Kamakhya Temple

Kamakhya crowns the Nilachal hills above Guwahati in Assam and is a centre of Tantric Hinduism, counted among the four oldest of the fifty-one Shakta Pithas, where the yoni of Sati is believed to have fallen. The underground sanctum holds no image but a natural rock fissure shaped like a yoni, fed by a perennial spring and worshipped as the goddess herself.

The cult grew from Kirata and tribal worship before the Mlechchha kings of Kamarupa adopted the shrine in the 9th century. Ruined during Hussein Shah's invasion in 1498, the temple was restored by the Koch dynasty: Vishwasingha revived worship and his son Nara Narayan completed its rebuilding in 1565 under his brother Chilarai.

The Ahoms took Kamrup by 1658 and secured it after the Battle of Itakhuli in 1681. The Ambubachi Mela celebrates the goddess's menstruation and draws Tantric pilgrims from Bengal and Assam.