Next: about 22 to 25 Jun 2027
Ambubachi Mela at Kamakhya
The annual three-day closure of the Kamakhya temple in Assam, when the goddess is believed to menstruate.
About Ambubachi Mela at Kamakhya
At the start of the monsoon, the Kamakhya temple in Guwahati, one of the great Shakta pithas, closes its inner sanctum for three days. It is held that the goddess, worshipped there in the form of a stone with a natural spring, is menstruating, and the temple stays shut, farming is paused and in some households cooking and worship are set aside. On the fourth day it reopens, and pilgrims receive small pieces of red cloth (angodhak) and water as sacred remnants. The fair draws tantric practitioners, ascetics and householders from across India and Nepal, and is also called the Tantric festival of the east. Its celebration of female fertility as divine is often contrasted with taboos on menstruation elsewhere in Hindu life.
Entries tied to it
Also part of it, and being written: Ambubachi Mela (The festival.).
Written by the EveryJaadu desk with AI assistance. Background: "Ambubachi Mela" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family, and are described as belief and practice. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Tantra: William Clark, Public domain, source
- Shakta pithas: Abhishek Chandra, Public domain, source
- Kamakhya Temple: JyotiPN, CC BY-SA 4.0, source