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The village was suddenly abandoned  and shifted downstream..
the Gorsam Stupa
 
 

the scariest  Hindu deity in  Assam is not Kali or
Bhairav Shiva ...
Grotesque Lion Man
 
 

For the dwellers of Ancient India, both Assam and the Brahmaputra denoted fear and divinity..
The river of faith
 
 

Bull, bull and more bulls, but would someone clarify..
Nandis of Assam
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Equally revered by both the religions, the temple is located on a slight hillock called Manikuta and can be reached only by climbing a lengthy flight of stone steps. Below is a large pond called  Apurnabha, which has a number of huge tortoises, and anyone bathing there is supposed to be freed from the cycle of re-birth. The Haya-Griva Madhav temple, has a very curious legacy, and the legends attributed to it are as controversial as those of the identity of it's deity, as in both the religions, they are absolutely different entities. 

The Hindu  tradition as per the  Kalika Purana  (9-11th century CE), asserts that the God Haya-Griva  which means "Horse-necked" in Sanskrit, is a lesser known form of God Vishnu, who took this form to kill the Fever demon Jvarasura  on the Manikuta hill. After the fight, a feverish Vishnu took a bath and hence the  Apurnabha  tank was formed.
 The Haya-Griva form, however suffers from an identity crises, as the Kalika  Purana  on two other instances calls the deity a demon. On one page it says that the  Jagatpathi   ( lord of the world- it's not clear whether it denotes Shiva or Vishnu ) destroyed the demon  Haya-Griva  in Viswanatha, while on another, that Haya-Griva was the demon guard of the eastern gate of the mythical King Narakasur's kingdom.

Yogini Tantra  (another  mediavel Tantric text pertaining mostly to Eastern India ), on the other hand, offers no accounts about this form of  Vishnu, but claims that the statue in the temple, is made from the same piece of wood as the statue of Jaganath of Puri in the state of  Orrisa. The tale is evidently of recent synthesis, dating not earlier then the post medieval period, and was probably aimed at legitimising the Vaishnav presence in the shrine. Besides, the statues inside are made of stone.

While it is difficult to ascertain the identity of Haya-Griva in Hinduism, a deity of the same name and similiar description, occupies a high tutelary rank in the Tibetan Buddhist Tantric pantheon. Known in Tibetan as  rTa-mgrin  Tam-Din , the deity was originally, one of the demon deities of the Bon-po religion which proliferated in greater Tibet ( including the territory of modern Ladakh, Sikkim and Bhutan ), before the advent of Buddhism. 
PadmaSambhava , the Indian Tantric adept who brought Buddhism to Tibet was supposed to have subdued him and converted him into a Dharmapala, or the protector of the Dharma. Considered to be the protector of horses and horsemen, he is supposed to equal Buddha himself , when he takes the form of  Yi-dam

The thousand of Tibetans and Bhutanese pilgrims who come on a pilgrimage to this temple every winter, however don't come here to worship Haya-Griva Tam-din.  For them Hajo is the sacred ground, where Buddha attained  Maha Parinirvana was cremated. They believe that the  Haya-Griva Madhava  temple which they call  rTsa-mchg-gron  ( Tsam-cho-dun ) is a Samadhi (Chortem) of Buddha, while the  Neta Dhubunir Pat Sil,  a rocky area a few kilometers away, is considered to be the " Sil-wa tsal-gi tur do " or " the pyre of the cool grove", the place where he died and was cremated. The incidence of a very old Tibetan inscription carved out on a rock, saying "Om Mani Padme Hum", near the place, along with a strange shaped rock called the Maha Muni's butter ball, which supposedly had slipped out of his hand when he died, together illucidate a once strong Tibetan Buddhist presence in the area.

So high is the veneration for Hajo among the Tibetan Lamas,  that they have even collected  soil and rocks from here and placed them in four places in Tibet, for the benefit of the pilgrims who are unable to visit the real place. Two of them exist near Lhasa,  the third  lies near Tashi-linpo, while the fourth in Sel-brag. The other Hindu shrines of Hajo,  are also included in their pilgrimage, and considered  to  be holy Buddhist sites. The ancient Kedarnath temple, a Shaivaite shrine which is located on the shoulder of a steep hill nearby,  and is the only  all stone temple to be still standing in Assam, also figures prominently in the Buddhist pilgrim's itinerary. And the lake beside the temple had been dubbed the "Tso-mani bhadra" or "the lake of the notable jem". 

The basis of the strange legend, which lies behind this phenomenon has perplexed a number of scholars, as Gautama Buddha is recorded to have died in Kushinagar. A place which some believe to be  in the Gorakhpur district in eastern part of the North Indian state  of Uttar Pradesh, while others deem it to be situated on the bank of river   in the neighbouring state of Bihar, near the border of Nepal. There are also no indications that Buddha ever visited the territory of ancient Assam, let alone die here. However the insistence of the Tibetan, Bhutanese, Ladakhi and earlier, even the South Chinese Buddhists, that Buddha died in Hajo, is being instrumental in giving birth to a number of theories to this effect, some of which seem plausible, while others way-out and improbable.

Pioneer Tibetologist Dr. Waddell, the only academician to carry out an extensive study of  this legend, suggested that an area near Hajo might be erroneously considered by the Tibetan Lamas as the actual Kushinagar, and he identified the nearby town of  Sualkuchi  as the cause of this lapse. He tried to correlate the word   with  as Buddha is believed to have died in between two Sal trees, and    to Kushinagar. However, the learned scholar was apparently unaware, that  Sualkuchi  was, known a Sial-Kuchi  till the eighteenth century,   meaning Jackals and   coming from the Sanskrit word  Konchi , meaning group or gathering.  Moreover the large number of villages in Assam, having the name  , for example, Patasarkuchi, Sangkuchi, Kahikuchi, etc. make Dr. Waddell's theory, somewhat ludicrous.

Another theory, which has gained prominence,  and has a number of adherent supporters, is that Hajo might be the last resting place of PadmaSambhava, the Indian Tantric mystic who is reputed to have converted the area of Greater Tibet into Buddhism. 

PadmaSambhava or Guru Rinpoche Pemajung, also known as Guru Ugyan Guru Grgyan , went to Tibet from the province of Uddiana in Swat now located in Pakistan, in 747 CE. He was invited by the Tibetan King  Khri-Srong-Lder-btan  (Trishona Dretsen) upon the suggestion of  Santarakshita , an Indian Buddhist monk, who went there earlier, to spread the Buddhist doctrine. The prevalent religion at that time in Tibet was Bon-po, which was an animistic, demon worshipping Shamanic faith. 
Santarakshita, who was a learned scholar from the Nalanda University, was definitely not equipped for the task of converting demon worshipers and their clergy, and so summoned PadmaSambhava. Not much is known about the activities of PandmaSambhava in Tibet, except that he was a miracle maker and a demon fighter and a led a very unconventional life for a Buddhist adept. He traversed the entire territory of Tibet,  Sikkim and Bhutan and is credited to have subdued all the demons of the older religion and established the Law of Buddha in the land.

Most of the records of his deeds are found in the  "Padma thang-yig"  or the Padma scrolls and the  "bKa-thang sde-inga"  or the Fivefold scrolls. But as both the chronicles were compiled only in around 1400 CE, one can expect a large amount of fabrication and fantasy to have crept into these records, during the six hundred years in between his visit, and them being written.   Even though he is reputed to have stayed in Tibet  for fifty years and left only in 802 CE, PadmaSambhava's stay there was brief, and he had to flee as he ran into foul weather with the Bon-po priests and their powerful followers in the court. The claim of the fifty years stay is also nulified by the legends of his departure, according to which King  Trishona Dretsen
  personally escorted him upon his departure, but the King himself expired in 786 CE. Nothing  definite is known about PadmaSambhavas subsequent whereabouts.

The popularity of Buddhism grew in Tibet, and PadmaSambhava  became a legend, as well as one of the supreme deities of the land, specially among the  Ngnima-pa  or the ancient unreformed  Red hat sect.
 He is also considered to be both an  incarnation of the Sakyamuni (Gutama Buddha) and the Amitabhva Buddha (Buddha of the eternal light) himself, as according to the Mahayana and the Vajrayana doctrine, different forms of which, are widespread in Tibet, anyone reaching complete realisation is considered to have attained Buddhahood, and is hence known as one.

Coming back to Hajo, a number of factors seem to provide for a distinct possibility that PadmaSambhava breathed his last here.  The theory that he arrived in Assam via Bhutan, is based on the fact, that at the time of departure from Tibet, he is supposed to have said that he was returning to  Jambudvip  ; one of the mythological names denoting India. Records say that he was last seen in  Gungthang-la , near  Mangyul 
 Northern Tibet, where he was supposed to have ascended a rainbow and disappear. The assonance of 
Mangyul  to Mongol, seems to indicate that he was near the border with Mongolia or more likely that of the modern province of Inner Mongolia in the north eastern part of the country. Though a considerable  distance, the shortest route from there to the Indian plains, is via the age old trade route leading from Assam to Tibet via eastern Bhutan.

The large number of holy places there, attributed to his visit, also confirm his passing through the Himalayan kingdom. Devanagiri or Deothang, the easternmost gate of ancient Bhutan and the start of a mountain pass into Tibet, lies due north of Hajo which stands right on the way from there to  the river Brahmaputra. As the only mode of travel from this region to the other parts of India, was via the Brahmaputra, it is only logical to assume that travelers coming from Bhutan or Tibet and proceeding via ancient  Assam, would have to pass through the town, on their way to the river.

Secondly, in a mythical statement attributed to PadmaSambhava before his departure, he said that he was returning to  Jambudvip , to the east of which lies  Lankapuri . The name Lankapuri  ,  means the city of 
, is not to be confused with  the more familiar  Lankadvip , which denotes modern Sri Lanka. This prompts the question if he was referring to an area in the Nowgaon district of modern Assam, near the Jamuna and the Kapili valleys, which was an ancient seat of civilization, with the same name, references to which, are found in numerous ancient texts. The theory however is not without a few pitfalls, and should not be considered as very credible, for there is a strong possibility that it might prove itself as baseless as Dr. Waddell's  Kushinagar.

Lastly, among the many names, which the Tibetans and the Bhutanese call the main idols in the temple, the more prominent are, Munir Muni Maha Muni, Namo Guru etc. and one of the subsidary statues is called Guru Urgyan. The first two names, emphasize the fact, that the deity was a teacher and one who had attained Buddhahood, while the third name is one of the names of  PadmaSambhava. 

Searching for physical traces of  Buddhist or Tibetan influences in the temple and it's near vicinity is a challenging task. Nothing is known about the builders of the ancient rock temple which stood here earlier, and  had broken down. The present temple had been rebuilt by the Koch King Ragunarayan Deva  in 1583 CE, who as per the inscription placed  in the temple, discovered it lying in ruins and covered with a jungle.

 Apart from the plinth and certain sections of the lower level of the structure, no part of the ancient temple is now existing, as a result, it is  very difficult to ascertain it's original design. An interesting thing about the surviving sections, is that they bear absolutely no structural resemblance to any other temple of this region, and  are  almost identical to those of the Kailash temple in Ellora in the state of Maharashtra in western India, thus  helping in dating the construction to approximately 800 CE, a time which correlates well to that of PadmaSambhava's eventual death, and in erecting a Samadhi. 
Although the Kalilash temple is a Hindu shrine, it's design carries a distinct Buddhist influence, as it was built at a time and in a place where Buddhism was flourishing. It is quite possible that  the artisans and masons who were entrusted with the building of the  Haya Griva  temple were imported from such Buddhist pockets. 

Hien-Tsang  the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim who visited India in the middle of the 7th century CE,  and came upto ancient Assam, left no account of any temple in Hajo, thus in a way endorsing  the shrine as a post 7th century effort. 
It is also impossible to identify the main idol inside the temple, as the Hindu priests zealously keep it covered with a cloth, and the only visible portion, the face, looks like a mask  resembling  the face of the Jaganath idol in Puri. Those who have seen the idol claim that it is heavily mutiliated and nothing positive could be identified, apart that it is made from stone.
What also speaks in favour of the idea that the temple might have originally belonged to  the Buddhists, is that almost all the statues of Hindu Gods and the Dasa Avatars ( ten avatars of Vishnu ), on the walls of the rebuilt temple are very crude and stylistically discordant with those of the surviving older structure. Besides most of them are not carved from granite and metamorphic quartzite, the stone used in the older  section, but from sandstone, and at times brick and mortar, thus indicating that they are post renovation additions, dating to the later medieval Koch and the Ahom period. Moreover  the tradition of carving statues from Sandstone was never very popular in Assam, and as those found on the temple walls and in the compound are portable in nature, they must have been brought in from elsewhere.

A number of other unexplained traces of Buddhism in the neigbouring areas, which were always a predominantly Hindu belt are also noticable. Apart from the temples of Hajo, and the various  remains of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition there, the present Siddheswar temple in Sualkuchi, which lies nine miles south of Hajo on the bank of Brahmaputra, contains a diverse collection of statues, a  number of  which are mysteriously of Buddhist origin, and reflecting a strong Sino-Tibetan  influence.
The total lack of any records about the advent of PadmaSambhava's death, as we ll as the construction of the original  Haya griva  temple, leave us to a lot of guesswork and theories. It is difficult to ascertain if it was originally a Buddhist shrine, and if so how come it was taken over by the Hindus. Was it because Buddha was embraced into the Hindu pantheon, and designated an incarnation of Vishnu, or was it because of a lack of a strong Buddhist power in the vicinity. 

But, what we can believe as the near truth, is that an enlightened teacher of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, left his mortal body in Hajo, and it is quite likely that his original followers, had a hand in building the original  Haya-Griva Madhava  temple, and their  descendants, till today are still venerating him. 
And as their religious doctrine says, that anyone attaining self-realisation, becomes a Buddha, it won't be erroneous of us, to embrace their belief, that it is the place where Buddha attained Maha Parinirvana.