Kamakhya Temple: A Prominent Place of Worship in India

Kamakhya Temple is situated on Nilachal hill in Assam’s Guwahati city and is considered as a Shakti Peeth. There are various individual temples in a complex of deities called the Dasa Mahavidya which has Chinnamaste, Bhuvaneshvari, Tara, Tripura Sundari and Bagalmukhi. Those who worship for tantric vidya consider it an important place of worship and one of the prominent Hindu temples in India.

Talking about the history of one of the greatest Hindu temples in India, it was constructed during the Kamarupa time during first millennium as per the Samudragupta Allahabad rock inscriptions. The original temple got destroyed sometime around second millennium and thus was made once again by Koch Dynasty in the year 1565. The temple had the same style as the temples of medieval times had. If you look at the Kamakhya Temple today, you will find a shikhara like structure having panels of Hindu gods and goddesses and images of Lord Ganesha.

There are three main chambers in this one of the utmost Hindu temples in India. The middle chamber is made in a square shape and places a small goddess idol. It has Naranarayana’s sculpted imaged on the walls. This chamber only takes one to the temple’s sanctum sanctorum, which is a cave consisting of underground spring and no idol. The bedrock here has a cleft in the shape of a yoni. The western chamber is in the rectangular shape and is large, though it is not the place where general pilgrims worship.

Every year during summers, Ambuvaci festival is celebrated in Kamakhya Temple. At this time, iron oxide makes the water of the shrine red which resembles the menstrual fluid. It is believed to be a Khasi sacrificial site and even today people make sacrifices here. The Shakti or the goddess is offered with goats every morning.

It is believed that this temple is the place where Sati used to satisfy her amour with Shiva. It is also the place where the yoni of Sati fell after she died and Lord Shiva danced with her body.

Kamakhya Temple in Himachal Pradesh

There is another Kamakhya Temple situated in Una district of Himachal Pradesh. The Rajpurohits of Aryan descents migrated from Khasi hill in Assam to Polian Purohitan forests through silk route after an invasion in 1200C by Shans. They destroyed the tantric ritual site around eight hundred years ago. Thus this mass migration led them to Himachal Pradesh and they sanctified their Kuldevi here.