page_title: Yogmaya Neupane
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Yogmaya Neupane / Legacy
context_page_description: Yogmaya Neupane 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.
context_section_description: 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.
  Topics on Yogmaya have been also included in the curriculum in specific Social Science based disciplines in different universities in Nepal including Sociology, Anthropology and Women's Studies.
  A local organization has also been formed in Bhojpur by relatives and locals of Yogmaya Neupane called the ‘Yogamaya Shakti Pith Tapobhumi Bikash Tatha Vikas Sanstha’, to promote her work and activities as well as preserve the places where Yogmaya spent a significant time during her ascetic life around Nepaledada and Dingla.
  On November 16, 2016, the Nepal Government issued a postal stamp in recognition of her contributions to the history of Nepal.
  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 on June 2019.
caption: Actress Mithila Sharma playing the title role in the theater play 'Yogmaya' directed by Tanka Chaulagain, based on the 2018 Madan Purashkar winning novel of the same name written by novelist Neelam Karki Niharika which was screened at Shilpee Theatre, Kathmandu on 22/06/2019
exif: {"Image Software": "Picasa", "Image Artist": "Sworup Nhasiju", "Image Copyright": "sworup.com", "Image ExifOffset": "96", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "414"}