Shaman Hatley is a scholar of Asian religions, specializing in the goddess cults and tantric rituals of medieval India, including the

yogini A yogini (Sanskrit: योगिनी, IAST: ) is a female master practitioner of tantra and yoga, as well as a formal term of respect for female Hindu or Buddhist spiritual teachers in Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Greater Tibet. The ...

cults and the history of

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciou ...

Biography

Shaman Hatley was educated in liberal arts at Goddard College, graduating in 1998. He then studied Indology and religious studies at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, gaining his PhD on the Brahmayāmalatantra and the Early

Saiva ''Saiva'' is a genus of Asian planthoppers, family Fulgoridae. They are colourful insects, marked boldly in red, blue, white and black, with a prominent slender stalk like structure arising on the head that points upwards or forward. The known ...

Cult of Yoginīs there in 2007; he began teaching at

Concordia University Concordia University ( French: ''Université Concordia'') is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, Concordia is one of the t ...

that same year. In 2015 he moved to the

University of Massachusetts Boston The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a Public university, public research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus Un ...

, becoming the chair of Asian studies there in 2020. Hatley's work on the

yogini temples The Yogini temples of India are 9th to 12th century roofless hypaethral shrines to the yoginis, female masters of yoga in Hindu tantra, broadly equated with goddesses especially Parvati, incarnating the sacred feminine force. They remained larg ...

of India, starting with his dissertation, brought scholarly attention to their place in translating the

purana Purana (; sa, , '; literally meaning "ancient, old"Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature (1995 Edition), Article on Puranas, , page 915) is a vast genre of Indian literature about a wide range of topics, particularly about legends an ...

literature and ritual

mandala A mandala ( sa, मण्डल, maṇḍala, circle, ) is a geometric configuration of symbols. In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of practitioners and adepts, as a spiritual guidance tool, for e ...

s into the dramatic circular architecture of these temples.

Works

* 2007:
Mapping the Esoteric Body in the Islamic Yoga of Bengal
, ''

History of Religions The history of religion refers to the written record of human religious feelings, thoughts, and ideas. This period of religious history begins with the invention of writing about 5,200 years ago (3200 BC). The prehistory of religion involves th ...

'', vol. 46, issue 4. * 2012: "Tantric Śaivism in Early Medieval India: Recent Research and Future Directions", ''Religion Compass''. * 2012: "From Mātṛ to Yoginī: Continuity and Transformation in the South Asian Cults of the Mother Goddesses", ''Transformations and Transfer of Tantra in Asia and Beyond'', ed. by István Keul.

Walter de Gruyter Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. History The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Königliche Realschule in Be ...

. * 2013: "What is a Yoginī? Towards a Polythetic Definition", ''"Yogini" in South Asia: Interdisciplinary Approaches'', ed. by Istvan Keul (

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

) * 2014: "Kuṇḍalinī", ''Encyclopedia of Indian Religions'',

Springer Springer or springers may refer to: Publishers * Springer Science+Business Media, aka Springer International Publishing, a worldwide publishing group founded in 1842 in Germany formerly known as Springer-Verlag. ** Springer Nature, a multinationa ...

. * 2014: "Goddesses in Text and Stone: Temples of the Yoginīs in Light of Tantric and Purāṇic Literature." ''Material Culture and Asian Religions: Text, Image, Object'', edited by Benjamin Fleming and Richard Mann.

. * 2015: "Śakti in Early Tantric Śaivism: Historical observations on goddesses, cosmology, and ritual in the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā" * 2016:
Erotic Asceticism: The Razor's Edge Observance (asidhārāvrata) and the Early History of Tantric Coital Ritual
, ''

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies Bulletin or The Bulletin may refer to: Periodicals (newspapers, magazines, journals) * Bulletin (online newspaper), a Swedish online newspaper * ''The Bulletin'' (Australian periodical), an Australian magazine (1880–2008) ** Bulletin Debate, ...

'', vol. 79, issue 2. * 2016: "Converting the Ḍākinī: Goddess Cults and Tantras of the Yoginīs between Buddhism and Śaivism", ''Tantric Traditions in Transmission and Translation'', edited by David Gray and Ryan Richard Overbey (

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

). * 2018: ''The Brahmayāmala or Picumata'', Volume I: Chapters 1-2, 39-40, & 83. Revelation, Ritual, and Material Culture in an Early Śaiva Tantra. * 2019: "Yoginī",
Encyclopedia of Indian Religions, Hinduism and Tribal Religions
'. * 2019: "Sisters and Consorts, Adepts and Goddesses: Representations of Women in the Brahmayāmala", ''Tantric Communities in Context''. * 2019: "The Lotus Garland (padmamālā) and Cord of Power (śaktitantu): The Brahmayāmala’s Integration of Inner and Outer Ritual". * 2019: "The Brahmayāmalatantra and Early Śaiva Cult of Yoginīs". * 2020:
Śaivism and the Tantric Traditions Essays in Honour of Alexis G.J.S. Sanderson
', edited by Dominic Goodall, Shaman Hatley, Harunaga Isaacson, and Srilata Raman.

Brill Brill may refer to: Places * Brielle (sometimes "Den Briel"), a town in the western Netherlands * Brill, Buckinghamshire, a village in England * Brill, Cornwall, a small village to the west of Constantine, Cornwall, UK * Brill, Wisconsin, an un ...

. * 2020: "Tantra" (Overview), ''Encyclopedia of Indian Religions. Hinduism and Tribal Religions''.

References

External links

Yoginī temples and their antecedents: reassessing the textual evidence
–

SOAS SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury are ...

talk by Hatley in 2020 on the

Yogini temples The Yogini temples of India are 9th to 12th century roofless hypaethral shrines to the yoginis, female masters of yoga in Hindu tantra, broadly equated with goddesses especially Parvati, incarnating the sacred feminine force. They remained larg ...

of India {{Yoga scholars Yoga scholars