01Three streams
Three streams come down from the Meghalaya hills here, the Sandhya, the Lalita and the Kanta, and join to form the Basistha river. The Kalika Purana speaks of Vashishtha’s tapas in Kamarupa, and the people of the valley hold that the guru of the Raghu line lived here; a cave above the stream is shown as his seat. Pilgrims bathe where the streams meet and offer pinda for their ancestors.
02Rajeswar Singha’s temple
Rajeswar Singha, who ruled from 1751 to 1769, built the stone Shiva temple and endowed it with land and servitors. The compound under its old trees holds smaller shrines and the samadhis of sadhus, and the stream runs past the steps. Shivaratri brings a large mela, and through the year families come for picnics and for the shraddha rites at the confluence. Rhesus monkeys live in the trees, and the forest of the Garbhanga hills begins just behind the temple.
The life of this place
- 1764Rajeswar Singha builds the Shiva temple at the ashram.
At Basistha in south-east Guwahati, about 12 km from the railway station.
