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Tamreswari Temple

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Tamreswari Temple
Religion
AffiliationEthnic religion
DistrictTinsukia district
DeityKechai-Khati/Pishasi (tribal goddess)[1][2]
(equivalent to Nang Hoo Toungh)[3]
Location
LocationSadiya
StateAssam
CountryIndia

Tamreswari temple (also Dikkaravasini) is a temple for the tribal goddess called Kecaikhati[4] is situated about 18 km away from Sadiya in Tinsukia district, Assam, India. The temple was in the custody of non-Brahmin tribal priests called Deoris.[5][6] Some remains suggest that a Chutiya king built a wall or the temple itself in the year 1442.[7][8] There were four different kinds of Deori priest who looked after the temple. The Bar Bharali and the Saru Bharali collected dues of the temple and provides animals for sacrifice. The Bar Deori (Deori Dema) and the Saru Deori (Deori Surba) performs the sacrifice and sung hymns.[9] The temple was dedicated to Kechaikhati/Pishasi (kechai means raw and khati means eat), a powerful tribal deity or the Buddhist deity Tara,[10] commonly found among different Bodo-Kachari groups.[11][12][13][14][15][16] The worship of the goddess even after coming under Hindu influence was performed according to her old tribal customs.[17]


The temple was abandoned during the reign of Suhitpangphaa (1780 - 1795), when the Ahom kingdom was attacked by the Konbaung dynasty of Burma.[18] Scholars assert that Kesaikhaiti is equivalent to the Tai-Khamti female deity Nang Hoo Toungh.[19]

Stone inscription

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The stone inscription found in the temple reads:[20]

“Shiv-Charan-Prasadat Vridharajatan
Ya-Sri-Srimata-Mukta Dharmanarayana
Shri shrimati Digaravasini Ichtaka
Di-Virchit-Prakara-Nivaddha
Krit Agrahainike Saka 1364”

— Tamresari Wall inscription


The inscription describes that the walls of the temple have been built using bricks (Ichtaka) by the son Mukta Dharmanarayan of the old king (name not specified) in the Saka year 1364 (1442 AD).

The name Tamresari

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The wall and doors of the temple were well designed with beautiful works. There were two giant elephant sculptures with silver tusks at the main door. The walls were made without any mortar. The temple roof was made of copper, that's why it is called Tamreswari. The whole temple was surrounded with brick walls and on the western wall there was a place for human sacrifice.[21]

Architecture

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The roof of the Tamresari temple was originally sheeted with copper as mentioned in the Changrung Phukan Buranji (1711 AD), from which the name is derived. In 1848, when Dalton visited the site, he found a stone structure, but the copper roof was already removed. As per T.Block who visited the site in 1905, this square structure in the corner cannot have been the main building inside the complex and the brick wall evidently enclosed some sort of a grand temple in the center which has disappeared with time. According to S.F. Hannay, the present temple complex was as near as possible square with the doorway to the west. There was a substantial brick wall, about 4.5 feet thick rising to the height of 8 feet, on the foundation of rudely cut blocks of sandstone. The entrance of the complex was on the west face, where there had been a stone enclosure and door. The ruins of the gateway which remains include the lintel carved on the edge in a chain of lotus flowers, some ornamented small pillars and an elephant statue. The three blocks forming the doorway, each of 7.5 feet long and 2 feet by 18 inches in girth, along with the blocks of the projecting wall, were reddish porphyritic granite of an adamantine hardness. There was another stone gateway at the southeast corner leading to the stream, in the bed of which are several carved and plain blocks of granite and sandstone.[22] According to Debala Mitra(1956), the temple was originally Chaturayatana, i.e. having four shrines, built of sandstone and granite and located in the south-east section of the rectangular brick enclosure, prakara roughly measuring 208 ft by 130 ft. The compound wall was 4 feet wide and 8 feet tall and had a stone gateway on the eastern side. In the floods of 1959, due to deposit of silt in the banks of Paya river the structure was completely submerged in the waters.[23]

Sketch of a statue in Tamreswari Temple

Notes

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  1. ^ (Shin 2023:71)
  2. ^ "She is popularly known as Kechai-khati, the eater of raw flesh."(Gogoi 2011:235) "Perhaps, Kechai-khati was a tribal deity who was so influential at the time of the coming of the Ahoms that even they could not possibly ignore her and decided to continue her worship according to the old tradition."(Gogoi 2011:236)
  3. ^ "Towards the north of the Lohit River is the Nang Hoo Toungh territory. The third phi muang is, as the prefix "nang" (lady) indicates, a female divinity. The territory it is said to protect is more easily identifiable than that of the two-previous phi muangs. Nang Hoo Toungh is known in Assamese as Kesakhati ("person who eats raw meat")."(Laine 2019:17–18)
  4. ^ "[I]n the eastern most boundary of Assam (near Sadiya) we find the pitha of a very interesting goddess. She is popularly known as Kechai-khati, the eater of raw flesh. The Kalika Purana, a 10th century work written in Kamarupa mentions her as Tamreswari , referred also as Dikkaravasini." (Gogoi 2011:235)
  5. ^ "In the case of Tamresvari Temple, the goddess was served by the Deoris, the representatives of the priestly class among the Chutiyas. They were permitted to continue their religious service to her including human sacrifice even after their subjugation by the Ahoms in 1523."(Shin 2023:70)
  6. ^ (Gogoi 2011:236)
  7. ^ " As mentioned earlier, Mukta-dharmanarayana, who constructed the wall of Tamresvari (alias Kecaikhati, Dikkaravasini) Temple or the temple itself in AD 1442"(Shin 2023:69)
  8. ^ "The Pãyã-Tãmresvari (Dikkaravãsiní) temple inscription announces that King Dharmanãrãyana raised in 1364 Šaka [1442 AD] a wall (prãkãra) around the temple of Dikkaravãsiní, popularly known as Tãmresvari."(Neog 1977:817)
  9. ^ "There were four different kinds of priests of whom each was attached to a particular division (khel), viz., the Bar Deori (Deori Dema) and the Saru Deori (Deori Surba); the Bar Bharali and the Saru Bharali. It was the duty of the two Bharalis to collect the dues of the temple and to provide animals for sacrifice. The two Deoris performed the sacrifice; they alone entered the temple and sung hymns, which were scarcely understood by the common people."(Shin 2023:70)
  10. ^ "In her fearsome self this deity bears so many resemblances to the fierce manifestation of Buddhist Tara that many scholars have suggested a Buddhist origin for her"(Gogoi 2011:235–236)
  11. ^ Kechai Khati worshipped by Bodo-kacharis
  12. ^ Rabhas worship Kechai-khati and celebrate the Kechai-khati festival once every year
  13. ^ Kechai-khati festival of Rabhas
  14. ^ The Tiwas, as well as the Koch, also worshipped Kechai Kati. The Koch general Gohain Kamal built temples dedicated to Kesai Khati in Khaspur for the Dehans who were Tiwa and Mech soldiers from Gobha, Nellie and Kabi.
  15. ^ "There is at Sadiya a shrine of Kechai Khati the tutelar deity of the Kacharis, which the Dimasa rulers continued to worship even after the establishment of their rule in Cachar." (Bhattacharjee 1992:393)
  16. ^ "The most famous temple of the Chutiyas was that of Kechaikhati, their primodial female deity.(Dutta 1985:49)
  17. ^ "(S)he [Kesai Khati] was incorporated into the Sanskritized cosmos of goddess tradition and as her tribal attributes were so strong to be denounced as non-Brahminical, her worship continued according to old customs."(Gogoi 2011:236)
  18. ^ Kakati (1989), pp. 62–63:"(D)uring the reign of king Gaurinath Singh (1780 - 1795), when the Chutiya priests harried by the Burmese invaders abandoned their ancient possessions in the vicinity of the temple. According to the Deori priests the downfall of the Ahoms was largely due to the neglect of this religious rite"
  19. ^ "Towards the north of the Lohit River is the Nang Hoo Toungh territory. The third phi muang is, as the prefix "nang" (lady) indicates, a female divinity. The territory it is said to protect is more easily identifiable than that of the two-previous phi muangs. Nang Hoo Toungh is known in Assamese as Kesakhati ("person who eats raw meat")."(Laine 2019:17–18)
  20. ^ (Sircar 1973:21)
  21. ^ "Sadiya - Tourism, History, Culture and other facts". Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  22. ^ Hanney, S.F. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal p. 468.
  23. ^ Tripathy, Byomakesh; Dutta, Sristidhar (8 February 2008). Religious History of Arunachal Pradesh. Gyan Publishing House. ISBN 9788121210027 – via Google Books.

References

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  • Shin, Jae-Eun (2023), Kecaikhaiti, Eater of Raw Flesh: A Profile of the Multifaceted Goddess in the North-East, Manohar Publishers & Distributors
  • Sircar, D.C (1973), "Journal of Ancient Indian History", Journal of Ancient Indian History, 6
  • Bhattacharjee, J. B. (1992), "The Kachari (Dimasa) state formation", in Barpujari, H. K. (ed.), The Comprehensive History of Assam, vol. 2, Guwahati: Assam Publication Board, pp. 391–397
  • Gogoi, Kakoli (2011). "Envisioning Goddess Tara: A Study of the Tara Traditions in Assam". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 72: 232–239. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44146715.
  • Dutta, Sristidhar (1985), The Mataks and their Kingdom, Allahabad: Chugh Publications
  • Neog, Maheswar (1977). "Light on a Ruling Dynasty of Arunachal Pradesh in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries". Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 58/59: 813–820. ISSN 0378-1143. JSTOR 41691751.
  • Kakati, Banikanta (1989), The Mother Goddess Kamakhya, Guwahati: Publication Board
  • Laine, Nicolas (2019), Phi Muangs. Forces of the Place among the Khamti in Arunachal Pradesh
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Media related to Tamresari Temple at Wikimedia Commons

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