The Yoni cult at Kāmākhyā: its cross-cultural roots.

In ancient Assam the mythology of Dakṣa’s sacrifice and the consequent suicide of Satī was transformed, in order to incorporate the yoni (vulva) symbol in the Brahmanic context. According to the North-eastern Purāṇas the limbs of the dismembered goddess’s corpse fell to the earth, originating the śākta pīṭhas (seats of the goddess); in particular, the yoni of Satī fell on Kāmagiri, a place that became well-known as either the place where Śiva and Śakti met to make love, or the goddess’s tomb. Before Brahmanic cultural contact with the local traditions of Kāmarūpa, the autochthonous religion was the kirāta dharma (religion of Kirātas), and it was already developed within the Kāmākhyā cult, later absorbed in the Brahmanic religious fold. In her shrine, Kāmākhyā has been worshipped in the shape of a yoni-stone. This non-anthropomorphic cult is the result of cross-cultural dialectic between autochthonous tribes and the Vedic and heterodox Brahmanic traditions, which lead to the fusion of local deities and the mainstream Hindu goddesses, resulting in the goddess Kāmākhyā. Later, Kāmākhyā was raised to the rank of royal tutelary deity to integrate local tribes and the Hinduized kings of Kāmarūpa. Using inter-textual and intra-textual analysis as well as ethnographic data, this essay aims to demonstrate that tribal traditions strongly influenced the śākta-tantra developments of the yoni cult at Kāmākhyā.