| DURGA PUJA & The Assam Connection |
I was born and brought up in the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam and I’ve spent almost all the October months of my childhood & youth in festivity. I remember how desperately I awaited Durga Puja vacations. I also remember observing Durga idols being beautifully sculptured out of earthen clay and admired the artists brilliance at painting it. The Pre-Puja preparations with ropes, bamboo sticks, fabric etc. to set the pandal right involved so much of hard-work. We hopped in pandals of various places with family & friends to see how one area’s Puja decorations and lighting was so different from the other. Religious mornings and cultural evenings kept us busy for all the four days. The heavy footfall at the Devi Visarjan in the Brahmaputra River was spellbound.
I feel nostalgic about it and often narrate stories of my fun filled days of Durga Puja in Assam to people I meet. On most occasions I’m questioned “How come you have stories of worshipping Durga idols in giant decorative pandals & associated festivity just like the Bengalis? Isn’t that supposed to be a typical Kolkata affair?” On many such situations, I have smiled and tried giving a short hand explanation thatwe in Assam worship Her the same way as they do in Bengal. But, I was never able to put forward a comprehensive paragraph. The problem is that media tells us- if Ganpati is to Mumbai, Durga is to Kolkata, nothing beyond that. Little stories of ‘not-so-mainstream India’ are often unheard and unshared. Today as I sit here penning down this little piece of text, I wish to express my homeland Assam’s connection with Durga Puja-a story little known to masses.
The fact that Durga worship has its deep origin in Bengal in unquestionable. But it would be interesting to know that today if you happen to visit Assam during this time of the year, you will pinch yourself twice to confirm your presence in Assam and not in Kolkata. It is because people in Assam celebrate the Sharadiya Durga Puja with same grandeur and delight as in West Bengal. Now the question is how come Assam is so influenced with such a practice. Is it the state’s close geographical proximity with Bengal or is it the higher Bengali population in the state ?
Well, the actual reason dates back to history & has a deep historical relevance. The Ahoms (of Ahom Kingdom who ruled Assam) primary style of worship was- ‘offering prayers to ancestors & seeking blessings’. It is only with the advent of Hinduism that it took to worshiping earthen idols. According to historians, the worship of Durga idol penetrated in Assam as a result of Ahom dynasty’s contact with the Koches (of Koch Kingdom, Now Koch Behar). It was Sukhampha who brought in the art of Durga Puja to Assam. Ahom king Suklenmung’s son and successor Sukhampha (1553-1603 AD) also known as Khora-Raja was at an important conflict with the Koches, then ruled by Koch King Naranarayan. He fought many a battles with the Koches but he and his soldiers faced defeat at the mouths of Dighou & Handia Rivers in Assam. He fled and after months came back to announce peace with the Koches. As part of the peace agreement he was required to give sons of the chief nobles as hostages.
When the Koches left the Ahom capital Garhgaon, Sukhampha came back to his metropolis from his place of retirement and began restoring order & repairing loss. This is when he recovered lost possessions on the north bank of the Brahmaputra, threw the Koch vassalage and ruled independently.This led Naranarayan, the Koch king to send two expeditions against the Ahoms; both faced failure. Meanwhile, the Koches suffered defeat at the hands of Padshah of Gaur. The imprisonment of their general Chilarai diminished the power of the Koch Kingdom. This is the time when they proposed a peaceful alliance with the Ahoms to avert future Mughal attack. King Naranarayan entered a game of dice with Sundar Gohain, leader of the Ahom hostages under captivity. The deal was that if Gohain won, Naranaryan would release all the Ahom hostages. The Koch King was defeated and the hostages were now free to go back. Naranarayan also sent a number of Koch artists with them to the Ahom king, Sukhampha.
It is said that King Sukhampha heard about the Hindu practice of worshiping Durga in adorning Pandals from Sundar Gohain who was under Naranarayan’s captivity. He loved the pomp with which King Naranarayan used to celebrate Durga Puja in Koch. According to chronicles, he brought the Koch artists to Sivasagar or erstwhile Rongpur. This was the first time Durga Puja with earthen idols in was celebrated in Bhatiapara (Sivasagar, Assam) and held for the masses, in addition to the worship in Durga temples. Sukhampha later sent artisans from his kingdom to Koch in order to learn the beautiful craftsmanship of creating earthen images of Durga. His successors carried this form of ‘art of worship’ and Hinduism spread all across the kingdom. From ‘Ahom kingdom’ to present day ‘Assam’, this ‘art of worship’ has only flourished with time.
Events of today are results of little happenings in history. I am happy that Sukhampha and his successors were such lovers of art & culture. Thanks to them that my Fall days went eventful in Assam plus gave me an opportunity to live a different culture. I would like to make just one statement in regard to the Assamese connection with Durga Puja-
With such relations when Assam & Bengal share almost the same script and the same style of worshiping Devi Durga,
my fellow Bengali countrymen- “Ami ekekhon naure jatri |” (We are the same boat brothers.).
This article was published in Tero Parbon’s annual magazine. Here is a glimpse.
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References:
A Comprehensive History of Assam– Swaran Lata Baruah.
Jaba Borgohain (Independent Researcher, Tai Ahom Cultural Heritage).
THE COMPOUND INTEREST 