GUWAHATI: With preparations for Ambubachi Mela 2024 in full swing, Guwahati is already witnessing the arrival of many tourists and Naga Sadhus. The four-day-long annual festival at the historic Kamakhya temple will begin on Saturday, June 22, and conclude on Wednesday, June 26.
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A senior official from the Ambubachi Mahayog Parichalana Committee told GPlus, "Till today, more than 300 Naga babas have arrived. They started coming from June 16." He also added, "We are expecting more than 30 lakh visitors."
‘Ambubachi’ means spoken with water and it also implies that the rains expected during this month make the earth fertile and ready for procreation. Daily worship is suspended during this period. All agricultural work like digging, ploughing, sowing, and transplanting of crops are forbidden.
Widows, Brahmacharis and Brahmins avoid cooked food during these days. On the fourth day, Ambubachi being over, household items, utensils and clothes are washed, cleaned and purified by sprinkling sacred waters, worship of Goddess Kamakhya begins after cleansing and other rituals are performed. Entry to the Shrine is considered to be auspicious after this.
The concept of Ambubachi thus has in its origin, formative influences and elements of agricultural, social and religious ideas that have contributed to the emergence of the phenomenon. It is thus symbolic supported by religious sanction.
Kamakhya is also an unrivalled centre of Tantrik worship. There is today a society of Tantrik here who celebrate their important Rajaewari pooja. All their rituals are conducted in secret and are open only to initiates. There are no outward displays of this cult except that one sees people in weird clothing lost in their own pursuits.
