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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
 
 

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
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

If  frequenting the Noonmati and Gitanagar localities of Guwahati, one is bound to see a remarkable sight. Perched atop a steep hill towards the south-east, is a newly built temple of considerable dimensions, whose entire roof consists of a giant concrete image of  Nandi the bull. The motif  effectively attracts attention, but raises quite a few eyebrows as well. Startled  by the enormous figure, people seem to deliberate more about the structures load bearing capacity, and  not its religious implications.

The "Nandi Mandir" as it is popularly known, is quite an oddity as it's design adheres neither to the traditional, nor to contemporary  norms of temple construction.  Even the usage of the Nandi statue is not common for a temple of this region. At times found engraved on ancient temple panels and alongside Shiva idols, individual sculptural portrayal of bulls are rare, which  is quite surprising, considering the large number of Shaivait temples here. A few examples of ancient Nandi or bull sculptures in the state, are located among other places in Gorukhuti near Sipajar, Hatimuria near Jakhalabandha in the Nogaon district, while a few were unearthed in the Ambari excavations of Guwahati.
Nandi or Nandin, whose form is noticeable in most Shaivait temples of the country, has a very complicated identity. Regarded as Shiva's mount, the bull is also deemed a theriomorphic representation of the god himself. A number of passages of the Ramayana and the Matsya Purana describe Shiva's faithful attendant Nandin  as none other but a form of Shiva. 

Idolisation of bulls, is evident even in the dawn  of human history. A popular symbol of strength and virility, their oldest portrayals are  seen in the form of cave paintings in Europe, and then in almost all the consecutive civilisations of the world. In both Create and Egypt, the two earliest Mediterranean civilizations, bulls played a vital role in their respective religions. For the Minoians of Create, their entire creed evolved around the worship of bulls, hence their sworn enemies, the Greeks created legends of a  bull headed demon Minotaur. In ancient Egypt the symbol and the mount of their tutelary deity Osiris was Apis the bull.
 Subsequently the figure of the bull resurfaced again in Mitraism or the cult of "Mitras the Bull Slayer", an esoteric astrological religion which covered parts of Europe, North Africa and West Asia, and was a direct competitor to early Christianity. Incidentally, the concept of bull slaying in Mitraism was a metaphor of  supreme power, and it was the zodiacal sign of  Taurus the bull, which became the emblem of the faith.

Closer home, bulls were equally revered in the Indus valley civilisation. As attested by the  findings of numerous clay seals depicting bulls and that of the horned medicant figure surrounded by wild animals and a bull, which is thought to be a portrayal of a Proto-Rudra, the precursor of the Aryanised Shiva.

 Reverting to the topic of  ancient sculptures of Nandi in Assam. Stylistically most of the images found here differ little from those of other places, but there are atleast two instances where the  portrayal of bull figures  are distinctly atypical and  worthy of special attention. 

One such debatable representation of Nandi is located in Hajo, a town 14 odd miles north-west of Guwahati. There, from the road to the Kedar temple, diverge a series of steps leading to the Netai Dhubuni Pat Sil, a rocky area revered by  Tibetan Buddhists and Hindus alike. One has to follow those steps to the top, and turn to the left, where in the middle of a slight clearing is a solitary form of a  reposing black bull. It will take a moment to realise, it is not alive but a statue. Life size and very realistic, blackened by countless layers of oil, milk and vermilion smeared by the devout pilgrims, the Sar Garu as it is locally known, is sculptured from rock.
It is difficult to ascertain it's age, and nor are there any connected local legends or lores explaining its incidence. Moreover, as it is situated  in an isolated place far from any temple, shrine or Shaivait image, it can only be cogitated if the statue is that of Nandi. Besides, the sculpture is also devoid of ornamental carvings like a  shoulder mat or a garland around the neck, so characteristic to average Nandi images. 

The second place in Assam featuring unusual bull figurines, is the Kamakhya temple on the Nilachal hill in Guwahati. On the southern facet of the temple, embedded in the wall are two large bull headed human images, while a third stands in the north-eastern corner of the Sobhagya Kunda, the pond adjacent to the shrine. These statues have been dated to circa 9th century CE, and are  enigmatic because Hindu iconography does not allude any bull headed human bodied divinity, though such figures appear in other sacred traditions. As mentioned earlier, the ancient Greeks recounted a bull-headed monster, while revering a bull horned demi god Dionysus.
In neighbouring Tibet, Yama the god of death  is represented as a ferocious entity with a  bull's head, and so is the more complex Tantric deity Yamantaka , who according to the SrimahavajraBhairava Tantra is  a fierce emanation of Manjushri and a destroyer of Yama.

It would be absurd to speculate if the statues of the Kamakhya temple, bear any association to the outwardly similar Minotaur. And as the Audhas or symbols held in the hands of these images do not tally with those attributed to the Yama or Yamantaka, we can rule out a Tibetan influence. The priests of the temple also offer no clues as to their identities, and when questioned offer something incomprehensive like "Goru Pokhi"??( Cow bird !!)
Exploring all the options, the eventuality of these statues representing Nandi seem most likely. A view upheld by the eminent Art Historian Dr.T.K.Biswas, who believes them to be an unusual personified form of Nandi, also known as Nandi Bhairava.

Classifying the bull headed statues as those of a personified Nandi  solves a major riddle, but in turn generates a new one. Strictly a member of the Shaivc family, it is anomalous for a Nandi statue to be placed in a Shaktic complex. However, as the statues are set in the  latter medieval Ahom reconstructed part of the temple, and not in the original stone Garba-Gribha, it is quite probable that they were cannibalised or sourced from another structure, in all possibility a now nonexisting Shiva temple, once located somewhere on the hill.  The solitary statue standing beside the pond, further corroborates such a possibility.

"Quality supersedes quantity", at least that is what people like to say. So, if an occasion arises when someone derides Assam's deficiency in Nandi bulls, we can proudly mention the rare sculptures at Hajo and the Kamakhya temple. But, if size is all that matters, the location of the Gitanagar's "Nandi Mandir" had already been described.