Abstract

The aim of this article is to trace and to analyse the co-occurrence of the terms yoga and yoginī in the selected corpus of yogic and tantric texts (Vidyāpīṭha). The findings demonstrate that these terms start to appear together only from a precise point in time and in the sources that belong to or were influenced by a particular tantric tradition, namely, the Śakti-tantras belonging to the Vidyāpīṭha (classification of A. Sanderson), and it is within this part of the corpus that the yoginīs (be them women or supernatural beings) are said to perform a very particular kind of yoga, that breaks the current definitions of yoga as being voluntary and conscious practice.