COBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) is a specialized unit of the CRPF created to counter the Naxalite problem in India. This specialized CRPF unit is the only one in the country that can fight the guerrilla like a guerrilla. The men of the elite fighting units have the doggedness, courage and cunning to match Naxalite action squads in the forests.

Cobra is the best-equipped paramilitary unit in the country, set up with a grant of Rs 1300 crore from the Central government. They have an enviable arsenal, almost matching a regular infantry unit— light mortars, machine guns, rocket launchers, INSAS rifles, FN35 and Block pistols, rapid-fire Heckler and Koch MP5 submachine guns and even Carl Gustav recoilless rifle which can bring down wall and houses. But what really set the Cobras apart are two things – hi-tech electronic surveillance equipment and a well-trained sniper team, armed with Dragunov, Mauser SP66 and Heckler & Koch MSG-90 sniper rifles.

Cobras are trained in the Army's elite Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School in Mizoram and CRPF's anti terrorist school in Silchar. They are adept in the art of camouflage and jungle movement. Small strike teams can infiltrate forests, collect information and help plot a battle plan. They can fight in the jungle, carry out surveillance operations and take out high profile enemy targets in sniper hits.

COBRA in News

The full-fledged operation of the special anti-Naxal force, the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA) battalion, in naxalite affected states is set to start soon to combat the growing Left-wing extremism in the country.

According to sources, about 2,000 personnel of COBRA have already been deployed in Chhattisgarh and Orissa. Nearly 2,000 commandos of the force, who completed their training at the Jungle Warfare Training School from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and Silchar in Assam, and equipped with 19 different modern assault weapons, are waiting for a final decision to start their operations. According to the deployment plan, two battalions of the elite force would be stationed in Jharkhand and three in Chhattisgarh. One each battalion would be posted in Orissa, Bihar and Maharashtra besides two in Uttar Pradesh.

Over 70 districts in the country are affected by Left wing extremism, which has been described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a "virus" and the biggest internal security threat. The Government recently approved formation of a 10,000-strong special anti-Naxal force 'COBRA' to tackle the menace.

Jun 21, 2009 / Indian Express

Telegraph / 2008 Sept. 7: Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand will take the lion's share of the deployment of the newly formed Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA) to counter Naxalites. Cobra will be headquartered in the national capital region and will have battalion headquarters in every Naxalite-hit state. Five of the 10 battalions will be deployed in the two states, sources said.

Of the two battalions to be deployed in Jharkhand, one each will be headquartered in Khunti (Ranchi) and Hazaribagh.

In Chhattisgarh, two battalions will be headquartered in Jagdalpur while one will be in Raigarh.

The Centre gave the nod for raising a 10,000-strong special anti-Naxalite force under the command and control of the CRPF in late August.

The force will not only have the best fighting equipment, but will also be trained in Naxalite intelligence techniques and strategy.

Home ministry sources said the Centre would not wait lonto use the COBRA against the Naxalites. Two battalions of more than 1,000 personnel each have already undergone training on the lines of the Greyhounds of Andhra Pradesh and will be deployed in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

"The rest eight battalions will be trained over a period of two years and deployed in other states as well," said an official.

Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have been on top of the list of Naxalites. In the last one week alone, 22 security personnel, including 13 policemen and nine CRPF personnel, have been killed in these two states.

In 2007, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand together accounted for 68 per cent of the total incidents and 75.57 per cent of the total casualties in Naxalite violence across 13 states.

One battalion each of the COBRA is to be deployed in Koraput in Orissa where communal violence has spread following a Maoist attack on Hindu missionaries. Paramilitary forces have not forgotten the attack on Naxalites in Malkangiri in Orissa where Greyhounds were killed along with state policemen recently.

There will also be one battalion each in Bhandara in Maharashtra, Gaya in Bihar and, Bareilly and Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh. While Mirzapur is close to Bihar and Jharkhand, the force at Bareilly will oversee Maoist activity that has spread to Uttarakhand, sources said.

K. Durga Prasad, a 1981 batch IPS officer from Andhra Pradesh credited with the success of the Greyhounds, will take charge of the central force. The commandos of the force will have the incentive of 15 per cent more salary than is normally drawn by a CRPF soldier.

Adivasi Witchcraft

URL: adivasi-witchcraft.jharkhand.org.in

 

Children of 'witches' fight social stigma

 

September 19, 2007 (IANS) Ranchi: A social revolution is taking root in Jharkhand's villages. Daughters and granddaughters of women who were once branded witches are coming forward to root out the social evil.

 

Poonam Toppo, 29, whose grandmother was once tortured for being a witch, has taken up cudgels to fight the crime of branding innocent people witches and then killing them brutally.

 

A resident of Bhusur village on the outskirts of Ranchi, Poonam became an orphan at the age of eight. She was the third child of her family and lived with her grandmother.

 

Recalling her past, Poonam, now director of the Ranchi unit of Free Legal Aid Committee (FLAC), said that when a villager died, residents put the blame on her grandmother.

 

The village panchayat branded her grandmother a witch and she was brutally beaten up. The family was ostracised and prevented from going to the village market or participating in tribal festivals.

 

"My grandmother was blamed for everything taking place in the village, be it the death of a cow or a buffalo. One day I decided to stand up against this. When they once came to beat my grandmother, I stood at the doorway and asked them to kill me first. The villagers retreated," Poonam said.

 

"I took up the matter with the panchayat leaders and argued that if my grandmother could kill anyone, then why couldn't she protect herself from the wrath of the villagers. The panchayat accepted my argument and agreed not to harass my grandmother," she said.

 

Poonam started a campaign against the social stigma at the age of 12. She was ridiculed in school as the granddaughter of a witch. Undaunted, she organised more than 50 plays to create awareness among children.

 

Seema Toppo, another girl from Namkom village in Ranchi, is also in the campaign. Seema's mother too was tortured by her neighbours. Villagers beat her, blaming her for the death of a woman.

 

Seema also started a protest campaign by organising street plays and puppet shows.

 

But women are still being attacked and killed after being branded witches in the state.

 

Official figures show that 189 women were killed between 2001 and 2006 for allegedly practising witchcraft. The figure is contested by FLAC, which says 412 women were killed between 2001 and 2006.

 

And since 1991 to July this year, 922 women have been killed.

 

To prevent witchcraft killing, Bihar unveiled a Witchcraft Prevention Act, 1999. Jharkhand accepted this in 2001.

 

"Law is not sufficient to curb witchcraft deaths. The real culprits are Ojhas (witch doctors). We want stringent action against anyone torturing women," said Ajay Kumar, a former director of FLAC.

 

 

 

Three of a family killed for practising witchcraft

 

June 28, 2008 (IANS) Ranchi: Three members of a family were beaten to death in a Jharkhand village after being accused of practising witchcraft, police said Saturday.

 

The incident occurred late Friday night in Torpa block of Khuti district, around 90 km from Ranchi.

 

Police identified the victims as Ghuchara Pahan, his son Kisun and daughter-in-law Mukta.

 

The villagers had convened a panchayat meeting Friday night and summoned the trio, who were asked to stop practicing black magic as this was causing suffering to the villagers.

 

Ghuchara and Kisun had a verbal altercation with the villagers, after which they ran into their hut. The villagers dragged them out and started beating them with bamboo sticks and irons rods, killing all three on the spot. The villagers later informed the police about the incident.

 

The police reached the village Saturday and took the bodies away. The villagers involved in the killing are absconding.

 

Over 700 people, mostly women, have been killed over the past few years in Jharkhand after being branded as witches. 

 

 

 

Accused witch axed to death

 

Jamshedpur / telegraph / July 05, 2005: A 35-year-old woman was axed to death in Lodhanbani village under Barsole police station for allegedly practising witchcraft.

 

The woman, identified as Badbari Munda, was allegedly axed inside her house by four villagers from the same village at about 1.30 in the night. Sukra Munda, the husband of the victim who is also the eyewitness, revealed that late Sunday night four persons forcefully entered their house and started beating Badbari.

 

The four have been identified as Ranga, Maha, Lolia and Tira Munda. ?We had just finished our dinner and were about to sleep when we heard some people shouting outside our house. Soon someone knocked at the door. We did not open the door, but they broke the bolt and entered the house,? said Sukra.

 

Ranga was carrying an axe and the other three assailants were carrying iron rods and sticks. ?As soon as they entered into the house they started abusing my wife as a witch. Before we could find our way out of the house, Ranga attacked her with the axe and she fell on the ground,? said Sukra.

 

Sukra and his family members, however, denied Badbari ever practised witchcraft. They maintained that before this no one has ever raised any allegation against the deceased. ?The most important thing is that witchcraft is practiced by old women and she was just 35 years old. How could they label her as a witch?? said the father of the deceased.

 

 

 

From Superstition to Savagery

Women Accused of Witchcraft Face Violence in Rural India

 

The Washington Post, August 8, 2005 - At sundown, Pusanidevi Manjhi recalled, nine village men stormed into her house shouting, "Witch, witch!" and dragged her out by her hair as her six small children watched helplessly.

 

"This woman is a witch!" the men announced to the villagers, said Manjhi, 36. She said they tied her ankles together and locked her in a dark room.

 

"They beat me with bamboo sticks and metal rods and tried to pull my nails out. 'You are a witch, admit it,' they screamed at me again and again," Manjhi said, tearfully recalling her four days of captivity in June.

 

"They accused me of casting an evil spell on their paddy crop that was destroyed in a fire. I begged them and told them I was not a witch," she said, showing wounds on her legs, thighs, hips and shoulders one recent morning in this village in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand.

 

After a police investigation, the men who attacked Manjhi were arrested. An official said that the attack was spurred by a powerful landowner who owned rice paddies in the village and used local superstition to mask his attempts to maintain control.

 

Threats and charges of witchcraft occur in a number of Indian states that have large tribal populations with traditional beliefs about witches. Indian newspapers periodically publish reports about women who, after being accused of being witches, have been beaten, had their heads shaved or had strings of shoes hung around their necks. Some have been killed.

 

In a tribal society steeped in superstition, the spells of witches often are blamed for stubborn illnesses, a stroke of bad luck, the drying up of wells, crop failure or the inability to give birth to a son. But social analysts and officials said that superstition and faith in witchcraft often are a ploy for carrying out violence against women.

 

"Superstition is only an excuse. Often a woman is branded a witch so that you can throw her out of the village and grab her land, or to settle scores, family rivalry, or because powerful men want to punish her for spurning their sexual advances. Sometimes it is used to punish women who question social norms," said Pooja Singhal Purwar, an official at the Jharkhand social welfare department.

 

"Women from well-to-do homes in the village are never branded witches," Purwar said. "It is always the socially and economically vulnerable women who are targeted and boycotted."

 

Purwar said she sees an average of five women a month being denounced as witches and tortured in rural Jharkhand. Her department has drawn up a public information project to oppose the practice, providing information at village fairs and conducting street performances and puppet shows. Police at the local level have been alerted to track the cases of women who are attacked, she said.

 

While Manjhi was imprisoned by her captors, her husband, a farmhand, sought help from the village elders, who called a meeting to determine if Manjhi was a witch and summoned a witch doctor for verification. But by then, word spread and the police arrived.

 

The nine men were charged under a Jharkhand state law that forbids accusing people of being witches. One of them was Gahan Lal, the man whose paddy had caught fire. Lal later confessed to torturing Manjhi.

 

"Gahan Lal was a powerful landlord. There were fights all the time in the village over land and wages," said Jayant Tirkey, the police officer investigating the case. "When his paddy caught fire, he blamed [Manjhi] for casting an evil spell. But that is merely an excuse. His real motive is to instill fear among the poor."

 

Tirkey said he thinks that village witch doctors are to blame for superstitious practices, but added that witch doctors are not arrested and tried because they are not directly involved in the violence.

 

"I never name a witch. I only give villagers some clues to find her," said Leena Oraon, who is known as a witch doctor in Aragate village and who says she studies rice grains to ascertain the presence of a witch in the village. "Today's doctors cannot cure ailments that are caused by a witch's curse. That is why people come to me."

 

In a case three years ago in Lalganj village, an elderly woman, Baili Kashyap, was branded a witch for supposedly causing sickness in the family of a relative. The relatives, who allegedly were engaged in a land dispute with her, tied her to a tree and slit her throat with a sickle while others in the village watched. Six men are in prison for the murder.

 

"My mother-in-law was not a witch. They were after our land. But the entire village just stood and watched the murder," said Kashyap's daughter-in-law, Reena, 28. "They believed she was a witch and deserved to die."

 

According to a study by the Free Legal Aid Committee, an advocacy group that works against witch-hunting, only 2 percent of people charged with witch-hunting are convicted in court.

 

"People go scot-free because witnesses are hard to come by. Villagers often approve of the torture meted out to these women," said Girija Shankar Jaiswal, a lawyer who heads the organization. "They think witch-hunting is a heroic act and that it will clean the society of evil."

 

Only two Indian states, Jharkhand and Bihar, have outlawed witch-hunting. Last year, one of India's northeastern states, Tripura, conducted a discussion in the legislative assembly about the need to ban the practice of witch-hunting. After a day-long debate, the assembly unanimously decided that killing of people for practicing witchcraft should be prevented.

 

However, members failed to reach a consensus on whether witchcraft was a science or superstition.

 

 

 

Couple killed for practising witchcraft in Jharkhand

 

Ranchi (IANS)| July 02, 2007: An old couple were killed in Jharkhand for allegedly practicing black magic, police officials said.

 

Tanekta Bhokta, 60, and his wife Ashamani, 55, were residents of Beti village under Pithoria block, about 40 km from Ranchi.

 

Police officials said Monday that the couple's neighbour Deodhari Bhokta and his brother Surendra Bhokta dragged them out of their house Sunday. The brothers tied the old couple to a tree and beat them to death with sticks. The men then hacked the dead bodies with sharp edged weapons and chopped off the hands and legs.

 

Later, they informed other villagers about the crime that they had committed and surrendered before the police.

 

However, the brothers do not regret having killed the couple. "The couple were practising black magic and due to impact of their black magic our family members were falling ill. We have no remorse," said Surendera Bhokta.

 

The couple are survived by their two daughters. One of them, Rupanti Kumari, 19, said: "We tried to save our parents but they did not show any mercy. Not a single villager turned up to help us".

 

Killing people suspected of practising black magic is common in Jharkhand. In the past 10 years, more than 600 persons, mostly women, have been killed in Jharkhand after they were branded witches. 

 

  

 

Man sacrifices sons in Jharkhand

 

Ranchi (IANS) | January 10, 2007: In a strange incident of child sacrifice, a man in Jharkhand sacrificed two of his sons Wednesday in search of spiritual powers, police said.

Jeetan Munda, a resident of Barki village in Hazaribagh district, is a sorcerer by profession, escaped after sacrificing his sons with the help of an aide, police said.

 

The younger son died on the spot, while the elder son sustained serious injuries and he was admitted to a local hospital. His condition is said to be serious.

 

Police have recovered materials like vermilion, mustard oil and clothes, which suggest that Munda had worshipped the god before sacrificing his sons.

 

Witchcraft and occult practices are common in Jharkhand.

 

More than 20 persons have been sacrificed in the state recently in the name of appeasing god.

  

 

 

 

Three of a family killed for practising witchcraft

 

June 28th, 2008 by IANS - Three members of a family were beaten to death in a Jharkhand village after being accused of practising witchcraft, police said Saturday. The incident occurred late Friday night in Torpa block of Khuti district, around 90 km from Ranchi.

 

Police identified the victims as Ghuchara Pahan, his son Kisun and daughter-in-law Mukta.

 

The villagers had convened a panchayat meeting Friday night and summoned the trio, who were asked to stop practicing black magic as this was causing suffering to the villagers.

 

Ghuchara and Kisun had a verbal altercation with the villagers, after which they ran into their hut. The villagers dragged them out and started beating them with bamboo sticks and irons rods, killing all three on the spot. The villagers later informed the police about the incident.

 

The police reached the village Saturday and took the bodies away. The villagers involved in the killing are absconding.

 

Over 700 people, mostly women, have been killed over the past few years in Jharkhand after being branded as witches.

 

 

 

Chhattisgarh police arrest 22 for assaulting 50 women

 

December 23rd 2008 Raipur (IANS) - Twenty two men have been arrested in Chhattisgarh for assaulting about 50 women and branding them witches, a senior official said Tuesday. According to reports, a nine day "purification ceremony" was organised by about 200 villagers on the advice of a local leader at Dhodhakesra village in Surguja district, about 400 km north of Raipur.

 

During the "ceremony", about 50 women were branded witches and they were forced to get a haircut "to free them from impact of evil spirits". The women were also beaten in public. The "ceremony" ended Dec 19.

 

"Police will not tolerate such an act; 22 men have been arrested under the stringent Chhattisgarh Witchcraft (Prevention) Act that makes crimes against women in name of witches a non-bailable offence," senior police officer Radheshyam Nayak told IANS.

 

He said the probe is on and villagers are being interrogated, adding that more arrests are likely.

 

Chief Minister Raman Singh has taken a serious view of the incident and termed it "most inhuman, unfortunate and shameful". He has asked police chief Vishwaranjan to thoroughly investigate the case and ensure tough punishment to culprits.

 

With a rising number of cases against women in the name of witchcraft, the state government enacted a Witchcraft (Prevention) Act in 2005. Those convicted under the act can be jailed for upto five years.

 

 

 

Teenager lynched in West Bengal on suspicion of being a witch

 

Kolkata, Nov 23 (IANS) A 16-year-old girl was beaten to death by villagers in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district, who accused her of practising witchcraft and entrancing the son of her former employer to marry her, the police said. "Tulu Dolui, 16, was dragged out of her hut in Ghoramara village around 11.30 p.m. by at least eight people, who then tied her to a tree and beat her with sticks for over three hours," an official at Sagore police station told reporters.

 

He said police intervened to rescue the girl, but she succumbed to her injuries on way to the local health centre. She had sustained serious head, abdominal, chest and back injuries.

 

The official said the villagers alleged that Dolui was a witch and had hypnotised the son of a rich grocer's son, who decided to marry her against his parents' wishes. She was working there as a maid servant until the grocer came to know of the relationship and sacked her.

 

No one has been arrested so far in this incident, he said.

 

 

 

 

Jharkhand tribes facing Malaria deaths

 

November 12th, 2008 by ANI - Kuramu (Pallamu) Jharkhand, Nov.12 (ANI): Widespread ignorance, dependency on exorcism and witchcraft among tribes in Jharkhands Palamu district have become a major problem for people struggling against Malaria here.

 

Malaria has claimed over 24 lives and affected hundreds of others in Kuramu village under Chandwa Block of Latehar Division of States Palamu district.

 

"My grandson was already suffering from fever. We called the exorcists and even witch doctors, but nothing could help. He died on the Diwali night. Later my granddaughter also fell ill and we have taken her to Primary Healthcare Centre at Chandwa," said Ram Chandra, a local resident.

 

Marshy lands, water logging and unhygienic conditions in this region have become a haven for mosquitoes to breed and spread dreaded filaria, malaria and dengue, further the situation is compounded by apathetic attitude of the State administration.

 

Nine persons belonging to the Lohra and Ganjhu tribes have reportedly succumbed to the disease in the last week alone.

 

Another factor that let the spread of the disease has been the isolated location of these affected areas with no concerned officials turning up for inspection.

 

"We know that this place is a remote place, and it''s not really accessible by general public. But still the way administration has delayed the matter and this is something very much unjustified," said Boidya Nath Ram, a former legislator of Chandwa area.

 

Hundreds of hapless villagers are compelled to endure the dreaded malaria while those responsible in the administration appear to have just woken up from slumber.

Doctor and para-medical staff of Primary Health Centre at Chandwa, however, blame the inaccessible roads and remote location for the delay in providing help.

 

"Kuramu is not very accessible, and thus, treatment in this area has been bit delayed. But we are trying our level-best to treat as many people as possible. Hopefully, things will get better soon," said Dr. R R Prasad, Medical Officer at the Primary Health Centre, Chandwa. (ANI)

 

 

 

 

Youth killed in witchcraft related violence

 

Raipur, May 21 (IANS) Eight people have been arrested in Chhattisgarh's industrial city Bhilai after a young man was killed in group clashes over a dispute over witchcraft. Police said two groups clashed Monday night at Sector 11 in Bhilai, about 30 km from here, after some people attacked a woman's house blaming her for the death of a boy.

 

This led to the group clash in which a 22-year-old man, S. Gopi, suffered severe head injuries and died later, said Additional Superintendent of Police Prashant Thakur.

 

Chhattisgarh is infamous for witchcraft related violence.

 

 

 

Dalit woman branded witch in Bihar, beaten up

                       

Patna, March 28 2008 (IANS) A middle-aged Dalit woman was brutally thrashed and her hair cut off for allegedly practising witchcraft in a Bihar village, barely 20 km from the state capital, Patna, the police said Friday. The police lodged a first information report and arrested six people, including prime accused Ramayodhya Rai.

 

The woman, Lalpari, in her 40s, is a resident of Naubatpur village nearPatna. The police said the people suspected she practised witchcraft in the neighbouring Adalchak-Dumaria village, near Maner in the outskirts of Patna.

 

"She was first tied to a palm tree with a rope, then thrashed and her hair was cut off and burnt in front of a crowd of villagers Thursday," a senior police officer said.

 

The incident created an uproar in the state assembly Friday and an opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal legislator and a minister in the erstwhile Rabri Devi government, Shyam Razak alleged that women were not safe under the present regime.

 

"Women were being tortured by feudal forces," Razak said while his party members raised anti-government slogans. The opposition demanded stern action against the guilty.

 

The police said Lalpari had gone to Adalchak-Dumaria village Thursday to treat a woman, Manorama Rai, who suffers from a mental illness.

 

As Manorama's condition deteriorated, her husband Ramayodhya Rai lost his temper and accused Lalpari of practising sorcery and inflicting harm on his wife.

 

He got together some of his friends from the village and paraded Lalpari through the streets. The men tied her to a palm tree, cut off her hair and smeared her head with limestone paste.

 

Lalpari, however, refuted the charge of practising witchcraft and said she was a healer. When the police were informed about the incident, they rushed to the village and rescued the woman.

 

 

 

16 arrested for burning alive woman in Chhattisgarh

 

Raipur, March 27 2008 (IANS) Sixteen people including five women have been arrested for allegedly burning alive a 40-yr-old tribal woman in Korea district of Chhattisgarh after beating her for hours with hot iron rods, a police officer said Thursday. "The woman, who belonged to the Gond tribe, was beaten for hours with hot iron rods before being set on fire in the presence of dozens of villagers. They accused her of witchcraft and claimed she was responsible for the recent deaths of three children in the village," A.M. Juri, district superintendent of police, told IANS.

The woman called Phulkanwar was killed Sunday in Dholpur village, about 500 km north of here. A case was registered Wednesday when her husband Harilal Singh reported the tragedy to the police.

 

"We have strong evidence against 17 people and 16 of them have been arrested. The one person who is absconding will also be arrested soon," Juri said.

 

Besides murder, the 17 have been charged under the stringent Chhattisgarh Witchcraft (Prevention) Act, 2005.

 

Crimes against women accused of witchcraft are common in Chhattisgarh's northern and southern regions. 

 

 

 

Man enters police station with severed head

 

Jamshedpur, Apr 20 2008 (PTI) In a ghastly incident, a woman was beheaded on suspicion of practising witchcraft by a tribal who later walked in the police station with the severed head in Ghatsila sub-division of Jharkhand today.

 

The accused Jairam Hansda held the woman Renti responsible for the death of his brother a few days back and had been looking for a chance to get her, police said.

 

On finding her alone today, Jairam coaxed the unsuspecting woman to accompany him to a desolate spot next to a paddy field and made her consume alcohol at Musaboni area under Ghatsila sub-division.

 

Watch this incident in video - http://jharkhandforum.wordpress.com/2009/03/30/jharkhand-forum-adivasi-witchcraft-in-india-the-most-sensational-murder-of-sorcery-suspect/

 

 

 

Tribal Woman in Assam Hacked To Death on Suspicion of 'Witch'

 

Sinlung / Jan 31 09 Baksa - A 65-year-old Adivasi woman was hacked to death, allegedly by her two brothers, on the suspicion of practising witchcraft in lower Assam's Baksa district.

 

The decomposed body of Buddha Bala, with cut wounds on her head and neck, was found at her house in labour line quarter of Dumuni tea estate on Friday, police sources said.

 

Inquiries revealed a group of 20-25 neighbours along with her two brothers came to the woman's house on Tuesday night and forcibly took her away at knife point.

 

Her body was found near home this morning, the sources said.

 

Bala's two brothers Jogen Kerketa and Jonathan Kerketa confessed before reporters after their arrest that they had killed their sister on suspicion of her practising witchcraft along with four others.

 

 

The dark side of India where a witch-doctor's word means death

Monday, 5 July 2004: The decision was made in the hot jungle night: Bhobesh Pahan and his two adult sons, Nirmal and Bimal, must die. Two weeks ago, the villagers of Poaltore, near the border with Bangladesh, had a meeting to decide what to do about the spate of illness gripping the village. A month before, a two-year-old, Sumon Pahan, no relation, had died of dysentery.

The decision was made in the hot jungle night: Bhobesh Pahan and his two adult sons, Nirmal and Bimal, must die. Two weeks ago, the villagers of Poaltore, near the border with Bangladesh, had a meeting to decide what to do about the spate of illness gripping the village. A month before, a two-year-old, Sumon Pahan, no relation, had died of dysentery.

Several villagers had viral fever. The village witch doctor said the cause was simple. The 65-year-old Bhobesh Pahan and his sons were witches, and had placed a curse on the villagers.

The jungle is never far in the villages here. The banana leaves and creepers are so thick you cannot see through them, even by daylight. There are spiders bigger than a man's hand, and some of the world's most poisonous snakes. At night, the villagers hear the sounds of leopards in the undergrowth.

The witch-doctor is said to have told the people the only way to rid themselves of the curse that was making them sick was to kill the witches. Bhobesh Pahan and his sons were condemned to death. The villagers agreed to kill them.

But, by a rare stroke of fortune, the Pahans were saved. The police were tipped off that there was about to be a witch-killing. The officers raided in force and rescued the men. Since then, there have been intensive police patrols in the village to prevent violence.

This incident, just two weeks ago, has cast renewed scrutiny on a darker side of India. The country is at the forefront of the cyber-revolution, the home of the world's biggest film industry, and a place where more and more business is being outsourced from Britain. But if India is changing fast, the more remote parts of the country are being left behind. Witch-killing is still an everyday part of life here. And not all the victims are as lucky as the Pahans.

They came for Sanseriya Oraow on a humid monsoon Sunday. Her neighbours dragged the middle-aged mother from her house and hammered a nail through her skull into her brain. Then, while she was still alive but in desperate pain, they sewed her up in a sack and dumped her in the nearby Murti river. Two days later, the police recovered her body.

The neighbours dragged four other middle-aged women from their homes that day. Each one suffered similar treatment, nails being hammered into her head, then, in her confusion and agony, being sewn into a sack and dumped in the river to die. This was the most notorious case of recent times. The local witch doctor had proclaimed the women witches after a run of illness among the people.

The place where it happened, Kilkott tea garden, seems an unlikely setting for such stuff of nightmares. This is a plantation set up by the British in colonial times, and is famed for the quality of its tea. On the mountainsides nearby are the great tea gardens of Darjeeling.

Kilkott is in stark contrast, surrounded by encroaching jungle. At the head planter's bungalow, the managers sit in wicker chairs on a vast, white verandah, gazing over manicured lawns and flower-beds that look straight out of Surrey, shielded by an elaborate iron screen from the monsoon deluge hammering into the garden. In a curious throwback to the colonial era, the managers of the tea estates dress in old-fashioned, tight English shorts that would be considered risqué in polite Indian society and seem ill-advised in a region ridden with malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

In another notorious case, across the border in Bihar state in 2000, Manikul Gopai survived only because her family fought to the death to defend her after she was named as a witch by a medicine man and 10 men attacked her house. Her husband was hacked to death by the attackers as he tried to guard the door. Her son's arm was sliced open, but he managed to escape and get to the police to beg for help with his dying breath. They arrived armed to the teeth and just in time to rescue Ms Gopai. She had been seriously wounded with a sword- blow to the forehead.

Activists believe there may be up to 100 cases a year in India. In May, Dituben Singhod was hacked to death with a scythe and an axe by two men who accused her of being a witch and putting a spell on their niece, who had died of illness. That was in Vadodara, hundreds of miles from here.

But tea plantations founded by the British are the focal point of anti-witch activities. Between 1992 and 1998, the most recent period for which figures are available, 1,403 people were killed as alleged "witches" on the plantations. The reason, says Sundeep Mukherjee of the Indian Tea Association, also dates from colonial times. When the British planted tea in India, finding local labourers prepared to do what was seen as the menial work of laboriously picking leaves from the bushes by hand was difficult.

So the British imported workers called Adivasis, people still living in tribal society at the time in the jungles of neighbouring Bihar, and offered them a new life. Free accommodation on the tea estates, and a job not only for life, but for at least one child after their deaths. To this day, most of the workers on the estates are still Adivasis, and they still enjoy the deal made with the British.

Mr Mukherjee is a retired Indian army officer, immaculately dressed and with perfect English. At one point, he suggests a trip to a neighbouring village where a rogue elephant is on the rampage, "just for the adventure of it".

He says: "The witch-hunting [is caused by] ignorance, because they are so steeped in superstition. First, most of the tribals are illiterate. They are so engrossed in their superstition that, although qualified doctors are provided for them, it's so deep-seated that they still go to their witch-doctors."

The Indian Tea Association has been trying to stamp out the witch-hunting phenomenon by pushing for better education in the plantations, and for initiatives such as plays to encourage adults to go to real doctors instead of witch-doctors. Although some Adivasis still practise animism, most have become Hindus or Christians. But primitive beliefs are still deep.

Several types of poisonous snakes roam the jungle, including the deadly king cobra. Most Adivasis who are bitten still go to the witch-doctors, who are believed to be able to draw out the poison with a mixture of herbs applied to the skin.

The medicine men also try to cure other illnesses with mantras. When the witch-doctor fails to cure an illness, Mr Mukherjee says, he faces the wrath of the family, so he claims the sickness has been caused by a witch, and names one of the local labourers, usually a middle-aged or elderly woman, often unmarried or widowed. The only cure is believed to be to kill the witch.

In an effort to stamp this out, the plantations are required by law to provide free medical care for workers, and doctors and hospitals are all available nearby. But many workers still prefer the witch-doctors.

"The witch-doctors are themselves illiterate, and are pawns in the hands of rival groups, used to settle scores among them," Mr Mukherjee says. There have been cases in which one side in a land dispute is believed to have persuaded the witch-doctor to name his rival as a witch to get him off the scene.

"Pointing out of 'witches' is an offence under Indian law, but because of the lack of witnesses, the witch-doctors invariably go free," Mr Mukherjee adds.

The Kilkott case is still being investigated, and there is a court case pending. But many of the witnesses are said to have changed their police statements. On the plantation, no one will admit they witnessed the killing. Everyone claims they were somewhere else at the time. Even Sanseriya Oraow's two grown-up sons denied to The Independent that they had seen anything.

"I was in the fields when it happened," Somra Oraow says. "When I got back I saw my mother's dead body." But when questioned about the condition of the body, he quickly changed his story. "I didn't see the body," he says. "I didn't see anything." Something has the labourers of Kilkott deeply scared. But whether it is fear of the police, the witch-doctors, or reprisals from the guilty labourers, is impossible to tell.

On the plantations it is not hard to understand why the labourers still believe in witchcraft. The night is pitch-dark here, there is no light for miles, and if you find yourself out on the plantations after dark you are alone amid the impenetrable darkness and the incessant sound of the surrounding jungle. Anyone can start believing in witchcraft under such conditions.

The labourers live by the sun. They get up at dawn to start work, and got bed soon after dark falls. They live on the "lines", rows of wood-and-mud houses with little gardens full of chickens and goats. Compared to the slums of India's city, these artificial villages don't seem that bad; there is space and everybody has a roof over his head. But the jungle begins where the "lines" end, at the end of the street, and leopards have been known to come in at night to kill the chickens and goats.

We found a witch-doctor on the tea plantation at Gandrapara tea garden. His name was Ashok Goaala, a slight man with deep-set, dark eyes. He seemed more frightened than intimidating, and was dressed in Western clothes, a tatty shirt and trousers.

"I possess my power from God," he says. "I can cure sicknesses. For snakebites, I put herbs next to the bite and then I recite a mantra. People come from as far away as Assam and Nepal to see me. My great-grandfather was a witch-doctor."

When asked if he believed in witches, his reply made the skin prickle: "As far as I know, there are witches in the lines here," he says. The manager of the plantation, who was standing nearby, looked shocked, but Mr Goaala added: "I don't publicise this or point it out. I don't believe in witch-hunting. I am capable of handling it myself."

The management of the tea plantations is often as reticent about the incidents as the labourers. At the Gairkata tea garden, where a woman was beaten to death last year as an alleged "witch", the management claimed there were "no official records" of witch-killings. All over the tea gardens, you get the same answer: yes, it happens, but not here.

A visit to the local police station shows the difficulties police are working under. There is no air-conditioning, despite the damp jungle heat. Officers sit sweating and mopping their brows, cradling the military rifles they need to patrol India's lawless rural areas. There are separatist militants here, some roads are not safe to travel at night.

"We'd like you to do an article," Sub-Inspector Nirmo Yonzhan, the senior officer, says. "We want more exposure for the witch-hunting, we want to stop it." But producing his files on witch-killing is no easy task. The station has no computers, just thousands of dusty documents that would have to be laboriously sifted through. It could take days.

There are piles of documents like that about witch-hunting across India, but with so few witnesses prepared to testify against the killers, and traditional societies resisting efforts to wean them off the witch-doctors, they may just keep piling up.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-dark-side-of-india-where-a-witchdoctors-word-means-death-552084.html

 

 

 

Witchcraft in Assam school curricula?

The National Commission for Women (NCW) has mooted introduction of a subject relating to 'dayan pratha' or witchcraft in the syllabus of primary education in Assam to eradicate the growing menace.

Neeva Konwar, member of the National Women Commission, said witch-hunting, like an infectious disease, was slowly spreading to newer areas and solutions would have to be found to eradicate the evil practice.

"The idea behind introducing dayan pratha in primary schools is to bring about awareness from an early age to do away with the primitive practice of witch-hunting based on superstitious beliefs," said Konwar.

Mridula Saharia , chairperson of the Assam State Women Commission, stressed the need for better medical facilities and mass awareness in remote rural areas to eradicate the evil practice. She said women cell should be activated at panchayat and district-level to tackle the evil.

The practice of witch-hunting is prevalent among some tribal communities in the state. These include Bodos, Ravas and the greater Adivasi community.

The Assam government had already adopted multi pronged strategy to combat witch-hunting. The Assam police have also intensified their drive to curb this problem. Codenamed 'Project Prahari', the crusade includes community policing measures, besides regular awareness campaigns, among tribal chiefs and village elders.

The police campaign is now focusing on educating villagers and holding meetings in areas dominated by tribal people.

 

Indian 'witchcraft' family beheaded

 

A family of five has been beheaded in Sonitpur district, north-east India, by a mob who accused them of witchcraft.

The tea plantation worker and his four children had been blamed for causing a disease which killed two other workers and made many unwell in Assam state.

About 200 villagers tried and sentenced the family in an unofficial court, then publicly beheaded them with machetes.

They then marched to a police station with the heads, chanting slogans denouncing witchcraft and black magic.

'Pregnant wife fled'

The incident occurred at the Sadharu tea plantation near the town of Biswanath Charali, about 300 km (190 miles) north of Guwahati, Assam's main city.

Sixty-year-old Amir Munda, who was killed alongside his two daughters and two sons, was reportedly a traditional healer.

After two plantation workers died and many others became ill from mysterious illness, other members of the Adivasi Santhal community accused him and his family of being the cause.

"A trial was held to prove if Munda and his family were involved in casting evil spells in the tea garden that led to a bout of epidemics in the area," police officer D Das said. "They said the killings would appease the gods.

"Munda's pregnant wife and her three young children managed to escape before the mob killed the other members of the family," A Hazarika, a local police official, told AFP.

Six people were arrested for the killings, Mr Hazarika said.

According to police records, some 200 people have been killed in Assam in the past five years for allegedly practicing witchcraft.

Source: BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4822750.stm

 

 

 

Witch' family buried alive

 

Guwahati, 11 Jun 2008 | Telegraph: Four members of a family were stoned and buried alive in a village in Upper Assam's Sonitpur district last night after a kangaroo court found them guilty of practising witchcraft and sentenced them to death.

 

The victims — Lakhan Majhi, 65, his wife Sumoni, 60, son Durga, 45, and daughter-in law Sabitri, 35 — incurred the wrath of villagers in Koilajuli Milanpur after a 21-year-old youth, Gobinda, died on Saturday.

 

Sonitpur superintendent of police Munna Prasad Gupta said Gobinda had died after prolonged illness, but the villagers held Lakhan, who used to regularly perform puja at Gobinda's residence, responsible for his death.

 

The villagers summoned the Majhis to village headman Bhutkori Majhi's house for a public hearing last night.

 

"The entire village was present at Bhutkori's house. The elders charged the Majhis with casting evil spells on Gobinda that resulted in his death," an officer at Biswanath Chariali police station, under which the village falls, said.

 

The villagers then stoned the four and buried them in a nearby jungle while they were still breathing.

 

When police reached the village this morning to exhume the bodies, all the males of the village had fled.

 

"We interrogated a few women who said the men of the village had crushed the victims' heads with bricks and stones and buried them even before they died," the officer said. He added that the headman was the main accused and the police were looking for him.

 

This is the second time that alleged witches have been murdered in Biswanath Chariali in the past two years.

 

On March 18, 2006, five members of a family were beheaded by a mob at Sadharu tea estate in the heart of Biswanath Chariali. The mob then marched to a police station with the heads, chanting slogans against witchcraft and black magic.

 

Amir Munda, 60, his two sons and two daughters were beheaded after a mysterious ailment struck the labour lines.

 

Two garden workers died while several others were afflicted by the disease.

 

Soon, the community's suspicions fell on Munda.

 

The labourers called a meeting, to which Munda was also invited. When he fled with his family, their suspicion turned to conviction.

 

Munda's pursuers caught him and held a kangaroo court. When Munda denied practising witchcraft, he was beaten until he "confessed" his entire family's involvement in occult practices. The court sentenced them to death.

 

According to police records, over 200 people have been killed in Assam in the past seven years for allegedly practising witchcraft.

 

Assam police have launched campaigns in Sonitpur and Lower Assam's Kokrajhar district to educate people against witch-hunts.

 

 

From the ninth through at least the thirteenth centuries, there was an active cult of dakinis (usually called yoginis in today's India.)  At least nine yogini temples have been discovered so far.  The best known are the two in the state of Orissa, and the ones in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.  

 

It is generally thought that these shrines were centres for tantric practices the ultimate goal of which was the acquisition of extraordinary abilities (Skt. siddhi) or "supernatural powers."  The saddhaka (practitioner) aspires to control body and mind, bring rain and otherwise regulate the elements, obtain wealth, heal the sick and perhaps also acquire destructive powers.

Some inscriptions indicate that dakini rituals were practiced well into the 16th century, but within mainstream Indian religion the cult diminished to the point that its temples were abandoned.  Yet even today, offerings are often left at the feet of the images.  

Some believe that the cult had origins in the animistic traditions of Adivasi peoples and/or the folk traditions of grama devati  (female nature deities) and that around the late 7th century, those beliefs blended with the cult of Shakti and tantrism.  

Today, many students of Indian religion are familiar with some of the tantric practices associated with the worship of the Great God (Skt. Mahadeva, Tib. Lha chenpo,) Lord Shiva.  For example, in the Kaula Marga (Path of Time) practice, yoginis of different categories are included in the chakra or circle of experience.  When the deity is experienced in wrathful form as Bhairava, the practice is known as Bhairavi Chakra.  Then the sadhana (ritual) includes the use of the 5 M's:  matsya (fish,) mamsa (meat,) mudra (here referring to parched grain,) madya (alcoholic drink,) and maithuna (sexual intercourse.)  For the sadhaka, the breaking of taboos extends to the jati (occupational caste) of the maithun partner; a man would seek out a Dombi (laundress) or a Madhumati (brewer) and so on.  

These kinds of contravention of norms or vows seems to be a constituent of the majority of wrathful deity practices.  Kali and Durga are two wrathful forms of the consort of Shiva, and worship, especially at the main shrines, includes the sacrifice of animals.  This and other normally forbidden activities play a role in the worship of other, local, Indian goddesses, especially at the times of the year considered sacred to them.  

However, most tantric texts use sexual references as a kind of code for something else.

Mahadeva (Tib. Lha Chenpo or Shiva -- the Auspicious,) as Buddhist deity with consort, Uma (Durga is her warrior nature.) The "Benevolent Lord of the World" is sometimes seen as an emanation of Chenresi.

Hirapur

One of these centres was at the Mahamaya Temple on the banks of the sacred Bhargavi river at Hirapur, 15 km. from Bhubaneshwar, Orissa.  It is one of only four examples of the roofless or "hypaethral" temple that is still standing in India.  (Another Orissan one is at Ranipur.  The others are at Khajuraho and at Bhedaghat near Jabalpur.) 

 

Mahamaya, the presiding deity of the Hirapur temple, is still regularly adorned with red cloth and vermilion.  Mahamaya or, Great Illusion, is also a name by which the Buddha's mother is known.  

Hirapur means the diamond city. The Hindi or Sanskrit name is also transliterated Heera.  This is familiar to us from Greek mythology where the name, Hera, is usually taken to mean widow, despite the fact that the queen of the Olympian gods was Zeus' lawful wife and mother to Heracles. 

In Minoan times (pre-1500 BCE) Hera was depicted bearing a staff and bowl similar to the attributes of Vajrayogini.  On an archaic amphora, she is depicted attended by Nike, whose association with space is conveyed by means of wings.

 

Yogini or Dakini ?

There is a distinction among the terms goddess, shakti, yogini and dakini (also, shakini) though in general conversation it is blurred and the terms are used interchangeably.  Goddess is a divine being of the highest order.  She is absolute in her own right.  However, we do not have a term (in English) for the consort, wife or companion of a god, so we use the term goddess here, too.  When the essential character and/or the activity of a god is expressed through female energy or form, the Sanskrit term shakti is more appropriate.  In the Indian tradition it is most often applied to an "expression" of Shiva.  

In the Chandi Purana attributed to Sudramuni Sharala Das ( 15th century) of Orissa, the term yogini is used to refer to any of the many forms and/or qualities of Devi, the Supreme Goddess whose devotees are called Shaktas.   Each yogini is also seen as a different part of Her body.   However, in other religious texts, a yogini is an attendant of the Great Goddess.  In Tibetan Buddhism, the expression meaning dakini is usually used for a female deity fulfilling the role of messenger or attendant.   

Though the term yogini is also used for mysterious females who can effect extraordinary change that is ultimately, though not always apparently, beneficial, strictly speaking, a yogini is a female yogi.  She is any practitioner of tantric lore in any of its variety of kinds.  In legends and tales about yoginis, they are usually said to have acquired their siddhis or magical powers, such as being able to transform people into animals or birds through the mastery of some practice or more rarely, by means of a transaction with a deity or Mahasiddha. 

Dakini retains the connotation, though somewhat less in the Buddhist context, of a frightening being.  In some Indian texts the word is used as a synonym for sorceress, witch or even ghoul.  One of her essential qualities is the ability to fly; perhaps that is one of the reasons why temples dedicated to dakinis are open to the sky.  

In Orissa, surprisingly the ancient practice of witchcraft has still survived in certain areas. ... , among the Santals of Mayurbhanj district, witchcraft is still prevalent. The Santali witches often leave behind their husbands in bed in the midst of the night to assemble in a forest. Completely naked, they spend the rest of the night dancing and singing with 'bongas' (spirits or deities) and lions as their partners. At the break of dawn, they return to their beds, back to being what they originally were. The Santals believe that the 'talent' for witchcraft is not innate, but is attained through strict discipline.   

~   <http://travel.indiamart.com/orissa/buddhist-heritage/hirapur.html>

Sixty-four

In one of the religious traditions of India, there are 8 major forms of Devi, the Goddess.  These are known as the Ashta Matrikas (8 Mothers.) Each of these has 8 attendants and so we arrive at the number, 64.  Each of the 64 can be further correlated to the currents or winds of the human "etheric" body, or viewed as a type of neurotic or unproductive tendency (if  not balanced by the others.)  However, these Matrikas, or other aspects of Devi such as the fearsome Chamundas, do not appear at the Hirapur temple. 

Sapta Matrikas (Seven Mothers) are frequently carved on the outer walls of the Shiva temples. (The eighth is the god's consort, in this case.) They are Brahmi, Maheshvari, Aindri, Kaumari, Vaishnavi, Varahi and Chamunda, flanked by Virabhadra and Ganesha.  In a purana, Devi Mahatmyam explains how they came into being to assist the Devi in her struggle with the ashura, Raktavija.  (Every drop of blood [rakta] shed by this demon turned into another weapon-wielding opponent of the Goddess'.)

Five of the six Orissan Devi temples are dedicated to the goddess as Chamunda. Here she has the form of an emaciated crone standing on a corpse.  She has prominent veins and tendons, and a gaping mouth and bulging eyes.  The shrine of Vaitali (or, Vetali ) is also named for her in her manifestation as a ghost or spirit.  As in a 64-yogini temple, it has sculpted images on its inner walls -- in this instance there is the set of Matrikas with Chamunda-Vaitali as the main idol. 

There are also two fearsome or bhairava images, one wields a knife while a severed human head lies next to him.  Two other severed human heads replace the fruit offerings as found on the similar tripods of the 14 other images in the shrine.  Some people interpret this imagery as an indication that human sacrifice was practiced here:  the Kapalika and Kalarnukha sects that are offshoots of the Pashupatinath (Shiva as Animal Master) worship are reported to have done so.

A sixth Devi temple -- at Chaurasi, in Orissa -- is dedicated to Varahi.  The rupa is of a corpulent boar-faced Varahi with curly hair.  In one hand she holds a fish.  Her vehicle is the buffalo.

Yogini Worship  

Vidya Dehejia, who is an associate director of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington and chief curator of both the Freer and the Arthur M.  Sackler Galleries, wrote a book on the subject of Yogini Temples.  In 2000, she was interviewed by Vimla Patil for a Spectrum  article in The Tribune (India) :

"The worship of 64 Yoginis is seen commonly between 800 and 1300 AD [sic]most of the temples dedicated to Yoginis are built in this era.  The cult is influenced by Tantrik rituals and a great deal of the worship was conducted to achieve powers of black magic. The number 64, being a multiple of 8, is considered to have magical powers in the numerology of India. Devotees who performed this worship were known to conduct the Shava Chhedan ceremony — meaning the beheading of a dead body as the ultimate symbol of detachment from earthly desires. The members of this cult never harmed living beings and never conducted animal or human sacrifices. 

Until 1500 AD, there are references in history to the widespread following of this cult.  In the eastern provinces, there are reports that Yogini worshippers would ask for corpses from poor families with a promise of a grand funeral and provide this after their Shava or corpse ritual was over. But in later centuries, out of scary nature of the rituals and because of the growing stronghold of the Bhakti movement all over India — which preached love of god as the finest path to self realisation — this cult died a slow death, and remained only in small pockets of India. Thus, today, several Yogini temples are dilapidated and neglected with even tourists scared to enter them. Such a temple exists in Khajuraho.

However, Yogini temples in Hirakud, Ranipur Jharial and Pheraghat near Jabalpur are in excellent condition. Several of them were not even known to archaeologists till 1953.  In Yogini worship, the Tantrik symbol is a chakra with 64 spokes in the wheel.  Each spoke represents one Yogini a form of Shakti. In most of the well-conserved temples, the sculptures of Yoginis are intact and none of them are erotic as in other temples. This is because this cult did not believe in sex as a path to self discovery.  The book I wrote on the Yogini temples has been published by the National Museum, Delhi."

~ Spectrum, The Tribune, 30 April 2000.

 

In the Buddhist, Kalachakra tantric system, there is described at the navel chakra called the Wheel of Emanation, 64 channels which are the 64 goddesses of the Speech Mandala.   A chakra within that system with images of the speech deites.

Lineages

Luipa, the fisher mahasiddha whose Sanskrit name is Matsyendranath, taught a system of eight chakras which was the basis for the Ka[u]la Marga tantric system.  From that view, we derive the number 64 as the product of eight "petals" forming each corolla (or, pericarp)  times the number of "lotuses" or chakras.

Vajravarahi with Luipa and Virupa, the Mahasiddhas.

The Kaula Marga siddhas are considered a sub-sect of Kashmiri Shaivism, but whose orientation was grouped by scholar K. C. Pandey with the Tamil Shaivas.

The 9th chapter of the Kaulajnana Nirnaya (attributed to Matsyendranath) presents the eight-chakra system, stating that the 64 yoginis are "well known in Kama-rupa."   The Sanskrit expression kamarupa means desire-form, a way of referring to this reality -- the world where forms are born out of Desire.  However it was also used to refer to the Indian region of Assam which Pandey called "a stronghold of Tantrism."   Besides that, in the symbolic or "twilight" speech (sandhya bhasha) of the siddhas, the word also refers to the female organ and its symbol -- a  trikona or triangle such as is used to depict the Muladhara or "root" chakra [of the so-called subtle body.] 

By meditating on each of the 64 petals we can induce the resident yogini to grant a boon in the form of a siddhi (special ability.)  The Kaula tradition teaches that in the 64-fold complex of matrices lie all the secrets of bodily perfection and also, of alchemy: 

These eight goddesses stand in the field,
keeping the petals closed. Who knows why?

They won't let you see Nandi and rise up.

But you will drink the very substance of sky.

If you puff and make the eight shaktis swoon,
they'll open all the petals and go staggering off.

By using the heart of the flower,
you'll make them obey the Mother's commands. 

 - Bhogar. Elaayiram 7.                                                        

AND 

Nandi can come here easily.

Being friendly, he will give the eight into eight: 
the sixty-four.

The malleable alchemy will stand before you 
with folded arms.

The deepest essence will appear explicit
and complete.

In Joy, the body becomes perfected.   ~ Bhogar. Elaayiram 24.

~ Layne Little's paper: Tamil studies at Berkeley under George Hart. 

 

Besides the 8 x 8 vision, there is also an Indian view of Dasha Mahavidyas: Ten Great [Ways of] Knowing "embodied" by goddesses.  In other words, there are/were probably a number of dakini temples, but not all were dedicated to a company of 64.

Other Numbers

One tantric Buddhist view has Krodha Kali (Tib. Troma Nagmo) accompanied by four dakinis, so that together, they are the Wisdoms of the Five Buddha families.   We can speculate that students of the Indian Mahasiddhas who systematized yogic practice came from many different philosophic and religious traditions -- orthodox, Buddhist and likely, others, too.  Even, perhaps from very distant regions.

In this next Krodha Kali image [click again,] Mahasiddha Luipa is at top left holding a fish in his right hand, but on the top right is a monk who could be of the Kadampa order.  The fact that Guru Padmasambhava is at the top indicates that the tangka is used by the Nyingma.

Finally, in one in which Machig Labdron is featured at the top, there are six yoginis in all.  

Architecture

The temple near the village of Hirapur is the smallest of the Indian yogini/dakini temples, measuring less than 30 feet across.  It is a circular enclosure of sandstone blocks on a foundation of laterites that is between 8 and 9 feet high on the exterior.  

This is the only one of the "yogini" temples that has female figures on its outer walls, and their distinctive qualities lead one to conclude that this was, at least at one time, a Buddhist shrine.  There are nine exterior niches, each home to a dakini sculpted in sandstone poised above large severed human heads.  Each holds either her characteristic curved knife or spear in one hand, and her skull cup in the other.  

There is a projecting entranceway, a feature not found in the other dakini temples.  It is guarded by a pair of very wrathful, skeletal doorkeepers.  Each one wears a skull garland and snake anklets.  One holds a severed human head.  On the pedestal are two other skeletal figures holding skull cups, each with a dog or jackal. 

The short, narrow entrance is on the east and it requires the worshipper to crouch over (like a baby) to enter the sacred space which has no upper limit at all.  The interior wall is about 2 meters high and contains 64 niches each with a plaque over it that identifies the female figure within.  Today, only sixty figures remain.  

The 64 female deities -- the Chausati (sixty-four) are variously called yoginis, dakinis, shaktis or bhairavis, are as mentioned in the Skanda Purana.  Carved from a fine, black chlorite, each rupa (form) is small -- roughly a foot and a half high.  Each one represents a voluptuous woman wearing a kilt or skirt held around her hips by an ornate girdle.  Besides the belt, she wears the other seven symbolic ornaments: bracelets, armlets, anklets, earrings, necklace, garland and headdress.  Their hairstyles include the most common one which is a cluster or bun worn to one side, or else a coronet of tight curls.  Some are warriors or huntresses with bows and arrows, others balance on a pair of wheels, or play a drum.  Most have two arms but a few have four.  

The vahana or mount of the dakini includes animals such as the fish, parrot, turtle, frog, snake, scorpion, rat, while some appear with a decapitated male head, an archer, or other representation at their feet.  Several of the dakinis have animal faces --  of a horse, ass, hare, elephant and lion. 

History

It is generally accepted that the Hirapur temple was constructed sometime during the reigns of Bhauma and Somavamsi (mid-8th to mid-10th century,) since the figures resemble the style of those in the Mukteshwar temple in Bhubaneswar dating to the 9th century. That period is known as Orissa's Golden Age as a consequence of the dynasty's patronage and eclecticism in the arts, and tolerance in religious matters.  However, one wonders whether it might not be on the site of a far older sanctuary. 

 

Interesting paper by Alessandra Lopez Y Rojo on her presentation at Oxford University on 21 Feb. 2008 concerning dance and the Hirapur dakini temple.

Ranipur-Jharial Dakini Temple

This building is of sandstone and many of the figures are missing.  At its heart is a Three-faced Shiva embracing Parvati.  It is still a focus for worship, as Shivaratri (usually the night of the dark of the moon before springtime) is celebrated with a mela.

Jabalpur

About 28 km. from this town in Madhya Pradesh, there is another of the Chausat Yogini temples known also as the Madanpur Temple.  It is one of the 25 Pithas or spots where the parts of the Goddess' body fell to earth; as such it is called Gauri Shankarji.  

Here, in the fork where the Bawanganga (also called the Saraswati,) joins the Narmada River, the rock rises to a small round hillock where it commands the view of the Narmada (bewitching) River at the point where it flows through the Marble Rocks.  The mandir (temple,) which is at the lower end of the gorge with its spectacular falls, is approached by a flight of 100 steps.  It is a 130-ft. in diameter "cloister temple,"  ie. it has a separate shrine or cell for each dakini. 

The spot, now called Bhera- or Bhedaghat, was earlier called Bhairavi ghat (landing) after the Terrifier, the goddess Durga.  This 10th-century circular temple of the Kalchuri period (7th-13th centuries) has finely carved stone figures of the 64 deities, the names of which are given.  

Legend has it that it was connected to the Gond queen, Durgavati's, palace by means of an underground passage.

"The kingdom was bravely defended by Rani Durgavati against the Mughal invasion. When she was loosing the battle, the Queen stabbed herself to death besides the consecrated banks of the Narmada.  Her palace Madan Mahal and temple Chausat Jogini (The temple of Sixty Four Godesses [sic] ) are sites worth visiting.  An old saying is "Madan Mahal kee chchaanv mein dhaaee laakh kee eent . . ." (Within the shadows of Madan Mahal is buried a golden brick worth Rs. 250, 000 . . .).  . . .  .  As a tribute to the Queen, the Jabalpur University was renamed Rani Durgavati University (RDU) during mid-1980s." 

~ Avinash Pandey

 

Khajuraho

The oldest of the surviving Khajuraho temples is the 64-yogini shrine which lies beyond the tank away from the other western group temples.  Unlike all the other temples which are squared to the cardinal directions, it is oriented northeast to southwest.  Only 35 of the original cells exist.  The main image was the 65th, facing the entrance -- that of  Kali.  

Now in ruins, it is thought to date from 900 CE, but possibly even earlier.  It was built on a low ridge and stands on an impressive stone jagati (platform) over 14 feet high.  What little remains of the wall is also of dark granite.  It is the only one entirely made of that material ---  unpolished and undecorated except for some simple moldings  -- and is not aligned like the others but rather northeast to southwest.  Its quadrangular form is also unique.  These qualities indicate its greater age than that of any of the other buildings.

It is significant, too, that it is situated more than three furlongs south of the Kandariya Mahadeva (Shiva) Temple.

The extraordinary Khajuraho site was only [re-]discovered in 1838.  It consists of three groupings of temples that once numbered 85.  The only one not of pink sandstone is the 64 Yogini shrine. 

Varanasi

Past some of the smaller ghats (landings) such as Mansarovar Ghat, named for the holy Tibetan lake and Narada Ghat named for the legendary musician- sage, lies Chaumsathi Ghat.  Here impressive stone steps lead up to the small Chaumsathi (var. 64) Yoginis.  There are images of Kali and Durga, but generally the Goddess is just referred to as Ma.  That is, Mother. 

More About the 64

Shirdi Sai Baba (1838-1918) and the 64 yoginis.

 

Courtesy: khandro.net/dakini_the64.htm