Paper short abstract:

This paper, through the analysis of pre-modern textual sources and inscriptions, aims to outline an intersection between alchemy, tantrism, and supernatural powers in the yoni cult at Kāmākhyā (Assam).

Paper long abstract:

Kāmākhyā-pīṭha is a famous śākta-tantric site in the Brahmaputra valley (Assam), where the Goddess is worshipped in the non-anthropomorphic form of a yoni (vulva)-stone. This sacred stone is housed into a dark sanctum and it is completely covered by a natural subterranean water-stream that oozes out from a cleft of the rock. The sanctum, thus, clearly recalls the maternal symbolism associated to the feminine womb ad its sexual fluids. According to pre-modern texts and inscriptions, this shrine was an ancient natural cave associated to both the Earth goddess and a quicksilver vein. This paper aims to explore the intersection of alchemical and tantric traditions in order to shed light on the origin of the yoni as a “matrix” (Urban 2008) of supernatural powers.