Here’s something from my visit to the 11th Century ‘Chausat (64) Yogini Temple’ at Mitaoli (Morena) near Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. Like other Yogini temples, this was probably a tantric temple and the hypaethral architecture (without a roof) was meant to worship the 5 elements of nature.
For those who do knot know, a Yogini temple is the one where the female goddess is celebrated and worshipped in all her forms - rage, sadness, happiness and so on. It’s not the only Chausati Yogini in the country and there is another very famous one at Hirapur, Odisha.
This temple was also a school for education in astrology and mathematics, and not just a place for worship.
The temple now has a Shiva idol inside the sanctum sanatorium as well as in the 64 chambers on the outer periphery. However, originally they housed Yogini idols (hence the name) which are nowhere to be found now. Any guesses on what might have happened?
Music credit: 12 MORNINGS by Jason Shaw (licensed under a Attribution 3.0 United States License)