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

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

.a section of Bhutanese Buddhists belive that Assam is where Buddha died..
A Search In Hajo
 
 

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

 
 

"Creation, Destruction and Resurrection", are patterns of an average river's cycle, as they supply life giving water, cause devastating floods, and  prepare fertile ground for new habitation in the end. No wonder, rivers in India have always been interwoven with religious mythologies, and scarcely a stream exists without a claim to divinity. 

Among the sacred rivers of the country, none is held holier then the Ganges. Held as a divine manifestation, it's waters are attributed with powers to cleanse ones sins and cure all ailments. The innumerable pilgrimage sites on it's banks from the very source in the Himalayas to it's mouth in the Bay of Bengal, attesting it's revered position. 

While the Ganges has become almost synonymous with Hinduism, there flows another river in India which has proved itself  to be of  no less importance to the faith. The only major male holy river of India, the mighty Brahmaputra or the son of Brahma, had played a pivotal role in the religion from the earliest of times. 
Unlike the Ganga, which in itself is the object of veneration, the Brahmaputra and its tributaries  served the faithful by offering them  a passage to the hundreds of shrines and temples of  ancient Assam, a land known for it's Tantric heritage.
 Pragjyotisha or Kamarupa, as ancient Assam was known, was a little known mysterious region. Covered by dense sub-tropical jungles and swamps, with the only entry into its confines by the way of high  mountain passes in the north and east, and the Brahmaputra in the west. 

In this semi isolated state there arose within it's precincts a distinctive Hindu civilisation, which flourished from the 4th to the 13th century, during which a number of  large cities and considerable rock temples were built. The religion practiced here also differed from the mainstream Hinduism  proliferating elsewhere. Thus, the early Vaishnav cult of Vasudeva prospered  in ancient Assam way up to the eleventh century long after it had died out in the rest of the country and Tantrism in both it's Hindu and Buddhist guises, developed many of it's distinctive  forms here. While various historical treaties often described the natives of the region as Sun or Surya worshipers. 

Gauging from the carvings on rocks and stone blocks of ancient temples, a remarkable attribute of  Hinduism in ancient Assam was the uncommon convergence of Shiva-Shakti worship with Vaishnavism into a unified stream. However, it was the Shaktic traditions of the land, whose reputation went far beyond it's boundaries  that was responsible for dubbing the area as "the land of Tantra-Mantra". 
A glorious reminder of the ancient Tantric tradition, the large shrine of the Mother Goddess Kamakhya in Guwahati, whose origins are traced to the 4-6th century CE still stands, albeit in a highly repaired and renovated state. 

Studying the remnants of the hundred of ancient temples which dot the Assamese landscape, there is a possibility that there may have been a regular riverine traffic of pilgrims who came on boats from the other parts of the subcontinent during the early medieval period. An assumption also supported by the Tantric opus  Kalika Purana , the oldest remaining text dealing with India's eastern region,  believed to be compiled in the 9-10th century CE.

Though revolving around a supposed conversation in between Shiva and Parvati, as narated by the mythical Sage Markayenda, a major section of it consists of  descriptions of the ancient holy places of the region. Mentioned are the attributes of various temples, the adjacent topography and the riverine route for reaching there; for the only mode of transportation in ancient Assam was via water, and the rivers served as highways linking one settlement to another. The tract covered in the  Kalika Purana  spans the entire Brahmaputra valley from the western to the easternmost boundaries of the region, and among the numerous places cited, it specifically names fifteen places as sacred to Shiva, five to the Devi and Vishnu respectively, which include temples, shrines, hills and Kundas  or ponds.

Many of these places like the  Kamakhya  temple or Bishwanath  are easily identified, while others like eastern Dikkaravassini area's  Vasudeva  Temple, the  Urvasi Kunda  or the  Agni Pahar   have disappeared, the casualties of the pernicious actions of nature and time. 

Attempting to visualise and study the topography as per the descriptions of the Kalika Purana  to locate the missing shrines is a near impossible task, as countless rivers have changed courses and numerous hills have been leveled by earthquakes. But, comparing all the early medieval archeological sites of ancient cities and temples of Assam, with the recognized places described in the  Kalika Purana , a feature common to all of them, is their near vicinity to the Brahmaputra or one of it's tributary rivers.

Ruins of at least three major ancient cities of the pre-medieval and early medieval periods, had been located on the banks of the Brahmaputra in Assam. The one believed to be the earliest is in the area of Sri Surja-Pahar, a hilly area near the town of Goalpara on the south bank in western Assam. 

It contains ruins dating from the 1CE ( though endorsed by authorities, this date is heavily disputed) upto the early medieval era. Named after Surya or the sun god, it is a large area featuring numerous ruins of temples and countless rock carved statues of different divinities, many of them of the solar deity. The ruins of Sri Surja are however not limited to one creed, as there are numerous Buddhist and Jain, statues and carvings in that locality. In fact  Sri Surja is the only place in Assam to feature Jain relics.

Pragjyotishpur, the one time capital of  ancient Assam is thought to be located within the confines of modern Guwahati. Though the claim is unauthenticated, it cannot be denied is that there once stood an ancient city on the spot because of the large number of stone building blocks and statues unearthed in the city. Incidently, the Kalika Purana  describes the three present-day islands of the Brahmaputra near Guwahati as being joined to the mainland, it is probable that the river must have changed course and washed away a major part of the ancient capital. An interesting aspect about Guwahati's numerous ancient shrines, is that they are located on the banks of the river.

The territory of the modern town of Tezpur on the north bank of the Brahmaputra is another enigmatic ancient site. With innumerable ancient ruins scattered all over the town, the identity of the ancient city is still unknown. Thought to be the remains of Haruppeshwar, a capital of the Salastambha dynasty, the theory is not backed by any comprehensive proof. 
The only thing obvious about the ruins is that they mostly belong to religious structures built in circa 8 to10th century CE. The scattered remains on the Bamuni Pahar near the Brahmaputra are the largest of them all, while the rock pillars surrounding the modern Mahabhairav Shiva temple have been dated to the 7th century CE. ( All the legends of Krishna being associated with Tezpur appear to be codified fantasies of neo-vaishnav pratisioners)

There are traces of  several more early settlements and cities, as well as a large number of isolated temples scattered all over the state. From the Buddhist ruins of Mancachar in the west, to the Dhansiri valley ruins in the east. Each of these centers were located at considerable distances from each other and the lack of any records about them, makes it very difficult to establish their ancient names and assign them to specific periods or dynasties. However, they are very similar to each other by the nature of the designs and structures of the ruins, the large number of religious relics found, and their invariable location on a riverside.

Again, many of the currently existing but ancient, Shaktic shrines of Assam are found in clusters or standing alone in areas where no other signs of contemporaneous habitation are found. The large ruins of  Madan Kamdev and the Baman temple near Guwahati, the Singri and the Bishwanath temples near Tezpur are excellent examples.

The Madan Kamdev complex consists of eighteen temple sites located on a hillock near a dead course of a river, and the Kali temple of Baman is situated beside a canal of the river Barnadi.
Belong to the 9-11th century CE period, both were built with stone blocks and feature elaborate carvings. The Singri temple of Shiva is one of the only two all rock temples still standing in Assam, the other being in Hajo. 

Located on the convergence point of the Buri Ganga and the Brahmaputra, Biswanath Ghat was once an ancient riverine port of considerable importance. Now it is just a laid back fishing village, and its claims to sanctity consist of  only rocky ruins of the ancient Bishwanath temple and numerous Ahom period shrines. 

Even the relatively inland town of Hajo which is a major pilgrimage site for both the Hindus, Buddhists and the Muslims was  located on the bank of Brahmaputra till 1662 CE, when the river changed it's course. ( A passage from the Ahom Buranji describes how the "Tilao" or Brahmaputra changed it's course after their "Deuri" - priest made an offering of a black chiken.) 

There is no comprehensive proof of the existance of a riverine pilgrimage itinerary for visiting the shrines of Eastern India, but the locations of the ancient temples of the region and the descriptions of the  Kalika Purana  provide for such a possibility. And one can only admire the faith and courage of the people who ventured into this strange land and it's wild rivers, solely on the strenght of spiritual devotion.