref name="Blackledge2004p45">{{Cite book |last=Blackledge |first=Catherine |url=https://archive.org/details/storyofv00cath |title=The Story of V: A Natural History of Female Sexuality |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8135-3455-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/storyofv00cath/page/44 44]–45 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

===Orientalist literature===
The colonial era Orientalists and Christian missionaries, raised in the Victorian mold where sex and sexual imagery were a taboo subject, were shocked by and were hostile to the yoni iconography and reverence they witnessed.<ref name=dasgupta107/><ref>{{Cite book |last=McGetchin |first=Douglas T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PHVRDSM-tyMC |title=Indology, Indomania, and Orientalism: Ancient India's Rebirth in Modern Germany |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8386-4208-5 |page=34}}</ref> The 19th and early 20th-century colonial and missionary literature described yoni, lingam-yoni, and related theology as obscene, corrupt, licentious, hyper-sexualized, puerile, impure, demonic and a culture that had become too feminine and dissolute.<ref name=dasgupta107/><ref name="Ramos2017p56">{{Cite book |last=Ramos |first=Imma |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FRhdDgAAQBAJ |title=Pilgrimage and Politics in Colonial Bengal: The Myth of the Goddess Sati |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-351-84000-2 |pages=56–58}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Urban |first=Hugh B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VKv3AgAAQBAJ |title=The Power of Tantra: Religion, Sexuality and the Politics of South Asian Studies |publisher=I.B.Tauris |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-85773-158-6 |pages=8–10}}</ref> To the Hindus, particularly the Shaivites, these icons and ideas were the abstract, a symbol of the entirety of creation and spirituality.<ref name=dasgupta107/> The colonial disparagement in part triggered the opposite reaction from Bengali nationalists, who more explicitly valorised the feminine. [[Swami Vivekananda]] called for the revival of the Mother Goddess as a feminine force, inviting his countrymen to "proclaim her to all the world with the voice of peace and benediction".<ref name="Ramos2017p56" />

According to Wendy Doniger, the terms lingam and yoni became explicitly associated with human sexual organs in the western imagination after the widely popular first ''[[Kama Sutra]]'' translation by [[Richard Francis Burton|Sir Richard Burton]] in 1883.<ref name=doniger2011p500/> In his translation, even though the original Sanskrit text does not use the words lingam or yoni for sexual organs, Burton adroitly sidestepped being viewed as obscene to the Victorian mindset by using them throughout in place of words such as penis, vulva, and vagina to discuss sex, sexual relationships and human sexual positions.<ref name=doniger2011p500/> This conscious and incorrect word substitution, states Doniger, thus served as an Orientalist means to "anthropologize sex, distance it, make it safe for English readers by assuring them, or pretending to assure them, that the text was not about real sexual organs, their sexual organs, but merely about the appendages of weird, dark people far away."<ref name="doniger2011p500">{{Cite journal |last=Doniger |first=Wendy |year=2011 |title=God's Body, or, The Lingam Made Flesh: Conflicts over the Representation of the Sexual Body of the Hindu God Shiva |journal=Social Research |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |volume=78 |pages=500–502 |number=2|doi=10.1353/sor.2011.0067 }}</ref> Similar Orientalist literature of the Christian missionaries and the British era, states Doniger, stripped all spiritual meanings and insisted on the Victorian vulgar interpretation only, which had "a negative effect on the self-perception that Hindus had of their own bodies" and they became "ashamed of the more sensual aspects of their own religious literature".<ref name="doniger2011p505">{{Cite journal |last=Doniger |first=Wendy |year=2011 |title=God's Body, or, The Lingam Made Flesh: Conflicts over the Representation of the Sexual Body of the Hindu God Shiva |journal=Social Research |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |volume=78 |pages=499–505 |number=2|doi=10.1353/sor.2011.0067 }}</ref> Some contemporary Hindus, states Doniger, in their passion to spiritualize Hinduism and for their Hindutva campaign have sought to sanitize the historic earthly sexual meanings, and insist on the abstract spiritual meaning only.<ref name=doniger2011p505/>

== Iconography and temples ==
Within [[Shaivism]], the sect dedicated to the god [[Shiva]], the Shakti is his consort and both have aniconic representations: lingam for Shiva, yoni for Shakti. The yoni iconography is typically represented in the form of a horizontally placed round or square base with a lipped edge and an opening in the center usually with a cylindrical lingam. Often, one side of this base extends laterally, and this projection is called the ''yoni-mukha''.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Smith |first1=H. Daniel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q3_XAAAAMAAJ |title=Handbook of Hindu gods, goddesses, and saints: popular in contemporary South India |last2=Mudumby Narasimhachary |year=1997 |page=17|publisher=Sundeep Prakashan |isbn=978-81-7574-000-6 }}</ref> An alternate symbol for yoni that is commonly found in Indic arts is the [[Nelumbo nucifera|lotus]], an icon found in temples.<ref name="JonesRyan2006p516" />

The yoni is one of the sacred icons of the Hindu Shaktism tradition, with historic arts and temples dedicated to it. Some significant artworks related to yoni include the [[Lajja Gauri]] found in many parts of India and the [[Kamakhya Temple]] in Assam. Both of these have been dated to the late 1st millennium CE, with the major expansion of the Kamakhya temple that added a new sanctum above the natural rock yoni attached to an older temple being dated to the 16th-century Koch dynasty period.<ref name="Ramos2017p45">{{Cite book |last=Ramos |first=Imma |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FRhdDgAAQBAJ |title=Pilgrimage and Politics in Colonial Bengal: The Myth of the Goddess Sati |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-351-84000-2 |pages=45–57}}</ref>

===Lajja Gauri===
[[File:6th century Lajja Gauri relief from Madhya Pradesh India, lotus head with female body.jpg|thumb|6th-century Lajja Gauri icon from [[Madhya Pradesh]]. In this and other early icons, her head is symbolically substituted with a large lotus-flower, her yoni visible in the depicted splayed position as if she is giving birth.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bolon |first=Carol Radcliffe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MIZADNu6U-MC |title=Forms of the Goddess Lajja Gauri in Indian Art |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-271-04369-2 |pages=5–6}}</ref>]]
The [[Lajja Gauri]] is an ancient icon that is found in many Devi-related temples across India and one that has been unearthed at several archaeological sites in South Asia. The icon represents yoni but with more context and complexity. According to the Art Historian Carol Bolon, the Lajja Gauri icon evolved over time with increasing complexity and richness. It is a fertility icon and symbolizes the procreative and regenerative powers of mother earth, "the elemental source of all life, animal and plant", the vivifier and "the support of all life".<ref name=bolon1997/> The earliest representations were variants of aniconic pot, the second stage represented it as the three-dimensional artwork with no face or hands but a lotus-head that included yoni, chronologically followed by the third stage that added breasts and arms to the lotus-headed figure. The last stage was an anthropomorphic figure of a squatting naked goddess holding lotus and motifs of agricultural abundance spread out showing her yoni as if she is giving birth or sexually ready to procreate.<ref name="Ramos2017p50">{{Cite book |last=Ramos |first=Imma |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FRhdDgAAQBAJ |title=Pilgrimage and Politics in Colonial Bengal: The Myth of the Goddess Sati |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-351-84000-2 |pages=50–57}}</ref><ref name="bolon1997">{{Cite book |last=Bolon |first=Carol Radcliffe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XW0fPQAACAAJ |title=Forms of the Goddess Lajjā Gaurī in Indian Art |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |year=1997 |isbn=978-81-208-1311-3 |pages=1–19}}</ref><ref name="Rodrigues2003p272">{{Cite book |last=Rodrigues |first=Hillary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KUlNAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA272 |title=Ritual Worship of the Great Goddess: The Liturgy of the Durga Puja with Interpretations |publisher=State University of New York Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-7914-5400-8 |pages=272–273}}</ref> According to Bolon, the different aniconic and anthropomorphic representations of Lajja Gauri are symbols for the "yoni of Prithvi (Earth)", she as womb.<ref name="bolon1997p40">{{Cite book |last=Bolon |first=Carol Radcliffe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MIZADNu6U-MC |title=Forms of the Goddess Lajja Gauri in Indian Art |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-271-04369-2 |pages=40–47, 54}}</ref>

The Lajja Gauri iconography – sometimes referred to by other names such as Yellamma or Ellamma – has been discovered in many South Indian sites such as the [[Aihole]] (4th to 12th-century), [[Nagarjunakonda]] (4th century Lajja Gauri inscription and artwork), [[Balligavi]], [[Elephanta Caves]], [[Ellora Caves]], many sites in [[Gujarat]] (6th century), central India such as [[Nagpur]], northern parts of the subcontinent such as [[Bhaktapur]] (Nepal), Kausambi and many other sites.<ref name="Bolon2010p67">{{Cite book |last=Bolon |first=Carol Radcliffe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MIZADNu6U-MC |title=Forms of the Goddess Lajj? Gaur? in Indian Art |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-271-04369-2 |pages=67–70}}</ref>

===Kamakhya Temple===
The Kamakhya temple is one of the oldest ''shakta pithas'' in South Asia or sacred pilgrimage sites of the Shaktism tradition.<ref name="Urban2009p2" /> Textual, inscriptional and archaeological evidence suggests that the temple has been revered in the Shaktism tradition continuously since at least the 8th-century CE, as well as the related esoteric tantric worship traditions.<ref name="Ramos2017p45" /><ref name="Urban2009p2" /> The Shakta tradition believes, states Hugh Urban – a professor of Religious Studies primarily focusing on South Asia, that this temple site is the "locus of goddess' own yoni".<ref name="Urban2009p2">{{Cite book |last=Urban |first=Hugh B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VKv3AgAAQBAJ |title=The Power of Tantra: Religion, Sexuality and the Politics of South Asian Studies |publisher=I.B.Tauris |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-85773-158-6 |pages=2–11, 35–41}}</ref>

[[File:Kamakhya Temple, Guwahati.jpg|thumb|8th-century Kamakhya Temple, Guwahati, [[Assam]]: its sanctum has no ''[[murti]]'', but houses a rock with a yoni-shaped fissure with a natural water spring. It is a major [[Shaktism]]-tradition pilgrimage site.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Biles |first1=Jeremy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9zxICgAAQBAJ&pg=PT81 |title=Negative Ecstasies: Georges Bataille and the Study of Religion |last2=Kent Brintnall |publisher=Fordham University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-8232-6521-3 |page=81}}</ref>]]
The regional tantric tradition considers this yoni site as the "birthplace" or "principal center" of tantra.<ref name="Urban2009p2" /> While the temple premises, walls and mandapas have numerous depictions of goddess Kamakhya in her various roles, include those relating to her procreative powers, as a martial warrior, and as a nurturing motherly figure (one image near the western gate shows her nursing a baby with her breast, dated to 10th-12th century). The temple sanctum, however, has no idols.<ref name="Ramos2017p45" /> The sanctum features a yoni-shaped natural rock with a fissure and a natural water spring flowing over it.<ref name="Ramos2017p45" /><ref name="Urban2009p2" /> The Kamakhya yoni is linked to the Shiva-Sati legend, both mentioned in the early puranic literature related to Shaktism such as the ''Kalika Purana''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Urban |first=Hugh B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VKv3AgAAQBAJ |title=The Power of Tantra: Religion, Sexuality and the Politics of South Asian Studies |publisher=I.B.Tauris |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-85773-158-6 |pages=31–37}}</ref>

Every year, about the start of monsoons, the natural spring turns red because of iron oxide and ''sindoor'' (red pigment) anointed by the devotees and temple priests. This is celebrated as a symbol of the menstruating goddess, and as the [[Ambubachi Mela]] (also known as ''Ambuvaci'' or ''ameti''), an annual fertility festival held in June.<ref name="Ramos2017p45" /><ref name="Urban2009p170">{{Cite book |last=Hugh B. Urban |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VKv3AgAAQBAJ |title=The Power of Tantra: Religion, Sexuality and the Politics of South Asian Studies |publisher=I.B.Tauris |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-85773-158-6 |pages=170–171}}</ref> During Ambubachi, a symbolic annual menstruation course of the [[goddess]] [[Kamakhya]] is worshipped in the [[Kamakhya Temple]]. The temple stays closed for three days and then reopens to receive [[pilgrim]]s and worshippers. The sanctum with the yoni of the goddess is one of the most important pilgrimage sites for the Shakti tradition, attracting between 70,000 and 200,000 pilgrims during the ''Ambubachi Mela'' alone from the northeastern and eastern states of India such as West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. It also attracts yogis, tantrikas, sadhus, aghoris as well as other monks and nuns from all over India.<ref name="Ramos2017p45" /><ref name="Urban2009p170" />

===Yantra===
In esoteric traditions such as tantra, particularly the Sri Chakra tradition, the main icon (yantra) has nine interlocking triangles. Five of these point downwards and these are consider symbols of yoni, while four point upwards and these are symbols of linga. The interlocking represents the interdependent union of the feminine and masculine energies for the creation and destruction of existence.<ref name="JonesRyan2006p516" />

===Southeast Asia===
Yoni typically with linga is found in historic stone temples and panel reliefs of Indonesia,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Kinney |first1=Ann R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sfa2FiIERLYC |title=Worshiping Siva and Buddha: The Temple Art of East Java |last2=Marijke J. Klokke |last3=Lydia Kieven |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8248-2779-3 |pages=39, 132, 243}}</ref> Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=Ashley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oUL7CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT89 |title=Engendering the Buddhist State: Territory, Sovereignty and Sexual Difference in the Inventions of Angkor |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-317-21819-7 |page=89}};<br />{{Cite book |last=Pawakapan |first=Puangthong R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XKzhAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA39 |title=State and Uncivil Society in Thailand at the Temple of Preah Vihear |publisher=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies |year=2013 |isbn=978-981-4459-90-7 |page=39}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hubert |first=Jean-François |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3oMqrqSp1W4C&pg=PA52 |title=The Art of Champa |publisher=Parkstone |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-78042-964-9 |pages=29, 52–53}}</ref> In [[Cham language|Cham]] literature, yoni is sometimes referred to as ''Awar'', while the linga is referred to as ''Ahier''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hall|first=Kenneth R.|title=A history of early Southeast Asia: maritime trade and societal development, 100-1500|date=2011|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7425-6762-7|location=Lanham, Md.|oclc=767695245}}</ref><ref name="hardy103">{{Cite book|title=Champa and the archaeology of Mỹ Sơn (Vietnam)|date=2009|publisher=NUS Press|author=Andrew Hardy |author2=Mauro Cucarzi |author3=Patrizia Zolese |isbn=978-9971-69-451-7|location=Singapore|oclc=246492836}}</ref>

== Other uses ==
{{Dark mode invert|[[File:Vulva-handsign-Yoni-mudra.svg|thumb|Yoni mudra used in Yoga practice.<ref name=saunders1985p229/>]]}}
* Yoni [[mudra]] is a modern gesture in meditation used to reduce distraction during the beginning of yoga practice.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2013-03-27 |title=Practice Pranayama to Access Higher Energies |work=American Institute of Vedic Studies |url=https://vedanet.com/2013/03/27/practice-pranayama-to-access-higher-energies-2/ |access-date=2017-06-25 |archive-date=9 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150709180242/http://vedanet.com/2013/03/27/practice-pranayama-to-access-higher-energies-2/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* In the Thai language the medial [[canthus]] (the sharp corner of the eye closest to the nose) is called "Yoni Tha" where "Tha" means the eye.

==See also==
{{commons category}}
* [[Sheela na gig]]

==References==
* {{cite book|first=John A.|last=Grimes|title=A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English|publisher=State University of New York Press|year=1996|isbn= 0-7914-3067-7}}
{{reflist}}

{{Hindudharma}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Hindu iconography]]
[[Category:Hindu symbols]]
[[Category:Yonic symbols| ]]
[[Category:Shaktism]]
[[Category:Human sexuality]]
[[Category:Vagina]]
[[Category:Vulva]]
[[Category:Aniconism]]