>Chiswick Chap: /* Temple */ fmt

2020-12-31T11:00:36Z

Temple: fmt

New page

[[File:A temple without a roof.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|The plain exterior of the Ranipur-Jharial [[Yogini temple]] on its rocky outcrop]]
'''Chausath Yogini Temple of Ranipur Jharial''' in [[Balangir District]], [[Odisha]], is one of the circular, [[Hypaethral|open air]] [[Yogini temples]] of India, dedicated to the 64 [[Yogini]]s. It appears to be an early temple from soon after 900 AD, and the presence of other temples indicates that it was an important site at that time. The surviving central shrine holds an image of dancing [[Shiva]]; all the Yogini images are, uniquely, similarly shown dancing.

==Temple==
[[File:A perspective of the 9th Century.jpg|thumb|left|The site, with several small temples on the same rocky outcrop as the Yogini temple]]

The Chausath Yogini Temple, built in the 9th or 10th century in [[Ranipur-Jharial]], in an isolated position some miles from the towns of [[Titilagarh]] and [[Kantabanjhi]] in [[Balangir district]], Odisha, is a circular, hypaethral, [[Yogini temples|64-yogini temple]] made of sandstone, some 50 feet in diameter.{{sfn|Dehejia|1986|pp=103-114}} 62 of the [[yogini]] images survive. The site, on an outcrop of rock, must have been important, given the presence of a large temple built of brick and several small temples of stone.{{sfn|Dehejia|1986|pp=103-114}}<ref>[http://orissagov.nic.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/aug2004/engishPdf/Pages41-44.pdf Patel, C.B. ''Monumental Efflorescence of Ranipur-Jharial'' in ''Orissa Review'', August 2004, pp.41-44] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930015200/http://orissagov.nic.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/aug2004/engishPdf/Pages41-44.pdf |date=30 September 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Ranipur Jharial |url=https://balangir.nic.in/tourist-place/ranipur-jharial/ |website=balangir.nic.in |publisher=National Informatics Centre, [[Bolangir]] |accessdate=13 March 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Ranipur Jharial, Chausath yogini Temple |url=https://www.newstrend.news/173726/ranipur-jharial-chausathi-yogini-temple/ |publisher=Newstrend |accessdate=13 March 2020}}</ref> The primary entrance is an opening in the circular wall towards the east; unlike at the Hirapur yogini temple, there was once a further opening towards the south, now filled in.{{sfn|Dehejia|1986|pp=103-114}}

Ranipur-Jharial was the first of the Yogini temples to be discovered; it was described by [[John Campbell (1802–1878)|Major-General John Campbell]] in 1853.<ref name="Panda 2005">{{cite web |last1=Panda |first1=Sasanka S. |title=Archaeological Explorations and Excavations in Western Orissa |url=http://magazines.odisha.gov.in/Orissareview/dec2005/engpdf/archaeological_explorations_and_excavations_in_western_orissa.pdf |publisher=Orissa Review |accessdate=26 October 2020 |date=December 2005}}</ref>{{-}}

==Shrine to Shiva and Chamunda==

At the centre of the temple is the original shrine with four pillars, holding an image of [[Nateshwar]], [[Shiva]] as Lord of Dance. The Shiva images is three-faced and eight-armed, and is depicted with ''urdhva linga'', an erection. Elephant-headed [[Ganesh]] and the bull [[Nandi (mythology)|Nandi]] are shown in the image's base.{{sfn|Dehejia|1986|pp=103-114}}{{sfn|Hatley|2007|p=114}} The similar-sized image of the goddess [[Chamunda]] in the temple may once have been housed with Shiva in the central shrine.{{sfn|Hatley|2007|p=114}}<ref name="Donaldson 2002">{{cite book |last1=Donaldson |first1=Thomas Eugene |title=Tantra and Sakta Art of Orissa |date=2002 |publisher=D. K. Printworld |location=New Delhi |page=670}}</ref>{{sfn|Dehejia|1986|pp=103-114}}

<gallery mode=nolines heights=200px widths=200px class="center">
File:Half a curve.jpg|Simple 4-pillared central shrine
File:Yogini statues.JPG|Statue of [[Nateshwar]], [[Shiva]] as Lord of Dance, in central shrine
</gallery>

==Yogini images==

The Ranipur Jharial Yoginis are made, like the temple walls, of a low-quality coarse sandstone, which has weathered poorly; they were once finely-carved. Uniquely, all the Yogini images are depicted poised about to dance, in the [[Karana (dance)|karana]] pose of Indian classical dance; Vidya Dehejia explains that the posture is taken up at the start of each group of movements. Like the [[Chausath Yogini Temple, Hirapur|Hirapur temple]], but unlike other Yogini temples, there are no [[Matrika]]s, mother goddesses, among the Yoginis. 14 of the Yoginis are [[Theriomorphic|animal-headed]]; among them can be seen goddesses with the heads of a cat, an elephant, a snake, a horse, a buffalo, an antelope, and seemingly also of a leopard and a sow. The leopard-headed goddess is holding up a human corpse, suggestive of the corpse rituals (''shava sadhana'') of the Yogini cult. The absence of haloes or attendant figures as at later Yogini temples suggests that this temple was built relatively early.{{sfn|Dehejia|1986|pp=103-114}}

The 19th century archaeologist [[Alexander Cunningham]] described two further Yogini images. One, uniquely, had the attributes of the Sun-god, [[Surya]]; she had two arms, a [[lotus flower]] in each hand, and seven horses. The other (now surviving only from the knees down) was dancing on a reclining male; she had 6 or 8 arms, and was depicted pulling her mouth open wide; she held a [[Kapala|skull-cup]], a kettle-drum, and a sword.{{sfn|Dehejia|1986|pp=103-114}}

<gallery mode=nolines heights=200px widths=200px class="center">
File:The circled man.jpg|Yogini images in cells in the perimeter wall
</gallery>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==

* {{cite book |last=Dehejia |first=Vidya |title=Yogini Cult and Temples: A Tantric Tradition |publisher=National Museum, Janpath, New Delhi |year=1986 |url=https://archive.org/details/YoginiCultAndTemplesVidyaDehejia |pages=103-114}}
* {{cite book |last=Hatley |first=Shaman |author-link=Shaman Hatley |title=The Brahmayāmalatantra and Early Śaiva Cult of Yoginīs |url=https://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI3292099/ |year=2007 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania (PhD Thesis, UMI Number: 3292099)}}

{{Yoginis}}
{{coord missing|India}}

[[Category:Hindu temples in Odisha]]
[[Category:Balangir district]]
[[Category:9th-century_Hindu_temples]]
[[Category:Archaeological monuments in Odisha]]
[[Category:Shakti temples]]

Chausath Yogini Temple, Ranipur Jharial - Revision history

>Chiswick Chap: /* Temple */ fmt