Kamakhya
The temple of Kamakhya on the Nilachala Hill in Guwahati is the spring-board and centre-piece of Sakta worship in this land. Situated in between the two hill races that follow the matriarchal system i.e. the Khasis of the Austro-Asiatic family and the Garos of the Mongoloid groups, the temple of Kamakhya on the Hill Nilachala is regarded as belonging to a goddess who represents the pro- culture aspect of nature. She is a Mother Goddess. The name of the Hill where the shrine stands is Nilachala (Blue Mountain).
According to the Kalika Purana the genital organ of Sati fell here when her dead body was carried hither and thither in frantic sorrow by her husband Siva. The mountain represented the body of Siva himself and when Sati's genital organ fell on it the mountain turned blue. The goddess herself is called Kamakhya, because she came there secretly to satisfy her amour (Kama) with him. Thus the derivations of the Kalika Purana make the mountain both a grave yard and a secret love-tryst of the goddess. The original temple was destroyed by the invading Muslims in their crusade against Hindu temples and idols. It was restored from ruins by king Naranarayan and re-built in its present form in 1665 AD. The original temple image still exists; it constitutes a symbol of the pre-Aryan sex-worship that was a part of the ancient social organisation of the tribal people. It does not represent a complete image of the deity; it is Yoni (Vagina) symbol that is enshrined and worshipped in this temple. It is carved out on a black rock inside the temple-cave; the cave is dark and subterranean. Only a few earthen lamps along the dark pathway throw up their greyish light against the gloom of the cave. The Yoni symbol, so encarved, is ideally situated; a natural spring oozes by its side and drenches this symbol.The devotees touch it and do obeisance, offer flowers and sacred leaves on it. Red is the most accepted colour-red flower, red cloth, vermilion etc. The red colour syncronises with the nature of the ritual. It symbolises passion and erotic excitement, and the menstrual flow with which the ritual is associated .The temple of Kamakhya is supposed to be the original progenitor of tontrism. Kamakhya has shrines of the ten different aspects of the Devi, such as Kali, Tara, Surashi, Bhubaneswari, Bhairavi, Chinnamasta, Dhumavati, Bagala, Matangi, Kamala.
