Guwahati

It is surprising to know that Guwahati was never the capital of Assam, except in prehistoric times of Kamrupa. In modern times when Assam was undivided, it was Shillong, and now when 7 sisters are individual states, the capital of Assam is Dispur. Name also is extremely misleading. Gohatti as it was known in the middle times too connoted family of cows, bulls, and Bison, 'Go' and 'Hatti  meaning elephant. Even it's not derived from Gawa ; a Bison and Hathi ; an elephant but it's a combination of two words, 'Guwa', a betel nut  in Assamese , while 'Hati' comes from the word  Haat, meaning  market place.

Road from Shillong to Guwahati being national highway was really good. It was funny to note that, 40 kms from Shillong there are two country liquor bars on the highway just next to each other, one named 'Bak Bak' and other named 'Wat Wat'. Both meaning in Marathi , Insensible, irrelevant talk, in short 'Blah Blah.' Naturally, after a peg or two who talks sensible, rather that's the permit to talk insensible nonsense !

The major difference between the states we visited so far, was 'Religion.' Assam is predominantly a Hindu state having rich mythological past. Buddhism and Christianity which were common so far, are relegated to even less than 3%. Language too is of mixed origin deriving many words from Prakrit and Bengali. Though it has many words from Bodo and other tribal languages too.
Guwahati is a buzzing city with many notable institutes and is the busiest commercial center of north east, only next to Kolkatta in east. Having its own University, professional colleges and industry,  metropolitan area allows to reside more than 1.2 million people.

Guwahati has so many temples that it is also known as 'City of Temples.' And it reflected in our itinerary of Guwahati too. Tour operators took us to the temples after temples of different gods.

The first stop was 'Balaji temple'. It seemed recently erected so was spic and span clean. Bit away from the hubbub of the city ,  was sparsely crowed probably less believers of this god in Guwahati ! It's serene, peaceful, and quiet abode to Tirupati , an incarnation of Vishnu and is replica of Balaji temple at Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh. Built in alpine white marble you really feel one with the God here , if you are pious enough. It has temples of few other gods/goddesses too, in the perimeter, including that of 'Padmavati',estranged wife of Tirupati,incarnation of goddess Laxmi. It seemed to be managed by the priests from  south, clad in veshti with typical anointment on the forehead.

                                                                                                                                                         Only jarring note was this mechanized drum beat at the entrance of the temple. Not to offend the religious sentiments of anybody but I strongly feel 'Why do Hindu Gods like so much of noise ? Do  they not understand ," if something is asked for softly or that comes from the heart ?  DO THEY HAVE TO BE SPOKEN TO, ONLY IN LOUD  EAR SPLITTING NOISE? " Aaraties too are recited from the top of voice , louder the voice, BETTER the aarati, that's the logic, more popular the devotee he becomes, and once the hysteria sets in then there is nothing to hold back , as there is nothing, that can stop it !, Spoiling the serenity  of entire Mandir, elders giving few words of good advice are treated like dust, exam going students are left in lurch but the sleeping God must be woken up at any cost ! May be Balaji temple at Guwahati is having  shortage of these helping hands, so the mechanical player !

 Exactly opposite was 'Kamakhya Devi' temple on the hills of Nilachal.The devotees thronged the temple in 'N' numbers. Ultimately it was all 'C's. Chaos, Cacophony, Clamor and Crowd, Cleanliness being absent, in big way ! Was I expecting anything otherwise ? Most of the devotees looked low brows [ extremely sorry to say ], probably fearing the Goddess more than loving her.

The road to the main temple was lined on both sides by the shops. They were full with the things normally are offered to the goddess, mainly garish red  cloth interwoven with shiny plastic threads, flowers, garlands, sweets and Haldi Kunku.





As the temple was built and renovated many times some of these scriptures and carvings date back to 8th or 9th century and thus do not have any definite architectural pattern. Along with sanctum sanctorum it has 3 halls built in different eras giving it a hybrid architecture that's now known as Nilachal type.

 This is not the idol of goddess Kamakhya but is the carving on the outer wall. In fact the sanctum of Goddess is at a lower level , in a basement and very dimly lit. Due to the crowd of the devotees I could not even have the glimpse of the goddess. But whatever I gathered afterwards was intriguing. There is no idol of Goddess as such, but there is a stone having features of female genitalia, that's worshiped as goddess.The story that goes, was beyond me, curious ones can look into Wikipedia.

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  It's said that along with the floral offerings the goddess is offered sacrificial animals too. Though we ourselves did not see any animal being sacrificed, these anointed rams were wondering in the temple premises randomly. For someone like me who is enamored by the philosophy of late Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, though I am not an active member of his movement, it was too much to take. For a moment I felt proud for my Maharashtra being more progressive and pragmatic, especially as compared to these northern and north-eastern states, where breaking away from the shackles of religion, tradition and  blind faith seems well nigh impossible. Immediately I came down like a thud, realizing the fact that in same Maharashtra he was killed, and killers are at still at large ! All in all, it seems that ,we Indians are all same, a shade better or worse, here or there ! May be I should take pride in, that Maharashtra at least produced Dr. Dabholkar !. For these states, it might take even centuries, to have some one like him !
A thought just flashed, though I as a person, won't justify it myself. Every devout Hindu offers the food cooked  for any pious, religious occasion first to the God, 'Naivaidyam' before it is consumed by the commons , if a non vegetarian offers his food to the god first and then devours...... ? [ The point to be noted here is, as it is put, most of the time wrongly, India is not a country, Strictly of Vegetarians. Barring Jains and few High caste Brahmans especially from South, practically 65 % of Indians have meat or eggs in their diet at least once or twice in a week ]
When we left the temple, vibes definitely were not positive and the godly feel ... that was light-years ago,  but to every body his own.
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 To top the things, the third visit too was to a temple, Umanand Devaloi , [ Pronunciation so much nearing the Devalay in Marathi] a Shivalay built by some medieval king. Only redeeming factor was a boat ride to the temple as  it is situated in the mid stream Brahmaputra river, on an island known as peacock island





 It is built in 17th century but yet to have properly built up wharves/jetties  on either side for boarding or alighting the boat ! The slope of the bank is steep, slippery and without any handles or bars to climb down with ease !

 And how big is Brahmaputra ! Even though it's not  as wide in Guwahati, the other bank  is just not visible, waters, waters waters every where ! No wonder that it is referred to as Male in the rivers.







Though the island  is having lot many baboons, this one seemed docile and accepted offerings from the tourists without making any fuss. On the contrary  he was accepting the gifts gladly and unlike the baboon, politely ! [ that is, not snatching away from the hands of the tourist !]

Some extra enthu tourist like her even had photograph with him and surprisingly the baboon too gave it with a pose like seasoned model !

A short cursory visit to the local shopping market at 'Ambari' in Guwahati, in the evening brought full stop to our daftly executed tour of 3 sisters Arunachal, Assam and Meghalaya out of 7,[ Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland Manipur, being the remaining ones] by Veena World, more about it , directly on Facebook. Later ! But in essence it definitely was memorable experience !
THE END !