Kiss of the Yogini: "Tantric Sex" in Its South Asian Contexts.

• Author: Larson, Gerald James
• Position: Book review

Kiss of the Yogini: "Tantric Sex" in Its South Asian Contexts. By DAVID GORDON WHITE. CHICAGO: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, 2003. Pp. xix + 372, 28 illus. $45.

Perhaps the easiest way to begin a review of this remarkable book is to identify the meaning of the title, "Kiss of the Yogini." The first reference comes at the beginning of chapter 2 (p. 28) and is a citation from the Caryagiti, a seventh-century C.E. Buddhist tantric text.

Pressing the triangle [of the yoni], give, O Yogini, an embrace; in the rubbing of Lotus [vulva] and Vajra [penis], bring on the evening: O Yogini, without you I cannot live for a moment; having kissed your mouth [vulva], I drink the juice of the Lotus. Another reference comes in chapter 3 (p. 73) from the Hevajra Tantra, another Buddhist tantric text.

Listen, O Goddess, to the service of worship. In a garden, in an uninhabited country, or within the inner chamber of one's own dwelling, one possessed of yogic knowledge should always worship the naked "Great Seal" consort. Kissing and embracing her, and touching her vulva, he should effect the drinking of fertilizing drops of the "male nose" and of the honey down below (adharamadhu). Yet another reference (p. 57) derives from the Kathasaritsagara.

A sorceress named Siddhikari impersonates a tree goddess in order to draw into her clutches a merchant's unwitting servant. Seeing him coming from afar, she climbs into a tree and, rustling its branches, calls out: "You have always been dear to me. Climb up here; here is wealth; take your pleasure with me." When the servant climbs up to her, she embraces him, kisses his mouth, and with her teeth bites off his tongue. He falls out of the tree spitting blood. Or, again, there is the reference (p. 80) from the Kaulavalinirnaya.

Without a doubt, female discharge is consciousness (samvit) in manifest form. [The goddess] Paramesani is "Prakrti," and the drop [of male seed, bindu] is called "Purusa." Without a doubt, "yoga" is the conjunction of Siva and Sakti. ... Know [the product of] sexual intercourse [to be] the water-offering, and the shedding of semen [the concluding rite of] releasing [the image of a deity into holy water]. Having purified [the body] with the clan fluid (kuladravyam), one becomes comprised of Siva and Sakti. In other words, the "kiss of the Yogini" refers principally to the oral kissing of the female genitalia, that is to say, ritual cunnilingus, of the goddess (Sakti) or the lineage of the various goddess-clans (kula, kaula). The kissing includes as well the imbibing of the female sexual discharge and on occasion the menstrual fluids. Presumably the "kiss" is likewise the reciprocal kissing of the male organ, that is to say, ritual fellatio, and the imbibing of the male ejaculate. Such sexualized ritual practice enables male practitioners to attain special "powers" (siddhis) or to become "powerful ones" (siddhas, mahasiddhas, or viras), and reciprocally the petulant, angry, and terribly dangerous Yoginis become pacified and manipulatable.

At first, the reader (at least this reader) is somewhat taken aback by the bold assertions regarding "Tantric Sex" in White's work. Early along, however, White makes it quite clear that the "sexualization of ritual," to be...