ABSTRACT
Whereas the Mahāvidyās were drawn from pre-existing Śākta traditions in various parts of India, the ten Mahāvidyās as a distinct set was formulated in the eastern region, which has been immensely popular with Kālī, Durgā and other goddess cults. Today Bengal is nearly synonymous with goddess worship and festivals. The most important Śākta centre is located in Assam where the cult of the renowned goddess Kāmākhyā has been prevalent. Besides, the cult of Kālī appears in its most primitive forms among the wild tribes in Assam and Bengal. 1 By surveying ethnographic and anthropological data, some scholars suppose that the popularity of goddess cults in the eastern region was due to her prolonged and close association with tribal people. 2 Therefore, the almost obsessive involvement of the eastern Purāṇas with the cults was considered to be ‘an indirect acknowledgement of the pre-eminence of the goddess tradition in Bengal prior to the composition of these texts’. 3
