हिंदीOn this day
Rebuilt

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.

Built: 18th century, the Ahom king Rajeswar Singha; damaged in the 1897 earthquake and repairedWhere: Assam (Kamrup Metropolitan)Deity: The nine Grahas, as nine lingas26.19° N, 91.77° E
  1. mid-18th century
  2. 1897
Photo: অজয় দাস · CC BY-SA 4.0

01Pragjyotishpura

The Mahabharata and the Kalika Purana name the kingdom of this valley Pragjyotisha, and its capital Pragjyotishpura. Many read the name as the eastern city of the jyotis, the stars, and the Navagraha temple keeps that memory. The Ahom king Rajeswar Singha built the present temple in the mid-18th century on the hill east of the old city. Inside the dim sanctum the nine lingas stand in a circle under oil lamps, each wrapped in a cloth of its own colour, red for Mangala, yellow for Brihaspati, black for Shani.

02Earthquake and repair

The great Assam earthquake of 1897 brought down the upper part of the Ahom building, and the dome seen today is a later repair in brick and cement. People come to the temple when a horoscope shows a graha in a hard place, to make offerings to that planet, and on Saturdays the Shani linga has the longest queue.

The life of this place

  1. mid-18th centuryRajeswar Singha builds the Navagraha temple on Chitrachal hill.
  2. 1897The great Assam earthquake damages the temple.
Visiting

On Chitrachal hill in east Guwahati, about 3 km from Paltan Bazar; a road goes to the top.

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