Esoteric Cults of Consort Worship in Bengal – BHOLANATH BHATTACHARYA

From the very days of inception woman breeds a sense of fear as well as devotion in the minds of man due to her mysterious relation with the process of creation. Worshipping woman as a symbol of power of creation and fertility also started from then. At the preliminary stage woman was worshipped as mother. Later, as man also found himself as a contributor in this process of creation, woman started herself being worshipped as companion. The author gives a description of these confined cults which are practised in different parts of Bengal in India for a long time.