Dakini: Meaning, Topics & Types
Dakinis, depending on religious tradition and specific literature, can be female nature spirits, witches, or deities assisting in spiritual development. Originally dakinis were very low ranked Indian spirits. In Tantric Buddhism a classification of meditational deity are also called dakini (Vajra Dakini, Vajrayogini, etc.).
Dakini are a curious phenomena of Buddhist Tantra that appear to have developed out of the Chakrasamvara literature and other related texts loosely catalogued as belonging to the Wisdom or Mother Tantras (of the Sarma Traditions: Kadam, Sakya, Kagyu, Jonang, Gelug). The definitions and explanations of Dakinis is very different between the various schools and traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. In the Sarma Schools it is predominatly the Chakrasamvara Tantras that refer to female retinue figures as dakini. In the Father and Non-dual Tantras (Hevajra included) the term goddess is preferred for female deities, such as Hevajra and the Eight Goddesses (devi).
The Nyingmapa tradition is the most invested and uses the term dakini as a title for any fully enlightened female deity, occaisionally for real female teachers, or any other number of female spirits related to Buddhist practice, or the path. Goddess and dakini appear to be interchangeable terms with dakini being superior, or preferred.