01From stone to brick
The land around Dergaon belonged to the Kachari kingdom until the Ahom king Suhungmung took it in the early 16th century, and the Buranjis, the Ahom chronicles, mention the old Negheriting temple in those wars. Floods and earthquakes later ruined it. In 1765 Rajeswar Singha had it rebuilt in brick by the royal architect Ghanashyam Khanikar, as a panchayatana: Shiva in the centre, with shrines of Vishnu, Surya, Ganesha and Durga at the corners.
02The temple of the adjutants
The hillock is wooded, and great adjutant storks, hargila in Assamese, nest in the trees around the temple. A herd of deer kept by the temple roams the grounds. Shivaratri is the great festival, and the temple is a protected monument. The Ahom kings of the 18th century built in brick across the valley, and Negheriting, with its five shrines on one hill, is among the best kept of their temples outside Sivasagar.
The life of this place
- 1765Rajeswar Singha rebuilds the temple in brick.
About 1.5 km north of the national highway near Dergaon, between Jorhat and Golaghat.
