SIVASAGAR, Feb 22 - Sivasagar, the erstwhile sleepy small mandir township, has of late, become an iconic place for religious tourism in India. With lakhs of Siva devotees thronging the historic three-century old Siva temple every year from different parts of the country and abroad, especially on the occasion of Sivaratri, Sivasagar has a great potential to be developed as a major destination for religious tourism in the global tourism map besides its historical, ecological and great heritage as the seat of power for three centuries during the Ahom era. But nothing much was done to improve its connectivity with the rest of the world and infrastructure development during the past several decades to utilise the tourism potential. Only now, with a little effort from the government and district administration, Sivasagar is slowly emerging as a tourist hotspot.
The third International Siva Festival, inaugurated by the Governor of Assam, Prof Jagdish Mukhi on Thursday, has already attracted a huge number of devotees, standing in long queues to have a glimpse of and offer prayers at the sacred Sivalinga placed in the symbolic bowl-shaped yoni of the Mother goddess at the garbhagriha of the tallest Siva temple in the country. The Governor in his speech mentioned Sivasagar as a prominent place and that it has been placed along with four other places of archaeologically iconic importance in the country.
The Siva temple, built on the southern bank of the historic Sivasagar Borpukhuri by Modambika alias Ambika, the second queen of King Siva Singha in 1734, is 180 feet in height and 195 feet in circumference at the base. It is capped with its famous seven-foot tall golden dome (Kalasi). The Ahom Queen Modambika also built two equal-sized douls devoted to Goddess Durga and Lord Vishnu on either sides of Siva temple which also attract large followers of the Sakta and Vaishnavite cults everyday. All these three temples in the same campus, protected by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), are unique monuments nowhere to be found in India, constructed largely for cementing religious harmony among the three principal strands � Saivism, Shaktism and Vaishnavism.
Major Jenkins, after annexation of upper Assam shifted his headquarters to Sivasagar from Jorhat in 1838, the then capital city of the Ahom Kingdom.The British cleared the thick forests that had almost covered the whole area after the Moamoria rebellion and the Burmese invasion had devastated the surrounding villages and the settlements near the temple. Following the British, traders from north India and Bengal came to settle in the town along with the Assamese gentry. The Missionaries came to settle on the bank of the Sivasagar Borpukhuri, built their first Baptist church and then Muslims built their mosque at Dolmukh Chariali. After independence, the Buddhist built the Sivasagar Buddhist temple, making the town a centre of religious harmony.
The Sivaratri festival took on an international colour due to increase in flow of foreign tourists to Sivasagar during the festival. The anti-CAA agitation, this year, has resulted in a drop in the foreign tourists participating in the Sivaratri Festival here. So far only three tourists, Alexandra and Mario from Italy and Tarry Steven Driver from England, have visited this year�s Siva festival today. All the three were amazed to see the sea of humanity in the temple�s vicinity and also the bird watching zone at Pohugarh near Joysagar.
The district administration, the Sivasagar Municipality Board and the Temple Development Board have been jointly trying to develop the infrastructure and the amenities like clean baths, washrooms, drinking water, tourists information bureau, sanitation etc. A heavy rush of visitors of all sections was observed all along the sprawling lines of stalls surrounding the temple, the Tai Ahom Kristi Vikash Kendra and the Fuleswari Girls� HS School field.
Inspite of the heavy flow of visitors to the shrine, government funding to develop the temple is almost nil in comparison to government grants to Ajan Peer Dargah at Dikhowmukh and the Buddha mandir on Borpukhuri paar. The Birla Group of TEs including Jayshree TE near Sonari first took up development works inside the Doul campus and other maintenance works are done by the ASI. If the government seriously contemplates developing Sivasagar as a destination for religious tourism, there should be more investments for increase in tourists lodging facility, car parking facility and marketing facilities for local crafts and goods.