Thread by @AssamStories

#Ambubachi #Thread #AmbubachiMela #Repost

The Ambubachi Mela is celebrated every year during the Assamese month of 'ahaar' (mid-June) coinciding with early monsoon; when the Brahmaputra river is in its true might.

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The celebration is said to acknowledge the yearly menstruation course of the Goddess Kamakhya, or celebration of feminity in the real sense of the term.

(Photo Source: bit.ly/2YkzS8D)

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During this period, the Goddess is considered to be extremely powerful, thereby cleansing and revitalising the entire Earth, which in practice is Her body itself. On the 4th day, the deity is bathed to reclaim limpidness and various rituals are performed.

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The temple doors are kept closed for the duration and no pooja/rituals are performed. When the temple doors open on the 4th day, a unique “Prasad” comprising of small bits of red coloured cloth is offered. It is supposedly moist with the menstrual fluid of Goddess Kamakhya.

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Kamakhya Temple is one of the 52 shakti peeths of Hinduism.

The original temple was destroyed during the then Sultan of Bengal, Allauddin Hussein Shah's invasion of the Kamata kingdom in 1498.

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The ruins of the temple was said to have been discovered by Vishwasingha (1515–1540), the founder of the Koch dynasty, who revived worship at the site; but it was during the reign of his son, Nara Narayan(1540–1587), that the temple reconstruction was completed (in 1565).

EOT