The untold legend of Kamakhya in Assam!
One of the popular legends associated with the Kamakhya cult involves the Koch King Naranarayan who rebuilt the Kamakhya Temple after its destruction by Kalapahad (the general of Mughal governor Sultan Sulaiman Karrani of Bengal). Ironically, the descendants of this king who rebuilt the temple could never set foot on its premises again.
Naranarayan invited several Brahmin priests from erstwhile Gauda and gave them land grants. One of them was Kendukalai. He used to perform aarti daily at the temple. It was believed that the goddess herself appeared when he used to go into trance. Hearing this the King asked Kendukulai to enable him to have an auspicious sight of the goddess and even bribed him with jewels. Kendukulai after a little hesitation agreed to arrange what the king asked for. When the goddess came to know about it she turned the priest into a stone and cursed King Naranarayan, warning him of dire consequences if he or any of his family members set foot in the premises of the temple again. The goddess further warned that even if they have a sight of the Nilachal hill (where the temple is located) the entire family will perish.
Several centuries later, closer to our time, the then member of Lok Sabha, Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur was scheduled to visit Guwahati and an interesting incident happened. Gayatri Devi belonged to the royal family of Cooch Behar (daughter of King Nripendra Narayan, a direct descendant of King Naranarayan). She was informed that one can see the Kamakhya Temple when the plane descends on Guwahati airport. Immediately, she decided to take a flight from Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Silchar and after reaching Silchar travelled by road to Guwahati!!
There is another story of a descendant of the Beltola royal family (related to the Koch dynasty), the renowned film producer Kumar Dwijendranarayan Dev. He had organized the mahurat of one of his films in another shakti temple Ugratara at Guwahati. A puja was going on inside the temple at the same time. While all the guests had entered the producer was found to be missing. After a prolonged search by the guests he was found hiding in a nearby dwelling. When asked about the reason for his absence, he told them that he suddenly remembered the curse and that the location of the mahurat has been changed. A baffled guest asked, "When?" To this a frantic Dwijendra Dev replied, "Now. Just now".
Source: Vintage Assam (http://www.vintageassam.com/kamakhya)
