Ambubachi is a festival that honours the motherhood and the fertility of the goddess Kamakhya who is thought to be one of the 52 shakti peethas in Guwahati, Assam, West Bengal.
Ambubachi’s etymology can be traced to the phrase “speaking with water,” since water has always been connected to fertility since the beginning of time. All agricultural tasks, including sowing, digging, ploughing, etc., are forbidden throughout the duration of the festival from 22nd – 26th June 2022.Held during the monsoon season, Ambubachi Festival commemorates the goddess’ first menstrual cycle. As a result, the temple is closed for three days with the notion that the goddess is on menstrual leave and no puja (prayers) is conducted during Her ‘period,’ of rest.
Kamakhya Devi is the giver and fulfiller of desires. It is believed that the world was born out of Her erotic desire with no force greater nor equal to Her as mentioned by Shiva in Her tantras. She is the Yoni, the womb from which the Universe took birth, making Her, the Mother of the Universe as well as the three nature of existence, the gunas, known as sattva, rajas and tamas and the deities Bramha, Vishnu and Shiva were born from Her Yoni.
She is both the primordial emptiness and the manifested form, the first reverberation of the Universe, the AUM or aumkara – all born from Her yoni.
The Ten Great Wisdom known as the Dasha Mahavidyas were also born from Her. She is the Mother of all matter, elements and forms of energy – there is nothing in the cosmos which preceeds Her greatness.
In the tantras of Kamakhya, Lord Shiva had specially elaborated that it is the yoni that is the sacred space from which births life and one should always maintain reverence for it. Anyone who mocks, ridicules, or torments a woman’s womb will perish in ignorance and lead a life similar to that of Naraka, (a place of torment for the spirits of the wicked or hell), with no relief from their misery.
