Ambubachi Mela

• Ambubachi Mela, four day annual fair, begun recently at Kamakhya temple located atop the Nilachal hills in Guwahati, Assam.
• This mela is also known as Ameti or Tantric fertility festival.
• It is celebrated during the monsoon season that happens to fall during the Assamese month Ahaar, around the middle of June.
• It is celebrated to mark the annual menstruation of Goddess Kamakhya (reigning deity).
• It also marks as an occasion to promote awareness about menstrual hygiene.

ABOUT KAMAKHYA TEMPLE

• Kamakhya Temple is one of the 52 Shakti peeths or Seat of Shakti followers.
• It is one of the most revered centres of Tantric practices.
• It had been modelled out of a combination of two different styles- the traditional nagara or North Indian and Saracenic or Mughal style of architecture.
  • This unusual combination has been named the Nilachala Style of Architecture.
• This is the only temple of Assam having a fully developed ground plan.