Lakhs of pilgrims visit Kamakhya temple

Guwahati: Lakhs of pilgrims today offered prayers to Goddess Kamakhya after the doors of the Kamakhya temple atop the Nilachal Hill here reopened after remaining closed for four days . The doors which were closed from the 22nd of this month reopened after routine rituals and prayers at 6.15 am this morning with devotees eagerly waiting to get a darshan of the Devi. The faithfuls said they queued up from 2 am to enter Kamakya temple, considered most sacred and oldest of the 51 Shakti Peeths of the country, so that they could offer their prayers and obeisance to Maa Kamakhya at the culmination of Ambubachi Mela.

Assam Governor Banwarilal Purohit and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal also offered offered prayers to Goddess Kamakhya on the occasion of the Ambubachi mela. The temple this year witnessed an unprecedented rush of an estimated eight lakh pilgrims from all over the country and abroad converging at Kamakhya temple on banks of the mighty Brahmaputra for Ambubachi Mela, according to Kamakhya Temple management sources.

The mela, also known as Amoti or Tantric fertility festival during the monsoon season falling in the Assamese month of Ahaar, is the celebration of the yearly menstruation course of goddess Kamakhya. Believing the temple's presiding goddess Devi Kamakhya or Mother Shakti or Mother Earth goes through her annual cycle of menstruation during this time the doors of the temple are closed to visitors for four days. According to Hindu tradition Ambubachi symbolises ancient agricultural concept that Mother Earth is a fertile woman whose womb germinates seeds.

The temple has no idol of the presiding deity but Goddess Kamakhya is instead worshipped in the form of a yoni-like (private part/womb) stone over which a natural spring flows in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. According to the Kalika Purana, Kamakhya Temple denotes the spot where Lord Shiva's wife Sati's yoni fell after Shiva danced with her corpse, while a later work Yogini Tantra ignores this and associates Kamakhya with the goddess Kali and emphasises the creative symbolism of the yoni.