Chausath 64 Yogini Mandir Hirapur

 

Odisha has my respect for keeping the culture and history by active practice. Visiting this 64 Yogini mandir in Hirapur gave me insights into how women were worshipped in our old history. This temple acknowledges that a woman has many powers of a nurturer, lover and destroyer. She has many guna that is required to keep the life force. She is multitalented. The Mandir is the first of its kind that I have visited. It is hypaethral meaning open to the sky. The rituals performed here involve the panchamahaabhut 🌬️🌊🔥🌏🌌 This is a tantra mandir and it has a charge that heightens awareness as soon as you enter the low entrance deliberate so you bend naturally to the deities inside. It is circular with all the Roopa of Devi along the wall. Each Yogini has a chiseled body indicating fertility. The entrance is protruding. The mandir is the shape of the Yoni the birthplace of human kind. The plan of the temple included here explains the deities that reside there. Mahamaya at the center. This was an incredible experience filled with goosebumps, power, respect, fear, trepidation. The Yoginis can fly this made me very conscious. Go there to experience yourself because words can never fully capture the feelings. 

This mandir was constructed by the queen Hiradevi of the Brahma dynasty between 9th and 12th century.  What remains now is 53 Yoginis and some are damaged. This destruction was by KalaPahad the new convert Muslim general of the Bengal Sultanate made me angry. The outsiders did not have any understanding of our culture and practices that made them shun this precious knowledge and we keep doing it in the cities feeling proud that we are secular and hiding our ignorance under that label. We are supposed to feel proud of the English education we received and demean our Bharatiya history and knowledge according to the enemies. We should be ashamed of ourselves. I choose to use that education and be curious, read, explore, travel to go to the base of our country’s heritage. There is so much to unlearn and relearn.