Syed Zarir Hussain
IANS
Guwahati : Authorities in Assam have decided to step up security ahead of the annual Ambubachi Mela, a four-day Hindu ritual that begins next week at the famous Kamakhya temple here.
"A security plan has been worked out to ensure that nothing untoward happens," a police official said. The stepped-up vigil was planned following rebel strikes in Assam and concerns expressed by the Kamakhya temple trust.
"We are expecting thousands of devotees, and the biggest worry for us is the security angle," Navakanta Sarma, secretary of the temple trust, told IANS. The Kamakhya temple has long been considered the highest seat of tantricism, a sort of black magic that has been an integral part of India's folklore for centuries.
Mystics who gather at the temple claim they can perform wonders – make a childless woman conceive, find a distressed loner a spouse, or even cast an evil spell on others.
"Last year, more than 700,000 pilgrims visited Kamakhya and during the Ambubachi Mela we get about 200,000 people on an average," a temple priest said.
Assam has been rocked by a string of bombings, including at least eight explosions in Guwahati this year.
"We need to be alert so that divisive forces are not able to create trouble during the Ambubachi Mela," the police official said.
Last year, hundreds of Hindu monks during the ritual at Kamakhya pledged to fight ancient barbaric rituals of human sacrifices at temples in India where the grisly practice continues.
"A very miniscule cult still believes that to achieve supernatural magical powers one needs to sacrifice a child at the altar," said Biswajit Giri, a 45-year-old Hindu mystic.
"The practice of human sacrifice … has not died down completely and is being carried out in many select temples secretly."
Giri is among several monks who have already assembled at the temple of the Hindu goddess Kamakhya.
"We should put an end to all barbaric practices as such incidents defame tantricism," said Birati Baba, a 60-year-old seer who belongs to the secret Aghor cult, whose adherents meditate in graveyards at night.
The debate among the monks was necessitated after a self-proclaimed mystic with saffron robes and vermilion beads marked on his forehead last year almost sacrificed his 18-month-old daughter at the Kamakhya temple.
Amritlal Mazumdar was slicing his daughter's neck with a razor when her screams of pain alerted devotees who rescued the baby from being sacrificed. The man was arrested.
Earlier last year, two children were sacrificed in Tripura after a devotee had a dream that offering human lives to the deity would lead him to hidden treasures.
Legend has it that human sacrifices – an integral part of tantricism – were widespread in Assam and other parts of India although the practice was officially abandoned some 250 years ago.
"There was a temple called Kasai Kathi (slaughter house) in eastern Assam's Sadia area where it was said human sacrifices were performed," said Pradeep Sharma, a researcher on tantricism.
"But we have no evidence to prove this as the temple is now razed to the ground after heavy flooding triggered by a killer earthquake in 1950."