The Ambubachi mela has begun at the historical Kamakhya temple located atop the Nilachal Hills in Guwahati on Saturday.
Thousands of devotees, tourists of different parts of India and abroad arrived in the capital city of Assam to witness the four-day religious festival.
The temple authorities shut the doors of the temple on Saturday to lock the Mother Goddess in for her annual “menstrual period”.
“The doors of the temple will be reopened on Wednesday morning,” the Kamakhya temple authority said.
Reports say nearly six lakh devotees, tourists will arrived in Assam this this year.
Meanwhile the Kamrup district administration and the state government had set up all facilities to accomodate devotees and tourists during the festival.
“We have already set up 500 temorary toilets, 72 CCTV installed in the temple complex and sufficient number of security forces also deployed to maintain the law and order situation,” an official of district administration said.
The Kamakhya temple is a sakta temple dedicated to the mother goddess Kamakhya, one of the oldest of the 51 Sakti Pithas in the country.
According to mythology, the presiding goddess of the temple, Devi Kamakhya, the Mother Shakti, goes through her annual cycle of menstruation during this time. During the monsoon rains the creative and nurturing power of the ‘menses’ of Mother Earth becomes accessible to devotees at the site during the Ambubashi mela.
