Yogmaya Neupane

Yogmaya Neupane (1867–1941) was a religious leader, women's rights activist and poet based in Bhojpur district of Nepal. Yogmaya is considered to be among the pioneer female poets in Nepal with her only published book of poems, the Sarwartha Yogbani considered to be her most notable contribution.

Yogmaya's poems are set around the time when Nepal was ruled by the Rana regime and when India was ruled under the British Raj. Her style, characterized by the cultural and political oppression of the time was distinctly original and courageously outspoken. Despite putting a significant focus on the Hindu religious context as a religious leader, her poems and activism themes heavily revolved on female and minority rights in the region, which appealed to a lot of people around the time. In her later years, her activities were heavily monitored by the government and her works were banned by the authorities under the command of the Rana rulers and despite the persecution of her group, she is notable for opting to remain in Nepal and spending her last days around her birthplace in Eastern Nepal. It is also regarded that Yogmaya founded the first organization of Nepali women, the Nari Samiti for women's rights in 1918, which was considered to be the main lobby behind the abolition of the sati in Nepal in 1920.

Yogmaya's activism begun after she declared renunciation and returned to Nepal. With the authorities increasingly harsh towards Yogmaya and her group of supporters, as well as, unwilling to reform their brutal and corrupt approach to governance, Yogmaya and 67 of her disciples committed the biggest mass suicide (Jal-Samadhi) in Nepali history by jumping into the Arun River in 1941. In January 2016, the Nepal Government issued a postage stamp recognizing her contributions.

Biography

Early life and family (1867–1872) Yogmaya was born into a Brahmin family in Majhuwabeshi, Nepaledada at 1867. She was born as the eldest child and the only daughter from her parents, father Shrilal Upadhyaya Neupane and mother Chandrakala Neupane, among three children.

Migration to Assam and re-marriage (1872–1917) In her mid-teen years, despite being a single woman in the highly conservative and repressive Brahmin society of the time, Yogmaya secretly developed a relationship with a neighborhood Brahmin boy with the surname Kandel (name unidentified). Yogmaya decided to flee from her home at Bhojpur and she later married her lover at Assam. After over a decade of being together, its believed that Yogmaya separated from her second husband and left with her daughter. Some sources mention her second husband dying, while others mention the two actually separating in good terms. Some literature mention her marrying a third husband with the surname Dotel after the demise of her second husband. Historians have disputed about whether Yogmaya gave birth to two daughters or one, but the existence of Nainakala Neupane as her daughter has been recorded.

Renunciation and return to Nepal (1917) After deciding that she had enough of marriages and the worldly ways, Yogmaya decided to adopt a life of renunciation and live the rest of her life as an ascetic. While it was fairly common for males to become ascetics in the Hindu society during the time, it was very rare for females being so. Yogmaya then returned to Nepal with her daughter Nainakala to her home village at Majhuwabesi and handed over daughter Nainakala to her brother Agnidhar Neupane and sister-in-law Ganga. She hence gave up all her responsibilities and fully assumed the life of an ascetic. It was during this period that Yogmaya began composing her religious poems. Analysis of her earlier themes has pointed out scholars to assume that Yogmaya was heavily influenced by the principles of reformist Hindu leader Dayananda Saraswati, who had gained immense popularity across India when Yogmaya resided in Assam.

Interference by the state and arrest of her followers (1939–1941) Fearing a mass reprisal if the mass sacrifice was allowed to happen, Juddha Shumser ordered the disruption of the event by deploying around 500 security personnel to the event venue on November 11, following which 11 male disciples were jailed at Dhankuta while most female participants of the disrupted agni samadhi ritual, including Yogmaya and Nainakala were kept in close arrest in the Radhakrishna Temple at Bhojpur. The administrators released the female members from detention after three months, while most of the male followers were released from jail three years later in April 1941.

Legacy Sample of official stamp published by the Nepal Government for use in public domain in 2017. Yogmaya and her daughter Nainakala were illiterate. Her poems were compiled and published by her literate disciples. In fact, the Yogbani is considered to be a small part of her poem collections, which she continued to compose until the year of her Jal Samadhi.

News and materials on Yogmaya and the mass suicide were aggressively censored by the Rana Regime until they were overthrown in 1951. However, even during the first multi-party democracy era (1951–1960) and the Panchayat Era (1960–1990), mention about Yogmaya's activities were generally discouraged by the state. Yet, her disciples, who were scattered around Bhojpur, Khotang and Sankhuwasabha continued the tradition locally through the 1990s. Some of Yogmaya's disciples, mostly female, also lived in the Manakamana Temple in Tumlingtar.

After travel restrictions for foreign visitors to Nepal were gradually lifted around the Panchayat Era, scholars from outside Nepal also began pursuing Yogmaya. After the 1980s, notable Western scholars, including Barbara Nimri Aziz and Michael Hutt researched and published their literary works based on Yogmaya.

On November 16, 2016, the Nepal Government issued a postal stamp in recognition of her contributions to the history of Nepal. In 2025 , a government-initiated institution called Yogmaga Ayurveda University dedicated to preserving and promoting Himalayan healing traditions, including Ayurveda, Sowa-rigpa, and yoga.

The Nepali novelist Neelam Karki Niharika was awarded the top prize in the 2018 edition of the Madan Puraskar for her biographical novel Yogmaya. Nepal-based playwright Tanka Chaulagain later adopted the storyline of the book to create a theater play which was initially screened at Shilpee Theater in Kathmandu in June 2019.