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Storied Assam

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The collective pen of Storied Assam: pages researched, written and kept current by the editorial team.

Young women in red-and-cream mekhela sador dancing in a ring in a village yard, with male drummers at the edge
Community

The Assamese (Asamiya)

The caste-Hindu Assamese mainstream: the composite, Assamese-speaking community that forms the demographic and cultural core of the valley.

Dark bronze seated statue of Sukaphaa holding a sheathed sword across his lap, in a Tai tunic and ridged conical crown, with tea-garden trees behind
Community

Tai-Ahom

The Tai-speaking community whose crossing of the Patkai under Sukaphaa in 1228 founded the Ahom kingdom; today Assamese-speaking, with the Tai-Ahom language preserved liturgically.

The marble-floored prayer hall of the Batadrava Than, with a red-draped throne bearing the sacred manuscript at its centre and brass ceremonial lamps to either side
Faith

Neo-Vaishnavism (Ekasarana Dharma)

The bhakti reform that founded Assam's distinctive Vaishnava tradition, the sattra institution, and a literary, musical, dramatic and visual culture that has shaped the valley for five hundred years.

The Kamakhya temple complex lit at night: a cream-and-gold mandapa with a red-banded base in front, dark stone beehive shikharas of the sanctum and subsidiary shrines rising behind, stone steps descending at left
Faith

Saktism

The goddess-worship tradition of the Kamakhya peetha, one of the oldest and most important Sakta sites in South Asia, and the tantric currents that have shaped religious practice across the region for at least two millennia.

A young man in a Bihu gamosa headband playing the pepa, a buffalo-horn pipe, in close-up, with a woman dancer in red Bihu costume posed behind him in a field
Festival

Rongali Bihu (Bohag Bihu)

The spring festival of Assam. Seven days of dance, songs, new clothes, and the gamosa. Marks the Assamese new year and the start of the sowing season.

A tall conical thatch-and-bamboo meji pyre ablaze at dawn in a harvested field, with sparks rising into a dawn sky
Festival

Magh Bihu (Bhogali Bihu)

The harvest festival. Bonfires, feasts, traditional games. The Bihu of the granary.

An earthen lamp burning atop a bamboo pole, sheltered by a folded banana-leaf hood, against the night
Festival

Kati Bihu (Kongali Bihu)

The austere mid-year Bihu. Granaries empty, the new crop not yet in. Earthen lamps in the paddy fields, prayers for the standing crop.

Black-and-white close portrait of an elderly sadhu with a long white beard and weathered face gazing toward the camera at the Ambubachi Mela
Festival

Ambubachi Mela

The tantric pilgrimage festival at Kamakhya. The temple closes for three days when the goddess is said to menstruate.

A solo performer in white-and-gold costume and a pointed crown raises both hands in a graceful gesture under a shaft of stage light against a dark background
Music & dance

Sattriya

The classical dance of the Vaishnava sattras, founded by Sankardev, and one of India's recognised classical dance forms.

A posed group under a tree: two young men in cream kurtas and red-bordered gamosa each carrying a dhol slung at the waist, flanking two women in cream-and-red Bihu dress with hands raised to their hair, while a third man kneeling in front blows a buffalo-horn pepa
Music & dance

Bihu Dance

The exuberant spring folk dance of the Bihu festival, performed to the dhol, pepa, and the Bihu song repertoire.

Four men in white dhotis and white turbans playing two-headed khol drums mid-stride across the floor of a sattra prayer hall in Majuli, devotional paintings of deities mounted on the blue rear wall behind them
Music & dance

Borgeet

The 'great songs' composed by Sankardev and Madhavdev, the devotional lyric core of the neo-Vaishnava musical tradition.

A bhaona stage scene at night: costumed actors in elaborate jewelled armour, crowns and painted faces clash mid-fight, one warrior raising a club, others grappling, all in spangled silver-and-gold dress with mirror-work, garlands and headdresses
Music & dance

Bhaona

The devotional theatre of the neo-Vaishnava sattras: the staging of Sankardev's Ankia Naat one-act plays.

Cream cotton gamosa with a woven red floral and peacock motif and a red-striped border
Craft

The Gamosa

The red-bordered white cloth that is towel, gift, garment, prayer-cloth and the de-facto flag of Assamese identity.

A round phulam japi faced in woven bamboo with a red rim, a green-and-red appliqué star, small mirrors and sequins, set against a deep maroon backdrop
Craft

The Japi

The conical hat of bamboo and tokou-palm leaf, the plain field hat of the cultivator and the gilded phulam japi of welcome and ceremony.

An Assamese lunch on a bell-metal plate with rice, fish, and condiments, beside a banana leaf
Food

Khar and Tenga

The two poles of Assamese cooking: the alkaline khar and the sour tenga, the flavours that frame a meal.

A banana-leaf platter of til pitha, fried tel pitha, golden ghila pitha and white coconut laru beside a red-and-white gamosa
Food

Pitha and the Sweets of Bihu

The rice-flour pithas and the jolpan of the Bihu table, til pitha, ghila pitha, the sweets of the harvest.

Two tea-garden workers in broad woven hats and back-baskets plucking leaves among the tea bushes of an Assam garden
Food

Assam Tea

The strong, malty tea that made Assam famous, the world's largest tea-growing region, and the colonial industry that remade the valley.

Large seated statue of Sukaphaa on a stepped marble plinth, in a blue tunic and golden dhoti, one hand resting on his knee
Figure

Sukaphaa

The Tai prince who crossed the Patkai in 1228 and founded the kingdom that would rule Assam for six centuries.

Figure

Suhungmung (Dihingia Raja)

The Ahom king who annexed the Chutia and beat back the Kacharis and the first Muslim invasions, taking the Hindu title Swarganarayan.

Bronze relief panel of Momai Tamuli Borbarua, the first Borbarua, standing beneath a ceremonial parasol with attendants
Figure

Momai Tamuli Borbarua

The administrator under Pratap Singha who organised the paik labour-and-militia system and created the great offices of state, and the father of Lachit Borphukan.

Black equestrian statue of Lachit Borphukan brandishing a curved sword astride a rearing horse, on a granite pedestal inscribed in Assamese with a carved relief panel below
Figure

Lachit Borphukan

The Ahom commander who broke the Mughal fleet of Aurangzeb's general Ram Singh I at the Battle of Saraighat in 1671.

A tall brick temple with a ribbed, curvilinear spire rising over lower red-brick outbuildings with curved roofs, set behind a mown lawn and hedge under a cloudy sky
Figure

Joymoti

The Ahom princess tortured to death for refusing to betray her fugitive husband. He later became king, and their son dug the great tank of Joysagar in her memory.

Assamese miniature painting of the Ahom king Rudra Singha seated on a throne under a canopy with attendants
Figure

Rudra Singha (Sukhrungphaa)

The Ahom king at the cultural height of the dynasty, who built the new capital at Rangpur and made Sivasagar a city of tanks and temples.

An old iron cannon resting on two brick supports in a museum display, its body bearing an Assamese inscription, with a label reading inscribed cannon of Gadadhar Simha
Figure

Gadadhar Singha (Supatphaa)

The hard, centralising king who ended the late-century anarchy, drove the Mughals from Guwahati at Itakhuli in 1682, and built the Dhodar Ali.

Carved wooden statue of Srimanta Sankardev seated cross-legged within an ornately carved wooden throne with a sunburst halo behind his head, draped in a red-and-white gamosa over a dark floral shawl and holding a small manuscript, on an inscribed carved pedestal
Figure

Srimanta Sankardev

The fifteenth-century saint who founded Assam's neo-Vaishnava (Eka Sarana) movement and, with it, much of modern Assamese culture.

A brass plate of lit oil lamps, marigolds on leaves, and burning incense, an offering during a festival celebration at Hajo
Place

Hajo

Hayagriva Madhava temple, Powa Mecca and Buddhist associations make Hajo a rare confluence of pilgrimage.

The Kamakhya temple complex lit at night: a cream-and-gold mandapa with a red-banded base in front, dark stone beehive shikharas of the sanctum and subsidiary shrines rising behind, stone steps descending at left
Place

Kamakhya Temple

One of the oldest and most revered Shakti peethas, perched above Guwahati on the Nilachal hill, drawing pilgrims from across the subcontinent.

Aerial view of the white-domed Umananda Siva temple and its red-roofed shrines on the wooded Peacock Island, the Brahmaputra surrounding it
Place

Umananda Temple

On Peacock Island in the Brahmaputra opposite Guwahati. The shrine was raised by Ahom king Gadadhar Singha in 1694, on a site of much older Saiva worship.

The red-painted octagonal Siva temple at Basistha, its ribbed polygonal sikhara crowned by a gold finial, framed by trees against a blue sky
Place

Basistha Temple

Mythologically associated with sage Vasistha. The present stone temple was built by Ahom king Rajeswar Singha in 1764 in a wooded gorge where three streams meet.

A crowded country ferry boat in silhouette crossing the Brahmaputra at sunset, the broad river a sheet of molten gold, the Saraighat bridge a faint silhouette on the misty horizon behind
Place

Guwahati

The oldest continuously settled city in the region: capital of ancient Kamarupa, seat of the Kamakhya cult, the river where Saraighat was won, and today the metropolis of the northeast.

The Sivasagar tank with the Ahom temple group rising on its far bank and reflected in the water: the tall curvilinear Sivadol tower on the right, lower companion shrines to the left, the tree-lined raised bank between water and pale sky
Place

Sivasagar

Built around the great excavated tank of the Sivasagar, the seat of the Ahom kingdom in its golden age: the Rang Ghar, the Talatal Ghar, the towering Sivadol, and the royal maidams of Charaideo nearby.

A large brightly painted effigy of Garuda with a crowned eagle head and outstretched green-and-red wings, raised under a festival canopy at Auniati Sattra
Place

Majuli

Vaishnavite monastic culture founded by Srimanta Sankardev in the 16th century. Mask-making, satriya dance, an ecology that shifts with every flood.

A royal maidam at Charaideo — a large grass-covered hemispherical burial mound with a domed brick pavilion on top and a vaulted brick entrance ramp, framed by a row of tall conifers
Place

Charaideo Maidams

The royal necropolis of the Ahom dynasty. Ninety-plus maidams, recently UNESCO-recognised.

Frontal view of the Rang Ghar under a dramatic blue sky with sculptural clouds, the central garden path leading to the arched lower storey across a bright green lawn
Place

Rang Ghar

The two-storied oval pavilion built under Pramatta Singha, from which Ahom royalty watched buffalo fights, dances and games during Rongali Bihu.

Inside a roofless brick chamber of the Talatal Ghar, the broken vault open to a dark cloudy sky, warm light raking the thin Ahom brick walls and a lit doorway at the far end
Place

Talatal Ghar

A seven-storied complex, three below ground, built under Rajeswar Singha as the Ahom army's principal garrison and royal palace.

The tiered brick Kareng Ghar palace at Gargaon seen at night, its receding storeys outlined with rows of festival lamps against a black sky
Place

Kareng Ghar (Garhgaon Palace)

Garhgaon served as the Ahom capital from 1540 under Suklenmung. Its surviving seven-storied brick palace, the Kareng Ghar, is from Rajeswar Singha's rebuilding in 1752.

The Joysagar tank seen across the water to a bankside Ahom dol temple and a low pillared hall, reflected in the great sheet of water
Place

Joysagar Tank

The 318-acre tank dug by Swargadeo Rudra Singha in 1697 in memory of his mother Joymati. Surrounded by Joydol, Devidol and Ghanasyamdol temples.

The towering red-ochre brick spire of the Sivadol at Sivasagar glowing in late-afternoon golden light against a deep blue sky, framed by a tall palm
Place

Sivasagar Sivadol

Built by queen Ambika under Siva Singha. Stands beside Vishnudol and Devidol on the south bank of the great Sivasagar tank.

The brick-red ribbed beehive dome of the Navagraha temple rising above the green slope of Chitrasal hill, with smaller shrines beside it
Place

Navagraha Temple

A Saiva-Sakta temple of the nine celestial bodies on Chitrachal hill, long held to be the seat of astronomy that gave Guwahati its old name, Pragjyotishpura.

A long pitched-roof sattra building with green roof reflected in a still pond at golden hour, framed by trees, no people
Place

Dakhinpat Sattra

One of Majuli's great sattras, founded by Banamalidev under Ahom patronage and known across Assam for its grand Raas Mahotsav.

Whitewashed prayer-hall facade of the Uttar Kamalabari Sattra on Majuli, with an Assamese inscription in the gable, a central doorway and a painted emblem
Place

Kamalabari Sattra

A sattra long regarded as Majuli's centre of culture and learning, and through its Uttar Kamalabari branch the foremost custodian of sattriya dance.

A long illustrated manuscript leaf with rows of Assamese script and painted miniatures of figures and animals within red floral borders, held open for view
Place

Bengenaati Sattra

An early-seventeenth-century sattra holding a remarkable treasury of antiquities, including possessions of Ahom royalty and rare manuscripts.

A long colonnade of yellow square pillars at Auniati Sattra receding to a bright vanishing point, a single distant figure walking down the shaded walkway
Place

Auniati Sattra

Founded under the Ahom king Jayadhwaj Singha, a wealthy and powerful sattra known for its Paalnaam liturgy, apsara dance, and great festival gatherings.

The low tin-roofed prayer hall of Garamur Sattra set among tall trees across a swept earthen courtyard on Majuli
Place

Garamur Sattra

One of Majuli's four principal royal sattras, a centre of Raas and of a notable collection of antique weapons and ceremonial objects.

Large blue ten-headed Ravana mukha mask crowned with smaller faces, standing among unpainted clay masks in the Samaguri workshop on Majuli
Place

Samaguri Sattra

The sattra that has kept alive mukha-shilpa, the bamboo-and-clay mask-making for bhaona theatre, now carried to galleries and stages well beyond the island.

The stone Hayagriva Madhava temple at Hajo, its curved tower carved with relief panels beside the adjoining hall
Place

Hayagriva Madhava Temple

The stone temple on Manikut hill at Hajo, one of the region's oldest Vaishnava shrines, and held by some Buddhist traditions to mark the site of the Buddha's nirvana.

White domed gateway of the Ajan Pir Dargah with an Assamese signboard, the shrine visible through the archway beyond
Place

Ajan Pir Dargah

The riverside shrine near Sivasagar of Ajan Fakir, the seventeenth-century Sufi who composed the Zikir, devotional songs in Assamese, a place of cross-community pilgrimage.

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