Kamakhya devi temple is situated on Nilachal Hill at western part of the Guwahati city of Assam. This temple is included in the list of 51 Shakti Peetha of India. This first temple was built under Kamarupa Kingdom in first century. The original temple was destroyed in second millennium and again reconstructed by Koch dynasty in 1565. The current structure is like a Shikhara with beautiful sculptures and images of lord Ganesha and other god goddesses also depicted on the Shikhara and walls of the temple.
The temple temple is made up with three chambers first one is not used by devotees. Second one is a square shaped house like structure where you can find the idols of Kamakhya devi. The walls of the this chamber has been decorated with beautiful sculptures and images of gods. The middle chamber where devotees approaches towards a cave shaped structure. There are no sculptures of goddesses present in this part of the temple. You can find many other temples too, in fact this places is a group of many temples including Kamakhya Devi Temple. The other temples you can find here are the Sitala Mata Temple, Jaya Durga Temple, Lalita Kanta Temple, Vana Durga Temple, Sankheshvari Temple, and Rajarajesvari Temple. Three other temples of Lord Vishnu, while five temples are of Lord Shiva.
Number of festivals has been celebrated at this temple all of them attracts enormous amount of devotees at this temple. Ambubachi Mela, another annual celebration takes place here is Mansa Puja, Durga Puja is also celebrated here on each year in Navaratri Utsav.
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Time to visit
The temple opens at 5:30 am and the daily Pooja were organize at 6:00 am. But the devotees can enter in to the temple only after 8:00 am. The doors again remain closed in between 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm during which the prassad were distributed in devotees. And were closed again on 5:30 am for daily Arti.
How to reach
Guwahati is well connected to rest of the world, Guwahati railway station is just 8 km away from this temple. You can get trains for all over India. If you choose by air option the the Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport is just 20 km away from this place.
Author : James D Corner
