हिंदीOn this day
Rebuilt

Umananda Temple

A Shiva temple on Peacock Island, a rock in the middle of the Brahmaputra at Guwahati, built in 1694 on the orders of the Ahom king Gadadhar Singha.

Built: 1694, Ahom king Gadadhar SinghaWhere: AssamDeity: Bhagwan Shiva as Umananda26.20° N, 91.75° E
  1. 1694 CE
  2. 1897 CE
Photo: Pinakpani · CC BY 4.0

01Bhasmachala

The Kalika Purana tells that Kamadeva disturbed Bhagwan Shiva’s tapas on this rock, and Shiva burnt him to ash with the fire of his third eye. So the hill is also called Bhasmachala, the mount of ash. Here Shiva is worshipped as Umananda, the joy of Uma, for Mata Parvati is said to have delighted in this island in the river. A small ferry from the Kachari ghat crosses in about ten minutes; in the dry months the water drops and the rocks around the island show.

02Ahom building, earthquake

Gadadhar Singha, who restored the Ahom throne after years of court strife, had the temple built through his Barphukan, the viceroy at Guwahati, Garhganya Handique, in 1694. The great Assam earthquake of 1897 brought much of it down. It was rebuilt afterwards by local devotees, and some of the old stone carving of the Ahom period, including figures of Surya, Ganesh and Vishnu, survives on the rock faces and walls. Shivaratri is the big day here.

The life of this place

  1. 1694 CETemple built on the orders of Ahom king Gadadhar Singha.
  2. 1897 CEThe great Assam earthquake badly damages the temple; it is later rebuilt.
Visiting

Ferries leave from Kachari and Uzan Bazar ghats in Guwahati through the day; services stop in high floods.

Nearby

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