Relocating the Tamil Yoginis: The Shifting Status of a Temple Town

The Lecture

The village of Kaveripakkam, in Tamil Nadu, south India, was once home to a group of life-sized, ninth- to tenth-century stone sculptures of Yogini goddesses. Although the Yogini temple is no longer extant, many of these sculptures have survived and now reside in museums in India, Europe, and North America.

At the time of the sculpture’s creation, Kaveripakkam belonged to a constellation of suburban, town, and village settlements surrounding Kanchipuram. Kanchipuram, or Kanchi as it is often known, was a major urban center and royal capital throughout the eighth through thirteenth centuries, and it was home to manifold temples that served the needs of its multi-religious populations. Although it has transformed in many ways, Kanchi remains a vibrant city with active temples that attract devotees from far and near.

By contrast, Kaverippakam was a relatively urbanized place one thousand years ago with plentiful natural resources and several monumental stone temples, yet that status changed in subsequent centuries. At some point between the thirteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Yogini temple and perhaps others fell out of use, the settlement seems to have declined in population, and the heavy stone sculptures were relocated from their original site to a neighborhood in Kanchi, where one of them remains today. Many of the other Yogini goddesses were exported from India in the 1920s. 

In this presentation, Emma Stein examines Kaveripakkam’s shifting status and explores possible reasons for relocating the sculptures. She also shares plans for an exhibition that reunites the Tamil Yoginis.

The Speaker

Emma Natalya Stein (PhD, Yale) is an Associate Curator of Southeast Asian and South Asian Art at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art. Her exhibitions include Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia’s Sacred Mountain; Prehistoric Spirals: Earthenware from Thailand; Power in Southeast Asia; and The Art of Knowing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas. Emma has published articles on yoginis, temple networks, and water’s edge urbanism, and her monograph, Constructing Kanchi: City of Infinite Temples (IIAS Asian Cities series, 2021), was featured on the New Books in Indian Religions podcast. Emma’s research is grounded in fieldwork in South Asia and Southeast Asia, where she documents and maps monuments in diverse landscapes.

Registration (required)

Everyone is welcome to attend (free of charge). Registration is required due to limited seating and lunch arrangements. Please indicate whether you will attend in person or online. We will serve lunch for in-person attendees who register by 9 January 2025.