Negheriting Shiva Doul
This is a very popular ancient Shiva temple
which is situated in Dergaon, Assam. It is basically located on a picturesque hillock
of Golghat and it is about one and half km north from the National Highway 37
in the Golaghat district of Assam. During 8th – 9th century AD, Negheriting
Shiva Doul temple was initially built by the Kacharis, and afterwards due to
natural calamity- earthquake it got destructed and shattered into small pieces.
However, it was re-constructed by Ahom king Swargadeo Rajeswar Singha in 1687. Ghanashyam
Khonikar was the architect who has been given the job to re-build the temple.
It is a perplexing Shiva temple where Shiva resided in the manifestation of the
‘Lingam’.
History
Bhudhar Agamacharji was a priest, who was appointed by King Rajeswar Singha for proper maintenance of the temple shrines and premises as well as for performing religious rituals and Pooja Ceremonies. The priest Agamacharji died long back and now the family used to do Pooja rituals and Archana along with other maintenance works on a daily basis. There is a tradition and customs of chanting mantras and Shloks, singing songs and performing dances in groups which is termed as Deonati. There is a beliefthat the stones used to construct the temple sanctuary were existed in the bank of river ‘Dihing’. But due to earthquake, the temple demolished down and its remains were found in dense forest called ‘Gajapanemara. After collecting the ruined temple particles/ elements and the Shiva linga, The great Ahom king Susenpha was successful to built the temple right on that foundation and hence built the linga. Unfortunately at that time, Dihing River changed its course and the temple was again destroyed and merged into the river water. After that a devotee of lord Shiva collected the ruined temple elements and the linga in the shallow water of river Dihing to reconstruct a temple again. From that day this place is called as Sheetal Negheri.
Architecture
There are basically four
sanctuaries constructed inside the temple premise and in the centre, the main
shrine has been riveted at the centre and thus surrounded by four other
temples, named- Bishnu, Ganesh, Surjya and Durgatemple. A 3 feet long Banalinga
is fixed in the main temple. Legends say a a Rishi-Urba wished to create a
second Kashi on this region, therefore he accumulated a bunch of of
‘Shivalingas’ in that divine area.
