Yogini idols to come back

November 18, 2023

External Affairs Minister presided over a repatriation ceremony in London for two 8th-century temple idols stolen from India and discovered in England recently.
The Yogini Chamunda and Yogini Gomukhi idols, stolen from a temple in Lokhari in Uttar Pradesh between the late 1970s and the early 1980s, were recovered by the High Commission of India in London with support from India Pride Project, and Art Recovery International.
- India Pride Project is an organisation that works on restoring India’s lost artefacts.
’Yogini’ refers to female masters of the yogic arts with 64 divine Yoginis worshipped as goddesses at Yogini temples such as Lokhari.
The term is slightly ambivalent as it applies both to the goddesses and adept worshippers, who were believed to be able to take on some of the goddesses’ powers by performing secret rituals before the statues.
These are associated with the Tantrik mode of worship.
The major surviving temples of the 64 Yoginis, commonly termed as the ‘Chausath Yogini” shrines are two in Orissa and two in Madhya Pradesh in India.
These include Chausath Yogini temple (Odisha), Khajuraho temple complex (M.P) etc.
The Lokhari temple is believed to have 20 Yogini statues, depicted as beautiful women with the heads of animals. In the 1970s, the temple was targeted by a group of robbers who smuggled goods into Europe via Switzerland.