| Temples & Legends of Assam |
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| Temples & Legends Of India |
TAMRESVARI |
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| But the human
sacrifice at the Tamresvari temple was an annual feature. Generally, the criminals who
were sentenced to capital punishments were given for the purpose. But when none such
were available, a particular clan was expected to produce a victim and in return certain
privileges were granted to it. When a woman of this clan became pregnant, the astrologers were called on to ascertain the sex of the child. If they predicted that it would be a boy, the mother was carefully tended, and the child was anointed,as soon as it was born, with a paste made of turmeric and a kind of pulse. When necessity arose, a volunteer was called for, and (it is said) was usually forthcoming; if not a victim was taken by force. For sometime he was kept at the temple and fed sumptuously, until he was in sufficiently plump condition to suit the supposed taste of the goddess. He was then shaved, anointed with the same paste as at birth and adorned with gold and silver ornaments and was conducted before the image of the goddess. Here he prostrated himself and was promptly decapitated by the bar deori, or high priest. The head was added to a heap of skulls that were piled in view of the shrine."* *E.R.E. P.851. |
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| About Tamresvari | ||||||||||||||||||
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