6TH-15TH CENTURY

The menstruation festival

It is said that Hindu god Daksha once organised a big event where sacrifices would be made and he invited all the gods, goddesses, and kings. But he didn’t invite his daughter Sati (an aspect of the goddess Shakti) or her husband Shiva, as he did not like Shiva. Sati couldn’t understand the snub so just assumed they were so close she didn’t need an invite. When they arrived, a fight broke out. Sati couldn’t bear the fighting and she took her life by throwing herself into the sacrificial fire (eventually reincarnating as Parvati).

Shiva was so saddened by her death that he took his wife’s body and wandered across the land. The god Vishnu cut up her body and placed pieces down where they wandered. Each place where some of her body fell is now a Shakti Pitha. Where her yoni fell in Assam, the temple of Mother goddess Kamakhya was built. The temple is one of the 51 Shakti Pithas, a Hindu shrine dedicated to Shakti. Its original structure dates back to the 8th or 9th century.

Kamakhya is the goddess of desire and once a year at the temple, there is the festival Ambubachi Mela. At this summer festival, the annual menstruation of the goddess is celebrated. During her flow, the temple is closed for three days, mirroring traditional menstrual seclusion. Then on the fourth day the temple is opened and all the pilgrims who have come to celebrate receive a symbolic piece of red cloth. 

Her menstruation is important for the fertility of the land and as she so kindly gives the earth her blood, blood must be returned to her in the form of an animal sacrifice

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Kamakhya Temple