Editing Yoni (section)

==Etymology and significance==
Yoni appears in the ''[[Rigveda]]'' and other Vedic literature in the sense of feminine life-creating regenerative and reproductive organs, as well as in the sense of "source, origin, fountain, place of birth, womb, nest, abode, fire pit of incubation".<ref name=mmw858/><ref name="renou">Louis Renou (1939), ''L'acception première du mot sanskrit yoni (chemin)'', Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, volume 40, number 2, pages 18-24</ref><ref name="saunders1985p229">{{Cite book |last=Saunders |first=Ernest Dale |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZeE9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA229 |title=Mudra: A Study of Symbolic Gestures in Japanese Buddhist Sculpture |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-691-01866-9 |pages=88–89, 229 note 28}}</ref> Other contextual meanings of the term include "race, caste, family, fertility symbol, grain or seed".<ref name=mmw858/><ref name=saunders1985p229/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Davenport |first=Guy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YTgXAQAAMAAJ |title=Tel quel |publisher=Éditions du Seuil |year=1969 |pages=52–54}}</ref> It is a spiritual metaphor and icon in Hinduism for the origin and the feminine regenerative powers in the nature of existence.<ref name=lochtefeld784/><ref name="Amazzone2012p27">{{Cite book |last=Amazzone |first=Laura |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PM_TNDu8NHUC |title=Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power |publisher=University Press of America |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-7618-5314-5 |pages=27–30}}</ref> The ''[[Brahma Sutras]]'' metaphorically calls the metaphysical concept ''[[Brahman]]'' as the "yoni of the universe",<ref name=Klostermaier214/> which [[Adi Shankara]] states in his commentaries means the material cause and "source of the universe".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cornille |first=Catherine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tpkNBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT148 |title=Criteria of Discernment in Interreligious Dialogue |date=1 August 2009 |publisher=Wipf and Stock |isbn=978-1-63087-441-4 |page=148}}, Quote: "In his commentaries on BSBh 1.4.27, Sankara cites various passages where brahman is described as the yoni (source) of the universe: 'The word yoni is understood in the world as signifying the material cause as in 'the earth is the yoni (source) of the herbs and trees'. The female organ too (called yoni) is a material cause of the foetus by virtue of its constituents."</ref>

According to Indologists Constance Jones and James D. Ryan, the yoni symbolizes the female principle in all life forms as well as the "earth's seasonal and vegetative cycles", and thus is an emblem of cosmological significance.<ref name="JonesRyan2006p516">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2007 |title=Yoni |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Hinduism |publisher=[[Facts On File]] |location=[[New York City|New York]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OgMmceadQ3gC&pg=PA515 |editor-last=Melton |editor-first=J. Gordon |editor-link=J. Gordon Melton |edition=1st |series=Encyclopedia of World Religions |pages=260–261, 515–517 |isbn=978-0-8160-5458-9 |lccn=2006044419 |oclc=255783694 |last2=Ryan |first2=James D. |author1-last=Jones |author1-first=Constance A.}}</ref> The yoni is a metaphor for nature's gateway of all births, particularly in the [[Shaktism]] and [[Shaivism]] traditions of Hinduism, as well as the esoteric [[Kaula (Hinduism)|Kaula]] and [[Tantra]] sects.<ref name="JonesRyan2006p516" /> ''Yoni'' together with the ''lingam'' is a symbol for ''[[prakriti]]'', its cyclic creation and dissolution.<ref name="Kramrisch1994p246">{{Cite book |last=Kramrisch |first=S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O5BanndcIgUC |title=The Presence of Siva |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1994 |isbn=0-691-01930-4 |pages=246–248}}</ref> According to Corinne Dempsey – a professor of Religious Studies, yoni is an "aniconic form of the goddess" in Hinduism, the feminine principle ''Shakti''.<ref name="Dempsey2005p221">{{Cite book |last=Dempsey |first=Corinne G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XfDDInmBCNcC&pg=PA221 |title=The Goddess Lives in Upstate New York: Breaking Convention and Making Home at a North American Hindu Temple |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-19-804055-2 |page=221}}</ref>

The ''yoni'' is sometimes referred to as ''pindika''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gopinatha Rao |first=T. A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e7mP3kDzGuoC |title=Elements of Hindu Iconography |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publisher |year=1993 |isbn=978-81-208-0877-5 |page=56}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Satari |first=Sri Sujatmi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EqsqAAAAMAAJ |title=New Finds in Northern Central Java |publisher=Proyek Pengembangan Media Kebudayaan |year=1978 |page=12}}</ref> The base on which the linga-yoni sit is called the ''pitha'', but in some texts such as the ''Nisvasa tattva samhita'' and ''Mohacudottara'', the term ''pitha'' generically refers to the base and the yoni.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Keul |first=István |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H4ItDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA55 |title=Consecration Rituals in South Asia |publisher=BRILL Academic |year=2017 |isbn=978-90-04-33718-3 |pages=55–56}}</ref>