Yogini Temple is situated about 15 km from Bhubaneswar at Hirapur. One of the four Yogini Temples in India, it has beautiful Yoginis carved from black chlorite- a great study for the connoisseurs of art and architecture.

The temple's circular wall, which is barely 2m high, contains 64 niches within its inner circumference. All except one of these contain an image of a Yogini Goddess.

Some of the Goddesses are portrayed with sensual bodies and jewelled bodices, others with horrific shrunken features, still others with animal heads. Even today, standing in the deserted temple with bright sunshine pouring in, one senses a strange emanation from the temple, and this feeling is in keeping with its original purpose.

Active between the 9th and 13th centuries, the cults responsible for these temples worshipped Yogini Goddesses in expectation of the direct acquisition of supernatural powers. The 'Yoginis' were thought to be able to confer on their devotees the power to become microscopic or gigantic in size, to control the body and mind of one and of others, to fly, become invisible, and myriad other useful abilities.

Worship seems to have centered on the repetition of the names of the Goddesses, and in later centuries, when active use of the shrines ceased, worshippers transferred their devotions to mystical paper diagrams. .