This talk draws on a long-term ethnographic study of Ambubachi, the annual divine menstruation of Kamakhya, located in the Northeast Indian state of Assam. Renowned as the key center of saktism, the goddess is worshipped in the aniconic form of yoni, the female genitalia. The talk examines the shifting relationship between the ritual isolation of the menstruating deity inside the temple and the social exclusion experienced by menstruating women in the wider Assamese society. Initiating a dialog between the textual traditions of Hinduism and critical theory of gender, it also discusses how indigenous goddesses were appropriated, and consequently reconstructed by mainstream Hindu traditions.

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Prerna Pradhan specializes in studies of gender, religion, and ritual performance in South Asia, with particular interest in textual traditions of Hinduism (female-centric Saktism and Non-Canonical Laukika), as well as the cults of indigenous goddesses who have been co-opted within the fold of Hindu pantheon. Her research interest addresses the convergence of religion, gender performance and political discourse in North-East India and South Asia. Having received multiple fellowships that have allowed her to work with literatures in Assamese, Nepali, Bengali, Hindi, and French, and conduct ethnographic and archival research in India and Nepal, she is currently working on a manuscript titled, Blood and Divinity: The Menstrual Construction of Goddess Kamakhya in Assam.