Paolo E Rosati - Cultural Identity and Cultural Memory at Kāmākhyā: A Preliminary Study

Cultural Identity and Cultural Memory at Kāmākhyā: A Preliminary Study
Paolo E. Rosati - Independent Scholar
The village of Kāmākhyā is a sacred spot on Nīlācala in the Brahmaputra Valley of Assam. Its presiding goddess is Kāmākhyā who is worshipped in the nonanthropomorphic shape of a yoni (vulva) stone through left-hand and right-hand tantric rites. It is the yoni of Satī that according to the Śākta Purāṇas, a group of texts compiled in Bengal and Assam during the mediaeval period, fell to Nīlācala. Nowadays, the cult of Kāmākhyā is a cross-cultural system of religious beliefs and rituals interconnected to the village community. During the colonial period, the public yoni pūjā (worship) was exotericized and sanitised from its extreme Kaula praxis (Urban 2009). So today, animals are not sacrificed inside the sanctum but only outside of it while, from an etic point of view, the yoni symbol seems desexualized. Nevertheless, animal slaughtering and yoni pūjā replicates the mythic death and rebirth of Satī, the event that stands at the origin of Kāmākhyā. The inhabitants of the village of Kāmākhyā (i.e. Kamakhyans), thus, share the same symbolic universe and preserve the mediaeval Kaula roots of the yoni cult through daily ritual life. This paper will shed light on the fundamental role that ritual praxis plays in the preservation of the cultural memory at Kāmākhyā whereas written tradition influenced what may be defined religious oblivion to normalise the ritual praxis. In conclusion, this paper aims to outline a relationship between the cultural memory and the cultural identity of Kamakhyans and their mediaeval Kaula roots.

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