Maa Kamakya Sakthi peedam Guwahati

April 12, 2020

We as a group of 27 members visited this temple during our Brahmaputra Pushkar trip to Guwahati. We reached Guwahati airport by morning 7.30am from there we travelled straight to the this temple.

This temple is in Guwahati is one of the Shakthi Peedams. This temple is about 20 kms from Guwahati airport. Kamakya is also known as the bleeding Goddess of Assam .This temple is on a hillock named Nilachal of 562 feet high .

Kamakhya Devi Mantra
Kamakhy Varade Devi Nilparvatvasini,
Twam Devi Jagatam Mataryonimudre Namostute |

Meaning we bow down before u Maa Kamakya who lives in the Nilachal mountains in the form of Yoni roopa .

The temple of Kamakhya has a very interesting story of its origin. It is one among the Shakti peedams. The story of the Shakti peedam goes like this; once Sati fought with her husband Lord Shiva to attend her father’s great yagna. Despite her husband Lord Shiva’s disapproval, Sati had gone to attend the universal ‘yajna’ organised by her father Daksha. Shiva was not invited, and was also abused by Daksha. Unable to bear the insult, Sati committed suicide. When Shiva came to know that his beloved wife had committed suicide, he went insane with rage. He placed Sati’s dead body on his shoulders and did the tandav or dance of destruction.

To calm him down, Vishnu cut the dead body with his chakra. The 51 places where Sati’s body parts fell are called Shakti peedams. Kamakhya temple is special because Sati’s womb and vagina fell here.

One has to climb about 120 steps to reach the temple .

We reached by 10 am straight from Guwahati airport to this temple and our tour organizer had arranged a special dharshan . We were taken inside the main sanctum sanctorum .There was no idol of the Goddess only a Peedam along with 3 heads covered with silks and flowers the main deity here is in the form of Yoni , which we had to get down a few steps and is damp with fluid they were collected and given us as prasad to us .We were garlanded with the flowers on the Sakthi peedam .

There were 4 tombs and the entire walls were of carvings of different deities.

There is a mantapa were we can lit diyas and agarpathis and pray to Maa Kamakya.

Kamakhya Devi Temple is a unique temple that celebrates the fertility and womanhood with a grand fervor -“Ambubachi Mela”.

The Ambubachi Mela is the most important festival of the Kamakhya Temple of Guwahati. It is believed that the presiding goddess of the temple, Devi Kamakhya, the Mother Shakti, goes through her annual cycle of menstruation during this time stretch.

During the Ambubachi Mela in Guwahati, the doors of the Kamakhya Temple remain closed for three days. It is believed that the Mother Earth becomes unclean for three days. During this time any kind of farming work is not taken on. Daily worships and other religious performances are also stopped during the Ambubachi Mela of Guwahati in Assam. After the completion of three days, the doors of the Kamakhya Temple are reopened. But the doors of the temple are reopened only after Devi Kamakhya is bathed and the other rituals are executed. It is then believed that the Mother Earth has retrieved her purity. This is purely a ritual of the Tantrik cult.

On the fourth day, the devotees of the Goddess are allowed to enter the temple for worshipping Devi Kamakhya. Thousands of pilgrims are found to visit the Ambubachi Mela in Guwahati, who comes all over India.

In addition to this temple there are Dasa Maha Vidya temples . They are 10 forms of Shakthi named as Kamala Matangi and Tripurasundari which are found within the temple complex and Tara Kali and Chinnamastha few steps down to Kamakya temple and Bhuvaneswari Bagalamukhi Bhairavi and Dumavathy within a km distance from Goddess Kamakya temple.