{"id":12378,"date":"2025-06-24T12:07:55","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T06:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=12378"},"modified":"2025-06-25T11:40:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T06:10:13","slug":"what-is-ambubachi-mela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-is-ambubachi-mela\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambubachi Mela"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Ambubachi Mela Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thousands of devotees have arrived in Assam for the Kamakhya Temple\u2019s annual Ambubachi Mela, one of the largest religious gatherings in Northast India.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>\u00a0About Ambubachi Mela<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Ambubachi festival is held during the monsoon, generally in June at the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/kamakhya-temple\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Kamakhya Templ<\/strong><\/a><b>e in Guwahati<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Assam.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a shrine to the <\/span><b>Goddess Kamakhya<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and one of the most important centres of Tantrik Shaktism.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The period of Ambubachi is believed to be the period of the <\/span><b>goddess\u2019s annual menstruation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and the shrine is closed for this.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the end of the period, the shrine\u2019s doors are opened ceremonially and devotees flock for darshan of the deity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The festival is <\/span><b>associated with fertility, with the onset of monsoon<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and the common historical association across cultures of the Earth as a fertile woman. The name \u2018Ambubachi\u2019 itself translates to <\/span><b>water flowing.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Key Facts About the Kamakhya Temple \u00a0 <\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>situated on Nilachal Hill<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and adjoining the southern bank of the <\/span><b>Brahmaputra River.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is one of the most revered centres of Tantric practices. It is regarded as one of the oldest of the 51 Shakti Peethas in India.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Temple Architecture of Kamakhya Temple<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It had been modelled out of a combination of <\/span><b>two different styles namely<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the traditional <\/span><b>nagara and Saracenic or Mughal style<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of architecture.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This unusual combination has been named the <\/span><b>Nilachala Style of Architecture.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is the only temple of Assam having a <\/span><b>fully developed ground plan.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It consists of five chambers<\/span><b>, garbhagriha, antarala, Jagan Mohan, bhogmandir<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 and natmandir or opera hall for performing traditional dance and music associated with sukti temples.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is interesting to note that the superstructure of each of the above chambers <\/span><b>exhibits different architectural features.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The main temple contains a modified Saracenic dome, the antarala carries a two-roofed design, the bhogmandir with five domes similar in appearance to the main temple and the natmandir having a shell-roof with apsidal end similar to some of the impermanent namghars or prayer halls found in Assam.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-culture\/ambubachi-mela-at-kamakhya-significance-religious-festival-10082824\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IE<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ambubachi Mela at Kamakhya Temple marks the goddess\u2019s annual menstruation, attracting devotees to honor fertility and Tantric traditions in Assam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":51684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1015,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-12378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-ambubachi-mela","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}