Yoni (Sanskrit: योनि, ), sometimes called pindika, is an abstract or aniconic representation of the Hindu goddess Shakti. It is usually shown with linga – its masculine counterpart. Together, they symbolize the merging of microcosmos and macrocosmos, the divine eternal process of creation and regeneration, and the union of the feminine and the masculine that recreates all of existence. The yoni is conceptualized as nature's gateway of all births, particularly in the esoteric Kaula and Tantra practices, as well as the Shaktism and Shaivism traditions of Hinduism.
Yoni is a Sanskrit word that has been interpreted to literally mean the "womb", the "source", and the female organs of generation. It also connotes the female sexual organs such as "vagina", "vulva", and "uterus", or alternatively to "origin, abode, or source" of anything in other contexts. For example, the Vedanta text Brahma Sutras metaphorically refers to the metaphysical concept Brahman as the "yoni of the universe". The yoni with linga iconography is found in Shiva temples and archaeological sites of the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia, as well in sculptures such as the Lajja Gauri.
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". Other contextual meanings of the term include "race, caste, family, fertility symbol, grain or seed". It is a spiritual metaphor and icon in Hinduism for the origin and the feminine regenerative powers in the nature of existence. The Brahma Sutras metaphorically calls the metaphysical concept Brahman as the "yoni of the universe", which Adi Shankara states in his commentaries means the material cause and "source of the universe".
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", thus is an emblem of cosmological significance. 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 and Tantra sects. Yoni together with the lingam is a symbol for prakriti, its cyclic creation and dissolution. According to Corinne Dempsey – a professor of Religious Studies, yoni is an "aniconic form of the goddess" in Hinduism, the feminine principle Shakti.
The yoni is sometimes referred to as pindika. 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.
History
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 later spiritual symbols. According to David Lemming, the yoni worship tradition dates to the pre-Vedic period, over the 4000 BCE to 1000 BCE period.
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. 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.
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.