Amongst the various Shakti Pithas in India, the temple of Kamakhya near Gauhati (Assam) occupies a prominent position. The Kamakhya temple is one of the few Devi shrines where, to this day, the daily worship of Devi Kamakhya includes the invocation of the sixty-four Yoginis who are named one by one during the puja. This probably shows that Kamarupa was also once a prominent centre of the Yogini cult. Tantric literary works like Kamakhyatantra, Yoginitantra and Upapurana like Kalika Purana provide information on the legend, glory and worship of the Goddess Kamakhya.
Legend associated with the goddess Kamakhya
According to Kalika Purana, Sati, wife of Shiva had gone uninvited to a Yajna organized by her father Daksha and after being humiliated by Daksha immolated herself. Hearing this Shiva in full fury came and destroyed Daksha’s Yajna and carrying Sati’s corpse, he moved hither and thither in frantic sorrow. In order to relieve Shiva of the corpse, Vishnu cut it into pieces and the Yoni of Sati fell over a mountain in Kamarupa. The mountain represented the body of Shiva himself and when Sati’s genital organ fell on it, the mountain turned blue. Hence, the name of the hillock where the temple stands is known as Nilachala (blue mountain). The goddess herself is called Kamakhya because she came there secretly to satisfy her desire (kama) with Shiva.
Worship of Yoni (vulva)
Originally, the male and female organs were worshipped as symbols of procreation and fruitfulness. At Mohenjodaro we come across the models of Linga and Yoni which were probably used as life bestowing amulets. The origin of the Yoni cult of the later Tantras must therefore be sought in the prehistoric ruins of Harappa and Mohenjodaro. Being the centre of the Shakta cult, Kamarupa with its chief temple at Kamakhya enshrines not an image of a goddess but a sculptured symbol of a Yoni (vulva) on a block of stone inside a cave. The stone is kept moist by the oozing of a natural spring within the cave. The offerings of flowers and leaves are made on the Yoni.
Originally a tribal deity
The name of the goddess Kamakhya may be traced to the Austric words Kamoi (demon), Kamoit (devil), Komin (grave), Kamet (corpse), Kamru (name of a god), etc., and according to Dr. Kakati, Kamakhya might have been originally a spirit of the graveyard and represented an ancestor spirit in the form of an ancestral mother. Further, he presumes that the Yoni goddess sprang up somewhere in South-East Asia amongst peoples with leanings towards ancestor-worship and believing in the protective powers of an ancestral mother and that she migrated to India and elsewhere with the migration of the Austric people like the Khasis. That the Khasis worshipped this god is evidenced by the existence of a shrine named Griva Kamakhya, representing the shoulder of the Supreme Mother situated on the southern slope of the Jaintia hills (Gaur at Sylhet in Bangladesh) and considered the holiest shrine by the Khasis and the Jaintias (a sub-group of the Khasis). Also, another shrine of Kamakhya (in Kanaighat at Sylhet in Bangladesh) containing the stone emblem of the left thigh of the Supreme Mother, known as Bama Jangha Pitha was built by Jayanta, a king belonging to the Jaintia tribe.
Sanskritization of Yoni worship
Somewhere between 200-500 A.D., Naraka, an adventurer from Mithila, founded a kingdom in Assam after defeating Ghataka, the king of the Kiratas (Khasis). As a follower of the Shakta cult, he found in the local goddess Kamakhya a manifestation of divine energy and to win over the allegiance and support of the local populace, he may have extended royal patronage to the cult of Kamakhya. The Mother-Goddess in Kamakhya could very easily be brought into alignment with other forms of the Mother-Goddess like Durga, Kali, etc. He must have imported the Brahmins to support his regime and his new cult of the goddess Kamakhya. After the process of Sanskritization began, the goddess was called Kamakhya (from the original name Kamei-Kha) by the Hindus and Yoni puja was given Puranic authority, in which Yoni was associated with the genital organ of Sati which fell down on the place where the present temple of Kamakhya stands. The Kalika Purana also mentions that immediately after Naraka became the king of Assam and was placed in charge of the goddess Kamakhya, the name of the province was changed from Pragjyotisa to Kamarupa. According to D.C.Sircar, the different names of the Mother-Goddess in Hinduism appear to have originally indicated different tribal deities who were afterwards identified with the wife of Shiva. The association of Shakta deities like Durga, Kali, Kamakhya, etc., of the Puranas and Tantras with tribal deities is also supported by R.C.Hazra, who feels that the above-mentioned goddesses were modelled on the tribal deities. Also, as Kalika Purana records that the goddess was already there before the advent of Naraka, it is reasonable to believe that Kamakhya was originally a tribal goddess who was later given a place of honour in the Hindu pantheon.
Antiquity of Devi Kamakhya
The Kalika Purana which provides information about Goddess Kamakhya was composed during 10th – 11th century A.D. But reference to Kamarupa and Kamakhya is also found in Devi Purana, a work dated 7th century A.D. that shows that the worship of Kamakhya became prevalent in Kamarupa much earlier than 7th century A.D. However, the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang who lived for some time at the court of Kamarupa king Bhaskaravarman (600-650 A.D.) is silent about the goddess Kamakhya. On this basis, D.C.Sircar opines that the presiding deity of Kamarupa did not quite attain her preeminence in the days of Hiuen Tsang. Hence the inference that we can draw for the probable eclipse of the worship of Goddess Kamakhya is one – the ascendancy of Kapalika Shaivism with the passing of political power to the Mleccha or Mech dynasty set up by Salastambha in about 655 A.D., and second, a natural disaster might have destroyed the original temple of Kamakhya leading to the stoppage of her worship.
Revival of Kamakhya worship in the 16th century A.D.
The name of the king who had the original temple built is not known, nor do we know to which dynasty he belonged. Various sources of Assam history only mention Narakasura, the mythical founder of the temple. In the closing years of the 15th century, Vishva Singha (Biswa Singha), the Koch king had the original stone-built temple excavated from the debris and surmounted it with a new shikara as a gesture of thanksgiving towards the goddess, who is said to have graced the king with victory against the Ahoms.
The Garos (belonging to the Mongolian stock) and their matriarchal form of society are generally mentioned as having been the guardians of this religious centre prior to its reclamation by the Hindus under king Vishva Singha, the predecessor of Naranarayana. This view is supported by the traditional belief amongst the local priesthood that the former worshippers of goddess Kamakhya were Garos and pigs were offered as sacrifices. Hence even now Brahmin widows refuse to partake in the food offerings of the goddess, as they are supposed to be polluted by the memory of pig sacrifice. At present, animal sacrifice is a regular part of the daily worship at the Kamakhya temple and one goat is sacrificed each morning by the temple authorities and the blood and the severed head are offered to the goddess. And during the Durga festival, buffaloes are sacrificed instead of goats. It is interesting to note that only male animals may be sacrificed to Devi.
An earthquake had destroyed the original Kamakhya temple
A very strong tradition runs to the effect that Kalapahar or Kalu Khan, the general of Sulaiman Kararani of Bengal who ruled from 1563-1572 A.D., invaded the Koch territory and by defeating Naranarayana and his general Chilarai caused serious damage to the temple of Kamakhya. Later, it is said that Naranarayana and Chilarai repaired the temple and brought it to its present shape. But the two inscriptions on the west wall inside the Kamakhya temple mention that the temple was built (not rebuilt) by Sukladdhvaja, the younger brother of Malladeva, better known as Naranarayana, the king of Kochbehar. Hence, according to R.M.Nath the story of Kalapahar destroying the temple of Kamakhya has no historical support and is perhaps simply the outcome of the stories told by some Bengali relatives of the pandas of various depredations caused to many temples by Kalapahar in that province. According to Biswanarayan Shastri, in the middle of the 16th century A.D., due to a natural calamity, say an earthquake, the temple of Kamakhya was destroyed and the Yonimandala (the cave) was covered by boulders and heaps of stones, and the puja and japa could not be performed.
Menstruation, a holistic concept
In ancient times, the earth was identified with women and this identification implied that the functions of the earth and those of women were alike, mainly to produce crops and children respectively. Just as a fertile field yields a good crop, the sign of a menstruating woman signifies she is fertile and ready to bear children. In the Tantras, special importance is attached to the menstrual blood, which is considered a life-giving power. For a Shakta, menstruation is a holistic concept and signifies a religion. The term ritu, which signifies menstruation also signifies the cyclical change of the seasons as well as orderliness in the cosmos. Thus, it is believed that the menstrual cycle in the female body corresponds to, and represents, the cyclic change of the seasons and the orderliness of the universe.
In accordance with the above concept, in the temple of Kamakhya, every month, rituals are held to signify the goddess’s menstruation. And every year in the month of June, the Ambuvachi/Ambubachi fair is held and pilgrims from different parts of Assam including West Bengal and Odisha visit the temple during this fair. The Ambuvachi/Ambubachi is a menstruation ritual that lasts for three days and it is believed that the goddess Kamakhya becomes impure due to menses. During this period the temple doors are closed and pilgrims are not allowed inside the temple. On the fourth day the doors of the shrine are opened to the devotees. To symbolize the occasion only red flowers, red vermilion, etc. are used as red signifies the menstrual flow. On this occasion, pieces of red cloth with the deity’s menstrual blood are given to devotees as sacred symbols.
Reference
- Banikanta Kakati – The Mother Goddess Kamakhya – A Study of Mother Cult of Assam, Publication Board, Assam, 1989
- B.K.Barua & H.V.Sreenivasa Murthy – Temples and Legends of Assam, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay, 1965
- Dinesh Chandra Sircar – The Shakta Pithas, Motilal Banarsidass, 1950
- Vidya Dehejia – Yogini Cult & Temples, A Tantric Tradition, National Museum, New Delhi, 1986
- David Kinsley – Hindu Goddesses, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt Ltd, Delhi, 2006
- Pushpendra Kumar – Shakti Cult in Ancient India (With special reference to Puranaic Literature), Bhartiya Publishing House, Varanasi, 1974
- S.K. Tiwari – Tribal Roots of Hinduism, Sarup & Sons, New Delhi, 2002
- R.Das Gupta – An Architectural Survey of the Kamakhya Temple, Gauhati, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol – 22, 1959
- B.K.Barua – A Cultural History of Assam, vol – I, Published by K.K.Barooah, Nowgong, Assam, 1951
- R.M.Nath – Kalapahar and the Kamakhya Temple, The Journal of the Assam Research Society, Vol – IV, July 1936, No.2
- Biswanarayan Shastri – The Destruction of the Kamakhya Temple as referred to in the Yoginitantra, The Journal of the Assam Research Society, Vol – XXV, 1979-80
- N.N.Bhattacharyya – Indian Mother Goddess, Indian Studies: Past & Present, Calcutta
- R.C.Hazra – Studies in the Upapurana, vol – II, Calcutta, 1963
- Kartikeya C Patel – Women, Earth & the Goddess: A Shakta Hindu interpretation of embodied religion, Hypatia, vol – 9, No.4, 1994
Ithihas 