Tamreswari Temple
Non-Hindu temple in India
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Tamreswari temple (also Dikkaravasini) was a historical temple for the tribal goddess called Kecaikhati,[3] situated about 18 km away from Sadiya in Tinsukia district, Assam, India.[4] Francis Hamilton listed Dikkarvasini at Sadiya among the three especially notable temples of Assam, together with those at Nilachal and Koliabar.[5] The shrine was held in particular reverence by the hill peoples of the eastern region and was aptly called the "Eastern Kamakhya."[6] The temple was in the custody of non-Brahmin tribal priests called Deoris (formerly a priestly class of Chutias).[7][8]
| Tamreswari Temple | |
|---|---|
| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Ethnic religion |
| District | Tinsukia district |
| Deity | Kechai-Khati/Pishasi (tribal goddess)[1][2] |
| Location | |
| Location | Sadiya |
| State | Assam |
| Country | India |
 Interactive map of Tamreswari Temple | |
| Architecture | |
| Style | stone, porphyritic granite and bricks |
| Creator | Chutia people |
Some remains suggest that a Chutia king built a brick-cum-stone boundary wall in the year 1442.[9][10] 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.[11] The temple was dedicated to Kechaikhati/Pishasi (kechai means raw and khati means eat), a powerful tribal deity or the Buddhist deity Tara,[12] commonly found among different Bodo-Kachar groups.[a] The worship of the goddess even after coming under Hindu influence was performed according to her old tribal customs.[21] The temple was located on the right (western) bank of the river Paya and ruins of a Shiva temple still exist, opposite to it, on the left (eastern) bank.[22]
Under Ahom rule, the cult of Tamreswari retained a close association with kingship and the welfare of the state. The four chief Deoris annually attended the Ahom court to obtain the king's sanction for human sacrifice and were accorded exceptional ceremonial respect.[23] According to some Buranji traditions, when Pratap Singha lay dying in 1641, people reportedly offered sacrifices of one hundred men to the Ai ("Mother Goddess") of Sadiya in an attempt to prolong his life; Shin identifies this deity as probably Kecaikhati of the Tamreswari Temple.[24][25] The temple was abandoned during the reign of Gaurinath Singha (1780 - 1795), when the Ahom kingdom was attacked by the Konbaung dynasty of Burma.[26]
Stone inscription
The stone inscription found in the temple reads:[27]
“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) and other materials(Adi) by the son Mukta Dharmanarayan of the old Chutia king (name not specified) in the Saka year 1364 (1442 AD).
The name Tamresari
The wall and doors of the temple were very 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.[28]
Goddess
The Kalika Purana places the Kamarupa pitha of Dikkaravasini to the east of the river Vrishodaka and near the river Sitaganga, also called Svarnadi.[29] Some writers have tentatively identified these with the Dibang and Diphu rivers west of Tamreswari, respectively, interpreting Vrishodaka as a broad or water-filled river and Sitaganga as a “white river”.
The presiding goddess of the Tamreswari temple is referred to in different sources as Kechai Khaiti, Tamreswari and Dikkaravasini. The Archaeological Survey of India identifies the temple as a shrine of Dikkaravasini; the reported inscription from the temple records the construction of a wall of Dikkaravasini by Mukta Dharmanarayana.[30] The shrine was also known as the Kechai Khaiti Sal.[31] The goddess has also been associated with the Dikkaravasini of the Kalika Purana. The Kalika Purana refers to Tamreswari as Dikkaravasini, and describes her as manifesting in two forms: a fierce form called Ugratara or Tikshna-kanta, and a gentler form called Sri or Lalita-kanta.[32][33] Dikkaravasini, in her Lalitakanta aspect identified with Mangalachandika, is two-armed, displays the varada and abhaya mudras, and is seated on a red lotus.[34]
The Kalika Purana also records the use of silk in the worship of deities in the shrine. As per the text, while worshipping the deities at the Dikkarvasini pitha, red, yellow and white Kausheya (meaning wild silk, probably Muga) were used to drap the idols of the presiding deities of the temple.[35][36][37] It is known that Muga, in olden times, was available in yellow(natural), white(Mejankari muga) and often dyed red with lac.[38]
Human sacrifice
Kechai Khaiti was worshipped by the Chutias with the assistance of their tribal priests, the Deoris. E. A. Gait described the Chutia worship of Kali-like goddesses as being performed not by Brahmanas, but by their own Deori priests, and identified Kechai Khaiti as the favourite form of the deity to whom human sacrifices were offered.[39]
The Kalika Purana associates the worship of Dikkaravasini's fierce Tikshnakanta form with human sacrifice. It states: “O king! wine among the drinks, human sacrifice among the sacrifices are recommended as supreme”, and subsequently names sweetmeat, coconut, meat, curry and sugarcane among the offerings favoured by Tikshnakanti.[40]
Architecture
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.[41] The same Buranji also records the height of the temple at 18 feet (5.5 meters).[42] In 1848, when Dalton visited the site, he found a stone structure, but the copper roof was already removed. Subsequently, the site was visited by various explorers and historians like T. Bloch, S.F. Hannay and D. Mitra.
S. F. Hannay's 1848 report
Major S. F. Hannay described the Tamreswari or Copper Temple in his 1848 report on ancient remains near Sadiya. He identified the shrine with Buchanan's "Eastern Kamaykya" and stated that it stood on the right bank of a small stream known to the Assamese as Dol or Dewal Pani. Hannay distinguished this stream from the Dikharu (present-day Digaru river), although he noted that it received several tributaries from that river before joining the Brahmaputra. He placed the temple about 8 miles inland from Sunpura in a north-eastern direction, Sunpura itself being about 10 miles east of Kundil Mukh. By the time of his visit, the old routes to the shrine had become difficult to follow because the area was covered by dense jungle and crossed by many streams.[43]
Hannay recorded that the temple stood close to the right bank of the Dolpani stream, in the midst of a dense forest. The interior of the shrine was a square of about 8 feet, while the walls were about 4½ feet thick, except at the front where there were two recesses on each side of the doorway. The doorway was formed of three entire blocks of stone, and the outer wall enclosed a square of about 17 feet. Except for the lintel and the sides of the doorway, the four walls were plain both inside and outside. At a height of about 10 feet above the basement, Hannay observed a slightly fluted stone projection forming a cornice. Above this, he suggested, there may have been about 2 feet more of wall on which the roof rested.[44]
On the roof, Hannay noted several long pieces of stone which had fallen inside the shrine. He suggested that these may have formed eight groins supporting the roof, with the intermediate spaces filled by thin slabs. He further stated that the whole roof had probably been covered with sheets of beaten copper, laced together through copper loops fastened on the edges of the sheets. Since the stone groins were only about 5 or 6 feet long, he inferred that the roof must have been rather flat. A carved vase-shaped block lying in the river was thought by him to have formed the centre of the dome. Inside the shrine, he recorded two lingas placed in the middle of a large stone, accessible by a descent of a few steps from the doorway. From holes at the top and bottom on each side of the doorway, he inferred the former presence of a folding door, either of stone or wood.[45]
Hannay considered the architectural style ancient, but thought the standing building itself may have been repaired comparatively later because he found a thin layer of brick soorkee or mortar between the rows of masonry. He also noted marks of iron fastenings which had completely decayed.[46]
The main body of the shrine, except the doorway, door-lintel sides and projecting wall on each side, was built of coarse grit stone. Hannay described the blocks as averaging about one foot thick and 18 inches long, smoothly chiselled, evenly fitted and closely joined. The three blocks forming the doorway, each about 7½ feet long and 2 feet by 18 inches in girth, together with the blocks of the projecting wall, were described as reddish porphyritic granite of great hardness. He observed that their chiselling, made with pointed tools in straight lines, gave the stone a ribbed appearance.[47]
The temple complex was nearly aligned with the cardinal points, with the doorway of the shrine facing west. Hannay described an outer enclosure wall rising from the right bank of the stream on the eastern side. This enclosure was a substantial brick wall, about 4½ feet thick and 8 feet high, built on a foundation of rudely cut sandstone blocks. The main entrance of the enclosure was on the western face, where a stone gateway and door had once stood. Nearby lay a carved lintel decorated on its edge with a chain of lotus flowers, together with ornamented small pillars. Hannay also recorded a stone elephant near the doorway, which he thought had probably stood on the small pillars; its tusks were said to have been of silver. The block from which the elephant was carved measured about 4 feet in length, 2 feet in height and 18 inches in breadth. He further noted another stone gateway at the south-eastern corner of the enclosure, leading to the stream.[48]
In the bed of the stream near the south-eastern gateway, Hannay observed several carved and plain blocks of granite and sandstone. Among them was a triangular, weather-worn granite block bearing symbols, some of which he thought resembled characters of the ancient Nagari alphabet, while others appeared to him to be symbolic marks of a particular era and people. He also found marks on blocks lying in the river, in the foundation of the enclosure wall, and on the elephant, which he considered possibly connected with the sect of the masons or builders.[49]
In front of the temple, Hannay found several round granite plates sunk level with the ground, on which offerings were said to have been placed. Opposite the doorway was a small brick terrace with a low wall on three sides. He observed that the outer enclosure wall was then in a tolerable state of preservation and that brick tiles, about 14 inches square, were set along the inside of both the eastern and western faces. These tiles bore high-relief figures, including a caparisoned horse, a warrior in a high conical cap, Hanuman, a fabulous horse and tree, two peacocks fighting, one bird preying on another, and floral designs of lotus, champa and nagasur. Hannay thought that the wall and its embellishments were coeval with what he considered the second building of the temple, about 400 years before his time.[50]
Hannay attributed the ruined condition of the structure partly to the dense jungle that had grown around and upon it, since trees and shrubs taking root in the walls would have displaced the stones and caused the roof to fall. He also noted a local explanation that the dilapidation had been caused by an earthquake about five years earlier, assisted by wild elephants rubbing against the walls and tearing down shrubs from the upper parts of the structure.[51]
T. Bloch's 1905 report
T. Bloch of the Archaeological Survey, Bengal Circle, visited the Copper Temple and the ruins of Bhishmaknagar near Sadiya in 1905. He described the Copper Temple as standing in the south-western section of a rectangular area enclosed by a brick wall measuring about 218 by 139 feet. The surviving stone shrine itself was only a little over 10 feet square, and Bloch therefore concluded that it could not have been the principal building within the enclosure. He suggested that the brick wall had enclosed "some sort of a palace or fort", the other buildings of which had disappeared.[52]
Bloch recorded that the temple was then in a ruined condition, with only part of the walls standing, the roof entirely gone, and a large tree growing over the debris. He observed that the doorway was in the northern wall and that the lintel contained two figures of Mahadeva. He also suggested that the roof was probably pyramidal, as in similar small temples. The stones of the temple were described as pale-pink and greyish-green; E. Vredenburg of the Geological Survey identified the former as fine-grained granite and the latter as impure sandstone.[53]
Bloch further noted a few lines of brick walls to the north of the Copper Temple. He described the large enclosure wall as being built of very fine bricks and stated that the wall was about 3 feet thick. Inside three faces of the enclosure wall, except the eastern face, he found a line of carved tiles placed at intervals of about 3 feet. The tiles bore carvings of human figures, animals, birds, flowers and geometrical patterns. In the north-eastern section of the enclosed area, Bloch found the remains of two stone pillars consisting of octagonal bases and hemispherical capitals. The bases measured about 2 feet 6 inches in diameter and contained circular hollows, while the capitals measured about 2 feet 4 inches across at the base and were pierced by hollow shafts. Bloch particularly noted the serpent decoration, describing how near the bottom of the capitals "a pair of snakes biting their tails" was twisted around each pillar.[54] Near the lower portion of each capital was a pair of intertwined serpents biting their tails.[54] East of the enclosure wall, among further ruins of brick and stone buildings, he found three statues of Hindu deities, which he identified as Surya, Kali dancing on Shiva, and probably Sarasvati.[54] The combination of an octagonal stone form and serpent imagery is also found on the Sadiya Serpent Pillar, another archaeological monument of the Sadiya region.
D Mitra's 1956 report
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.[55]