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Having bathed in Devika and worshipped Maheswara by offering him, to the best of one's might, rice boiled in milk and butter, a man obtaineth, O bull of the Bharata race, the merit of a sacrifice that is capable of filling every desire. There also is another tirtha of Rudra called Kamakhya, which is much resorted to by the gods. Bathing there, a man speedily obtaineth success.

Anyone who visits two such different localities as Kamakhya in Assam and Gokul near Muttra must be struck with the total absence in the shrines of anything that can be called beautiful, solemn or even terrible. The general impression is of something diseased, unclean and undignified.

Having bathed in Devika and worshipped Maheswara by offering him, to the best of one's might, rice boiled in milk and butter, a man obtaineth, O bull of the Bharata race, the merit of a sacrifice that is capable of filling every desire. There also is another tirtha of Rudra called Kamakhya, which is much resorted to by the gods. Bathing there, a man speedily obtaineth success.

The largest and best is the temple dedicated to Kâmâkhyâ herself, the goddess of sexual desire. It is of the style usual in northern India, an unlighted shrine surmounted by a dome, and approached by a rather ample vestibule, which is also imperfectly lighted.

At most of them are shown a rock supposed to represent some portion of the goddess's body and some object called a bhairabi, left by Śiva as a guardian to protect her and often taking the form of a lingam. The most important of these pîths are Kâmâkhyâ near Gauhati, Faljur in the Jaintia Parganas, and Kalighat in Calcutta.

An oft-quoted tantric verse represents Śiva as saying Maithunena mahâyogî mama tulyo na saṁśayaḥ. And for practical purposes that is the gist of Śâktist teaching. The temples of Kâmâkhyâ leave a disagreeable impression an impression of dark evil haunts of lust and bloodshed, akin to madness and unrelieved by any grace or vigour of art.