Tamreswari Temple
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Tamreswari temple (also Dikkaravasini, Kesai Khaiti)[4] is situated about 18 km away from Sadiya in Tinsukia district, Assam, India. The temple was in the custody of non-Brahmin tribal priests called Deoris.[5] Some remains suggest that a Chutiya king built a wall in the year 1442.[6] The temple was dedicated to Kechaikhati (kechai means raw and khaiti means eat), a powerful tribal deity or a Buddhist deity,[7] commonly among different Bodo-Kachari groups.[8][9][10][11][12][13] The worship of the goddess even after coming under Hindu influence was performed according to her old tribal customs.[14]
Stone inscription[]
The stone inscription found in the temple reads,[15]
“Shiv-Charan-Prasadat Vridharajatan
Ya-Sri-Srimata-Mukta Dharmanarayana
Shri shrimati Digaravasini Ichtaka
Di-Virchit-Prakara-Nivaddha
Krit Agrahainike Saka 1364”— Tamresari Wall inscription
The inscription describes that the walls of the temple have been built using bricks (Ichtaka) by the son Mukta Dharmanarayan of the old king (name not specified) in the Saka year 1364 (1442 AD).
The name Tamresari[]
The wall and doors of the temple were well designed with beautiful works. There were two giant elephant sculptures with silver tusks at the main door. The walls were made without any mortar. The temple roof was made of copper, that's why it is called Tamreswari. The whole temple was surrounded with brick walls and on the western wall there was a place for human sacrifice.[16]
Architecture[]
The roof of the Tamresari temple was originally sheeted with copper as mentioned in the Changrung Phukan Buranji (1711 AD), from which the name is derived. In 1848, when Dalton visited the site, he found a stone structure, but the copper roof was already removed. As per T.Block who visited the site in 1905, this square structure in the corner cannot have been the main building inside the complex and the brick wall evidently enclosed some sort of a grand temple in the center which has disappeared with time. The Kalika Purana mentions that the temple was octagonal in shape with eight Dwarpalas(namely Narantaka, Tripurantaka, Devantaka, Yamantaka, Vetalantaka, Durdharantaka, Ganantaka and Sramantaka). According to S.F. Hannay, the present temple complex was as near as possible square with the doorway to the west. There was a substantial brick wall, about 4.5 feet thick rising to the height of 8 feet, on the foundation of rudely cut blocks of sandstone. The entrance of the complex was on the west face, where there had been a stone enclosure and door. The ruins of the gateway which remains include the lintel carved on the edge in a chain of lotus flowers, some ornamented small pillars and an elephant statue. The three blocks forming the doorway, each of 7.5 feet long and 2 feet by 18 inches in girth, along with the blocks of the projecting wall, were reddish porphyritic granite of an adamantine hardness. There was another stone gateway at the southeast corner leading to the stream, in the bed of which are several carved and plain blocks of granite and sandstone.[17] According to Debala Mitra(1956), the temple was originally Chaturayatana, i.e. having four shrines, built of sandstone and granite and located in the south-east section of the rectangular brick enclosure, prakara roughly measuring 208 ft by 130 ft. The compound wall was 4 feet wide and 8 feet tall and had a stone gateway on the eastern side. In the floods of 1959, due to deposit of silt in the banks of Paya river the structure was completely submerged in the waters.[18]
Notes[]
- ^ "639 Identifier Documentation: aho – ISO 639-3". SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics). SIL International. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
Ahom [aho]
- ^ "Population by Religious Communities". Census India – 2001. Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
Census Data Finder/C Series/Population by Religious Communities
- ^ "Population by religion community – 2011". Census of India, 2011. The Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the original on 25 August 2015.
- ^ "[I]n the eastern most boundary of Assam (near Sadiya) we find the pitha of a very interesting goddess. She is popularly known as Kechai-khati, the eater of raw flesh. The Kalika Purana, a 10th century work written in Kamarupa mentions her as Tamreswari, referred also as Dikkaravasini." (Gogoi 2011:235)
- ^ 'According to E.A. Gait, "The religion of the Chutiyas was a curious one. They worshipped various forms of Kali with the aid not of the Brahmanas but of their own tribal priests or Deoris. The favorite form in which they worshipped this deity was that of Kesai-khati 'the eater of raw flesh' to whom human sacrifices were offered. After their subjugation by the Ahoms, the Deoris were permitted to continue their ghastly rites; but they were usually given for this purpose, criminals who have been sentenced to capital punishment..."' (Gogoi 2011:236)
- ^ The Pãyã-Tãmresvari (Dikkaravãsiní) temple inscription announces that King Dharmanãrãyana raised in 1364 Šaka [1442 AD] a wall (prãkãra) around the temple of Dikkaravãsiní, popularly known as Tãmresvari."(Neog 1977:817)
- ^ (Gogoi 2011:235–236)
- ^ Kechai Khati worshipped by Bodo-kacharis
- ^ Rabhas worship Kechai-khati and celebrate the Kechai-khati festival once every year
- ^ Kechai-khati festival of Rabhas
- ^ The Tiwas, as well as the Koch, also worshipped Kechai Kati. The Koch general Gohain Kamal built temples dedicated to Kesai Khati in Khaspur for the Dehans who were Tiwa and Mech soldiers from Gobha, Nellie and Kabi.
- ^ "There is at Sadiya a shrine of Kechai Khaiti the tutelar deity of the Kacharis, which the Dimasa rulers continued to worship even after the establishment of their rule in Cachar." (Bhattacharjee 1992:393)
- ^ "The most famous temple of the Chutiyas was that of Kechaikhati, their primodial female deity.(Dutta 1985:49)
- ^ "she [Kesai Khaiti] was incorporated into in the Sanskritized cosmos of goddess tradition and as her tribal attributes were so strong to be denounced as non-Brahminical, her worship continued according to old customs."(Gogoi 2011:236)
- ^ Sircar,D.C,Journal of Ancient Indian History, p. 21.
- ^ "Sadiya - Tourism, History, Culture and other facts". Retrieved 12 June 2015.
- ^ Hanney, S.F. Journal of the Asiatic Soceity of Bengal p. 468.
- ^ Religious history of Arunachal Pradesh by Byomkesh Tripathi
References[]
- Bhattacharjee, J. B. (1992), "The Kachari (Dimasa) state formation", in Barpujari, H. K. (ed.), The Comprehensive History of Assam, 2, Guwahati: Assam Publication Board, pp. 391–397
- Gogoi, Kakoli (2011). "Envisioning Goddess Tara: A Study of the Tara Traditions in Assam". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 72: 232–239. JSTOR 44146715.
- Dutta, Sristidhar (1985), The Mataks and their Kingdom, Allahabad: Chugh Publications
- Tinsukia district
- Culture of Assam
- Temples in India
- Religious buildings and structures in Assam