हिंदीOn this day
Rebuilt

Mahabhairav Temple, Tezpur

The Shiva temple on a hillock in Tezpur, the old Shonitpura of Banasura, the asura king devoted to Shiva whose daughter Usha married Krishna’s grandson Aniruddha.

Built: Ancient Shiva shrine credited to Banasura; old stone temple later rebuiltWhere: Assam (Sonitpur district)Deity: Bhagwan Shiva as Mahabhairav26.63° N, 92.80° E
Photo: Bishnu Saikia · CC BY-SA 3.0

01Shonitpura

The Bhagavata and Vishnu Puranas tell how Usha, daughter of Bana, saw Aniruddha in a dream, how her friend Chitralekha brought him to her, and how Krishna came with his army to free him, so that Hari and Hara, Krishna and Shiva who protected Bana, met in battle until Shiva himself made peace. Tezpur, whose name is read as the city of blood, holds that the battle was fought here. Bana is remembered as a great devotee of Shiva, and the Mahabhairav linga is held to be the one he worshipped.

02The temple today

The old stone temple did not survive, and the present building is a modern one in concrete, managed by a committee of the Assam government. On Mahashivaratri devotees come from across the north bank, and bhang laddus are offered and given as prasad. Pigeons are released at the temple for the peace of ancestors.

Visiting

In the north of Tezpur town; Agnigarh hill, linked with Usha’s fortress, and Da Parbatia are nearby.

Nearby

Da Parbatia Temple Ruins, TezpurRuined
The Gupta Age

Da Parbatia Temple Ruins, Tezpur

The oldest surviving piece of temple art in Assam: a carved stone doorframe of about the 6th century, with Ganga and Yamuna standing at its foot, found in a village west of Tezpur.

Batadrava Than (Bordowa)Standing
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Batadrava Than (Bordowa)

The birthplace of Srimanta Sankardev near Nagaon, where he set up the first than and kirtanghar of the Ekasarana tradition. It is the first place of pilgrimage for the satras of Assam.

Madan KamdevRuined
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Madan Kamdev

A hillside of fallen temples at Baihata Chariali near Guwahati, littered with carved stone from the last centuries of the Kamarupa kingdom.

Navagraha Temple, GuwahatiRebuilt
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Navagraha Temple, Guwahati

A temple of the nine planets on Chitrachal hill in Guwahati, where nine lingas, each draped in its graha’s colour, sit around a central linga of Surya. Old Guwahati was Pragjyotishpura, the city of eastern light and of astronomy.