Football fever grips Sadhus at Ambubachi Mela, Guwahati

Sadhus at Kamakhya Temple for Ambubachi Mela.
(Pics by: Indian Express)

Ambubachi Mela has already started in Guwahati, Assam. The Ambubachi Mela is the most important meal celebrated in the Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati, Assam. This yearly Mela is celebrated during the monsoon season that happens to fall during the Assamese month Ahaar, around the middle of June, when the Brahmaputra river is in spate. It is the celebration of the yearly menstruation course of goddess Kamakhya. It is believed that the presiding goddess of the temple, Devi Kamakhya, the Mother Shakti, goes through her annual cycle of menstruation during this time stretch. It is also believed that during the monsoon rains the creative and nurturing power of the 'menses of Mother Earth becomes accessible to devotees at this site during the meal. There is no idol of the presiding deity but she is worshipped in the form of a yoni-like stone instead over which a natural spring flows.

The Sadhus are offering their prayer to the Goddess

The religious gathering is very auspicious for the people of Assam and all the people following the Hindu religion. They came and gather from all over India and pays their tribute to the Goddess and seek Her divine blessing. 

This meal is also known as Ameti or Tantric fertility festival since it is closely associated with the Tantric Shakti (Power) cult prevalent in eastern parts of India. Even some Tantric Babas make their public appearances only during these four days. The rest of the year, they remain in seclusion. Some Babas are seen displaying their psychic powers like putting their heads in a pit and stand upright on it, standing on one leg for hours at a stretch.