Devalok
Temple legend · 2 tellings · Northeast India

The ten on Kamakhya's hill

The Mahabhagavata has Shiva tell Narada that Kamakhya is Kali herself, seated on a lion, a corpse and a lotus with the nine other Mahavidyas round her; the Nilachal hill above the Brahmaputra still keeps a shrine for each of the ten.

Who is in it

Places: Nilachal hill · Texts: Mahabhagavata Purana

The story, beat by beat

  1. Narada asks Shiva about Kamarupa.
  2. Shiva: a part of Sati fell there; the gods do penance there.
  3. Narada asks about the goddess and the ten Vidyas.
  4. Kamakhya is Kali on a seat of lion, corpse and lotus, the nine round her.
  5. Rudra lies beneath like a mountain of ash.
  6. Shiva teaches the armour prayer that sets each goddess on one side.
  7. Today Matangi and Kamala are inside the main temple with Kamakhya as Shodashi; seven have their own temples.

mahavidyas kamakhya pilgrimage temple

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Primary text (translation)

Mahabhagavata Purana 76 to 77

Northeast India Shakta

Narada asks about Kamarupa; Shiva says no place is better: a limb of Sati fell there, the gods and Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva do penance there, Vasishtha received his mantra there, going round it is going round the three worlds, and bathing in the Lohita brings mastery of mantra. Asked about the goddess and the ten Vidyas, he says Kamakhya is Kali, the first goddess, in red, three-eyed, four-armed, seated on a lion, a corpse and a lotus that are Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma; Tara on her left, Bhuvaneshvari right, Shodashi south-east, Bhairavi south-west, Chhinnamasta north-west, Bagalamukhi behind, Sundari north-east, Dhumavati to the south; Rudra beneath like a mountain of ash. He then teaches her armour prayer, which sets each goddess to guard one side.

The Mahabhagavata Purana, English translation (archive.org upload; Pushpendra Kumar's edition, translator not named) § 76.1-38; The Mahabhagavata Purana, English translation (archive.org upload; Pushpendra Kumar's edition, translator not named) § 77.1-49; David Kinsley, Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahavidyas (University of California Press, 1997) § p24

Temple tradition

The Nilachal hill today

Northeast India · Guwahati, Assam Shakta

The hill is three hills, Brahma's, Shiva's and Varaha's. The main temple's underground room has no image, only a rock cleft filled by a spring; Kamakhya is honoured there as Shodashi with Matangi and Kamala, all three stones. The other seven have their own temples: Kali (the nine Kalis), Tara (the eight Taras, large, like the main temple), Bhuvaneshvari (also Mahagauri and Annapurna), Tripura Bhairavi (the other nine painted near the ceiling), Chhinnamasta (the hidden Kamakhya), Dhumavati and Bagalamukhi. The forms are mostly stones under flowers, cloth and offerings, some in caves opened on special days. The earliest inscription is of the ninth century; the temple was rebuilt by 1565 under Naranarayana and Chilarai. Kinsley found only one other temple to all ten, at Cossipore in Kolkata.

Kamakhya Temple (Wikipedia); Sacred landscape: the places of worship on the Nilachala hills (kamakhya.org); David Kinsley, Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahavidyas (University of California Press, 1997) § p16-18

Sources: The Mahabhagavata Purana, English translation (archive.org upload; Pushpendra Kumar's edition, translator not named); David Kinsley, Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahavidyas (University of California Press, 1997); Kamakhya Temple (Wikipedia); Sacred landscape: the places of worship on the Nilachala hills (kamakhya.org)

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