Culture Diaries: The Curious Case of Assam's Kamakhya Devi in Himachal

A rather interesting story surfaced at the Lunch table yesterday at a party.Kamakhya Devi or Kamru Devi is a goddess who has been worshiped by the Upper Shimla area Kshatriyas for generations. They worship a tamra patra  or a small metallic pot with water in the nameof this Goddess, who, when she possesses a mortal worshiper, asks for her "gaude" (local for ghada or water pot).

The very same goddess is worshiped in Kinnaur as Kamru Devi and was apparently introduced in Upper Shimla by one of the ancestors of the Kshatriyas, who had gone to that region for trade. When the river freezes (and I am assuming this is Shyok River and Borasu Pass), the area becomes a trade-route that directly leads to China, and also opens up in Guwahati, Assam.

Kamakhya Devi Temple, Assam

Interestingly, Guwahati is in the Kamrup District, a famous Shakti Peeth where, interestingly,  there is a temple called Kamakhya Devi. According to Shakti Traditions,  the genitals of the Goddess fell here, when her body was cut off.  What flows there is just water and this water is collected in a tamra patra, from a small stream gushing out of a V shaped mound!

It is believed that if around the full moon, you dipped a white cloth in the stream and took it out after 3 days, the cloth is dyed red (symbolic of fertility cult in Hinduism, since what is  being worshiped here is the Goddess' genitalia and her regenerative, reproductive power.)

Sculptures carved on the
Angashikharas of the temple

The temple of Kamakhya Devi in Assam, meanwhile, has a panchayatna plan, typical of the 9th century architecture, with sculptures carved on the angashikharas.  In Upper Shimla, however, all there is, is a metallic pot with water, supposedly once brought by a travelling merchant all the way from Assam. There's no written record of how or why the Bleeding Goddess of Assam was brought to Himachal, nor is there any explanation of how she possesses mortal worshipers.

What is interesting however, is how the culture and the tradition of worship flowed from one region another!