காமாக்யா கோயில் (குவாஹாத்தி)Kamakhya Temple, Nilachal Hill

Sthala Mahātmyam

Kamakhya on the Nilachal (Neelachal) hill above Guwahati, invoked as 'Hari kshetre Kama rupi', is among the most powerful of the eighteen peethas and the foremost seat of Tantra in India. Tradition holds that the womb and yoni (garbha and generative part) of Sati fell here, and the goddess is worshipped not as an image but as a natural cleft in the rock, shaped like a yoni and kept perpetually moist by an underground spring, the living symbol of creation and the divine feminine. It is the heart of the Kulachara Tantra Marga and one of the oldest of the Shakta peethas. The temple's distinctive beehive-shaped shikhara defines the local Nilachal style. Its greatest event is the Ambubachi Mela each June, the 'Mahakumbh of the East', which celebrates the annual menstruation of the goddess: the shrine closes for three days and reopens amid vast gatherings of pilgrims, sadhus and tantrics. Kamakhya thus honours menstruation and fertility openly as the source of creation. Durga Puja, Manasa Puja, Pohan Biya and Navaratri are also celebrated with great fervour.