Home » Guwahati, India

Menstruating Goddess

2 March 2009 15 Comments

Well, I have been talking about menstruation blues and taboos in Indian culture on my other blog and how those rituals are still very much in practice in many families. You can read about it here in English and here in Hindi.

Talking of menstruation, did you know Gods (oops Goddesses) also have it ? Damn ! I never knew that ! Cuckoo, you must be a naive for not knowing. Wake up !

kamakhya.jpg

Kamakhya Temple: Courtesy Shibu

It seems there is a temple near Gauhati, Assam named Kamakhya temple whose Goddess Kamakhya (mother Earth) also goes through the turmoils of menstruation and the temple remains closed for three days in a year. The Kamakhya Temple in Assam is one of the most venerated Shakti shrines in India.

shaktiidol.jpeg

It is believed that once in every year, the spring waters at Kamakhya turn red and the temple remains closed. It is believed to be inauspicious to till the ground or to plant seeds during this period.

A unique festival observed here is the Ambubasi fertility festival. The festival opens with great festivity on the fourth day.

Hmmm… It is called double standards. My only grudge… For us every month and for her just once a year ? Bad, bad. Whom do I complain now ?

Courtesy : Mosaic

Technorati Tags:- Kamakhya, temple, assam

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15 Comments »

  • Zhu said:

    Three days in a year? Man, what do the godess complains about!? I would not mind! :lol:

    # 3 March 2009 at 8:25 AM
  • Vands said:

    Definitely not fair yaar Cuckoo…
    waise this is only with mother earth as in this particular goddess na? Baaki kisi ke baare mein toh maine kabhi nahi suna!

    # 3 March 2009 at 9:33 PM
  • Cuckoo (author) said:

    Zhu,
    Ha Ha.. me too wondering what they complain about ! :P

    Vands,
    LOL

    Keep coming to my blog, you’ll know of many strange things. :)

    # 3 March 2009 at 11:56 PM
  • Final_Transit said:

    Hey! Good post…. tell me Cuckoo, are you turning into a hardcore feminist (the one that hates all men just because they are men!) LOL I’m kidding ofcourse.

    Contemporary Hindu religious worship in India is very ridiculous, to state in modest words. Heavily borrowing concepts of ‘holy days’ from religions such as Islam and Christianity which were influxed over last 600 years, we too have holy days now. Monday for Shiv, Tuesday for Ganpati, Saturday for Hanuman, and things like that. On days other than Saturday, nobody would care even if they saw a dog shitting at the Hanuman temple. Just look at the queues outside his temple on Saturday. Whats going on?

    # 4 March 2009 at 5:18 AM
  • lakshmi said:

    Its a sort of justification na.. if goddesses can have it, so can you :) I was just cribbing to a friend of mine abt the woes of being a woman..

    Read your other two posts as well and started commenting and honestly it turned out to be a long essay..so, I decided to give it a pass..we will meet up and talk abt it..being a lone rebel, I know the feeling.

    # 4 March 2009 at 2:52 PM
  • PN Subramanian said:

    Very interesting post. But its strange.

    # 5 March 2009 at 7:10 PM
  • Trotter said:

    Hi Cuckoo!
    Sorry I couldn’t visit you for the last two weeks! I’m trying to catch-up and see the wonders you have around!
    But this wonder is a bir weird; a menstrating goddess… ;) )

    Meanwhile, one of the most beautiful Forts in India waits you and your comments at Blogtrotter: – The Amber Fort! Enjoy and have a great week!

    # 5 March 2009 at 9:30 PM
  • N said:

    3 days in a year does not even merit a complaint.

    # 6 March 2009 at 11:00 AM
  • ~vagabond~ said:

    That was a really interesting post…i wonder what the scientific explanation behind the waters turning red once a year is…my suspicion is heavy rains in some tributary causes an influx of red sediment/mud/clay into the river. Really interesting…would love to visit it for myself.

    # 8 March 2009 at 8:16 PM
  • Shantanu said:

    Hmm…interesting! Hindu Gods do seem very human when you reads the mythology, so we shouldn’t be too surprised…

    # 8 March 2009 at 9:27 PM
  • Prashanth M said:

    have heard about the temple… I agree with Shantanu..

    and there is a cinema hall by name in Bangalore South!

    # 9 March 2009 at 5:02 AM
  • rads said:

    No Kidding ! This is the first am hearing about such a temple and goddess ! Wow. So Gods are human after all? ;-p

    # 20 March 2009 at 5:45 AM
  • dhananjay said:

    Well Cuckoo,

    It is not strange to me cos I have heard about the temple, which is very much true. What I felt was that people visiting the blog either are ignorant and do not know about their religion or GOD, or are just here to have fun.

    This one is a very interesting tink that Cuckoo has put in this blog. There are many things that cannot be proven scientifically and the so called Maculay who sowed the seeds of English and Christian religion in India, term it as mythology. Mythology in Hindi means ‘Zhoota’.

    Indians were quite ahead in science when the Britishers visited India. We had 12metal alloy which is even hard to prepare today which Indians prepared during those days. Many rituals in Hindu religion is nothing but sience. I can prove it to my friends. Feel free to mail me at my email ID.

    Regards,
    Dhananjay

    # 18 June 2009 at 6:02 PM
  • A.S.MARWAHA said:

    yes .. i m also agree with DHANANJAY. if u ppl dont know much about this temple n goddess.. then u ppl should go there n make ur doughts clear . . cos i can see the list of the comments from kuku’s friends are really not impressive .. ok tell me one thing if u ppl pray to god or ur family is doing it .. are u practicing ur traditional rewaz during marriage n the other stuff .. then u should stop these stupid this (as per u ppl).
    so the MORAL is that if u ppl do believe in GOD, then dont talk or right rubbish ..
    thank u very much ..
    regards
    A.S. Marwaha

    # 22 July 2009 at 11:36 AM
  • dhananjay said:

    visit the following link:
    http://www.dk-petsek.we3sites.com/tsopema.html

    # 10 August 2009 at 10:39 AM

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