Editing Yoni (section)

===Kamakhya Temple===
The Kamakhya temple is one of the oldest ''shakta pithas'' in South Asia or sacred pilgrimage sites of the Shaktism tradition.<ref name="Urban2009p2" /> Textual, inscriptional and archaeological evidence suggests that the temple has been revered in the Shaktism tradition continuously since at least the 8th-century CE, as well as the related esoteric tantric worship traditions.<ref name="Ramos2017p45" /><ref name="Urban2009p2" /> The Shakta tradition believes, states Hugh Urban – a professor of Religious Studies primarily focusing on South Asia, that this temple site is the "locus of goddess' own yoni".<ref name="Urban2009p2">{{Cite book |last=Urban |first=Hugh B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VKv3AgAAQBAJ |title=The Power of Tantra: Religion, Sexuality and the Politics of South Asian Studies |publisher=I.B.Tauris |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-85773-158-6 |pages=2–11, 35–41}}</ref>

[[File:Kamakhya Temple, Guwahati.jpg|thumb|8th-century Kamakhya Temple, Guwahati, [[Assam]]: its sanctum has no ''[[murti]]'', but houses a rock with a yoni-shaped fissure with a natural water spring. It is a major [[Shaktism]]-tradition pilgrimage site.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Biles |first1=Jeremy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9zxICgAAQBAJ&pg=PT81 |title=Negative Ecstasies: Georges Bataille and the Study of Religion |last2=Kent Brintnall |publisher=Fordham University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-8232-6521-3 |page=81}}</ref>]]
The regional tantric tradition considers this yoni site as the "birthplace" or "principal center" of tantra.<ref name="Urban2009p2" /> While the temple premises, walls and mandapas have numerous depictions of goddess Kamakhya in her various roles, include those relating to her procreative powers, as a martial warrior, and as a nurturing motherly figure (one image near the western gate shows her nursing a baby with her breast, dated to 10th-12th century). The temple sanctum, however, has no idols.<ref name="Ramos2017p45" /> The sanctum features a yoni-shaped natural rock with a fissure and a natural water spring flowing over it.<ref name="Ramos2017p45" /><ref name="Urban2009p2" /> The Kamakhya yoni is linked to the Shiva-Sati legend, both mentioned in the early puranic literature related to Shaktism such as the ''Kalika Purana''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Urban |first=Hugh B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VKv3AgAAQBAJ |title=The Power of Tantra: Religion, Sexuality and the Politics of South Asian Studies |publisher=I.B.Tauris |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-85773-158-6 |pages=31–37}}</ref>

Every year, about the start of monsoons, the natural spring turns red because of iron oxide and ''sindoor'' (red pigment) anointed by the devotees and temple priests. This is celebrated as a symbol of the menstruating goddess, and as the [[Ambubachi Mela]] (also known as ''Ambuvaci'' or ''ameti''), an annual fertility festival held in June.<ref name="Ramos2017p45" /><ref name="Urban2009p170">{{Cite book |last=Hugh B. Urban |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VKv3AgAAQBAJ |title=The Power of Tantra: Religion, Sexuality and the Politics of South Asian Studies |publisher=I.B.Tauris |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-85773-158-6 |pages=170–171}}</ref> During Ambubachi, a symbolic annual menstruation course of the [[goddess]] [[Kamakhya]] is worshipped in the [[Kamakhya Temple]]. The temple stays closed for three days and then reopens to receive [[pilgrim]]s and worshippers. The sanctum with the yoni of the goddess is one of the most important pilgrimage sites for the Shakti tradition, attracting between 70,000 and 200,000 pilgrims during the ''Ambubachi Mela'' alone from the northeastern and eastern states of India such as West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. It also attracts yogis, tantrikas, sadhus, aghoris as well as other monks and nuns from all over India.<ref name="Ramos2017p45" /><ref name="Urban2009p170" />