My INTERIM ‘EYE’ in the series... KAMAKHYA / KAMAKSHI: THE ‘EYE’ OF DESIRE The Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English lexicon says Kamakshi is a form of Durga while Kamaksha a form of Dakshyani (which is found in Tantra); or Kamakhya is a Tirtha found in the ‘Mahabharata.’ The words obviously are compounded by Kama and Akshi, i.e. wish, desire, longing, it could be Love or Desire personified; akshi is eyes; it could also mean ‘tears falling from the eyes’. Along with my previous mythological persuasion, i would like to take the ‘eye’ iconography a bit further and now with the goddess Kamakhya or Kamakshi, the Goddess with the Eye of Desire. She is found in different parts of India, but here are two images from extreme North and South of India, and see how both these ‘eyes’ see her, or how through her ‘eyes’ we are seen. At Kamakhya temple (near Guwahati in Assam), her relationship with Kama is more subtle. The goddess is worshipped in the form of yoni, a cleft in the rock, from where once a year flows out red fluid following the first rain around June. The red color associated with the goddess worship is the red seed or menstrual blood that flows out of the body of a fertile woman who is not carrying a child. But she is not Kama. Kama churns out passion for our pleasure. The relationship between Kama and Kamakshi is obvious in the South, e.g. in her grand temple at Kanchipuram (near Chennai), there goddess is depicted holding symbols associated with the god of love. She holds the sugarcane bow; the arrows made of flowers, and the parrot. Yoni-puja is the cornerstone of Kamakshi and Kamakhya. In his book ‘Myth and Reality,’ Prof D.D. Kosambi interestingly connects the Masri statue of Istar with fertility cult. This interim eye might, even tangentially, connect with my prvious Indra-Ahilya, one thousand Yoni/Eye myth. Traditionally Assam has been known as Kamarupa Desa, associated with Tantric practices and Shakti worship, but that’s a long discussion. Look eye-to-eye at this mythic moment.[Some inputs from Devdutt Pattanaik, The Speaking Tree, 25 September 2011].
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 02:21:48 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015