Guwahati Walking Tour – Riverside Temples of Uzanbazar

Uzanbazar is an important social, cultural and historical area of Guwahati, spread around the Dighalipukhuri pond. This second part of the Uzanbazar walking tour will take you to the different places on the northern side of Dighalipukhuri, the part towards the Brahmaputra river. You can also look at the first part of this tour focusing on the southern side of Dighalipukhuri.

The image below shows the Brahmaputra river seen from Kachari ghat in this part of Uzanbazar. The swirling water of the swollen river and the monsoon clouds painted in broad brush-strokes by the nature, make it a fascinating place. I remember sitting there and passing hours looking at the passing boats and people.

This walking tour will start from the west at the Northbrook gate and cover three important temples – Shukreshwar, Umananda and Ugratara, as well as some other buildings such as the high court, planetarium and the cricket club.

NORTHBROOK GATE

Northbrook gate was built in 1874 to welcome the British Governor General of India Lord Northbrook, whose ship was anchored here. He had come here to announce that Assam province will have its own high commissioner. After 1850, as the British import of tea from China had declined, Assam had become important to the empire for its tea gardens. After his visit, for 40 days “Gowhatti” had become the capital of British Assam, before the capital was shifted to the cooler hills of Shillong. At that time the city population was only 11,000.

British called this gate the Gateway to Assam. It is located on M. G. road, where the road leaves the Brahmaputra river and turns inwards.

It is a simple gate made of 12 arches, 5 in front, 5 at the back and 2 on the sides. In 1897, there was a big earthquake in Assam with widespread damages in Guwahati. Northbrook gate was one of the few buildings that had survived this earthquake.

In 1919, poet Robindranath Tagore had rested here before going to nearby Jublee park for a public meeting. In 1949, the urn containing the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi was placed here before their dispersion in Brahmaputra river.

From Shukreshwar ghat near the Northbrook gate you can hire private boats for visting the Umananada temple and island in the middle of the river. However, if you do not want a private boat but want to use the public ferry for this visit, you need to walk to Kachari ghat (explained below).

Beginnings of modern Guwahati: The lower half of Assam came under the British rule in 1826. British author William Robinson in his 1841 book "A descriptive account of Assam", explained that at that time the city covered an area of about two and half miles on the south bank of the river. He wrote that this area had one of the old chowkis for controlling entry into the city – the Lattasil chowki or Pani Chowki. At that time, the ruins of some of the old gateways to the city were still visible, though the city had lost its ancient importance and its numerous spacious tanks were choked up with weeds and jungle.

Thus,when British arrived in Assam, the ancient city of Pragjyotishpura of the Kamrup empire was in decline. The new city of "Gauhati" (also called Gowhatti) took birth around Uzanbazar, especially in the areas near the Northbrook gate.

SHUKRESHWAR TEMPLE

This temple is situated close to the Northbrook gate and was already there when the British had arrived in Guwahati in the 19th century.

The Shukreshwar complex hosts many temples, including a famous Shiva temple on the top of a small hill where the inner walls are covered with hundreds of flowers. Since this temple is dark inside and the use of flash is not possible, I do not have a good picture of this temple, but it is really worth a visit.

The courtyard of the Shukreshwar temple complex is full of colourful statues, including the Vishnu statue presented below.

The temple complex overlooks the Brahmaputra river, where the rocks have some 1500 years old rock-cut sculptures. You will find some more information about these rock-cut sculptures in a separate section further down in this post.

HIGH COURT, CRICKET CLUB, LATASIL GROUNDS AND PLANETARIUM

As you will walk further down the M. G. road you will see the Assam High Court building and Guwahati Ashok hotel, followed by the Cricket club grounds (Judges' field), which used to be the officers' club during the British period.

Near the Cricket grounds are the the Latasil grounds, whose name remembers the old chowki with its gateway (Lattasil chowki or Pani chowki) which had once marked the entrance to the medieval city of Guwahati.

Latasil grounds are a popular venue for the different city festivals including the Bihu celebration (Bihu dance and a pani-puriwala at Latasil grounds at the Megh Bihu fair are shown in the two images below).

Across from Latasil grounds is the Guwahati Planetarium, which has daily shows in Assamese, English and Hindi to learn about the stars and the cosmos. Near the planetarium there is small white marble temple while on the other side of the Latasil grounds is the well known Dighalipukhuri mosque of Guwahati. (Planetarium of Guwahati in the image below)

KACHARI GHAT AND BAZAR

The road next to the Planetarium will bring you to the river and to the traditional market of Kachari bazar and ghat. The name of this area "Kachari", means court and makes reference to the high court.

Kachari bazar is a simple market with small shops and tin roofs, but it is famous because you can find a wide variety of traditional Assamese vegetables and plants that are not available in other parts of the city.

The market has a small but beautiful Kali temple.

Steps near the Kachari market take you down to Kachari Ghat where you can get the public ferry for Umananda temple. The grounds of Kachari Ghat are a popular venue for cultural events like the annual kite festival and the celebration of chhath festival by the Bihari immigrant community of Guwahati (in the image below).

UMANANDA TEMPLE AND THE PEACOCK ISLAND

Umananda temple is one of the ancient temples of Guwahati. The 1841 book of Britisher William Robinson already mentioned above, said about it: “In the centre of the river, opposite the station, stands a little rocky island called Umananda. According to the Hindu legends, this island was formed by God Sib (Shiva) with the dust that marked his forehead. It presents a very picturesque object, clothed as it is with trees and crowned with temples.”

The Indian Railway association was formed in 1845 and the first train journey in India took place only in 1851, so I think that the “station” mentioned by Robinson in this paragraph refers to a local boat station, perhaps near Kachari ghat or near Shukreshwar ghat?

The image below presents the Kachari ferry dock with the river island hosting Umananda temple in the background. From here you get the public ferries for visiting the temple.

The return ticket on the public ferry boat to Umananda temple on the peacock island costs only 20 Rs. The temple is located on the top of a hill and requires a bit of a climb. The image below shows one of the temple priests.

The Umananda island is also home to a group of Golden Langur monkeys. Usually you will find them on the trees, if you take a walk going towards the back of the island, below and behind the main Umananda temple, on the path facing the north bank of the river. (A golden langur in the image below, eating a cake given to her by some visitor).

The island is also home to a group of friendly geese who might follow you around and even ask you with their quack-quack to share your food. They have learned that people do not hurt them, so they seem completely fearless.

The views of the other river islands with their pristine white sands, visible from the top of the Umananda hill if you look towards the north bank of Brahmaputra, are breath-taking.

UPPER STAND ROAD

The road along the river going east from Kachari ghat towards the Kharguli hills and the Governor's house has many traditional old Assamese houses. Vivekanand Cultural Kendra, one of the cultural centres of Guwahati, is located at its corner, just opposite Kachari ghat.

Upper Stand road is home to some exclusive boutiques selling traditional Assamese silk dresses for women (Mekhla Chador), including the Fab India Handicrafts store of Guwahati.

Across the road, is the fish market of Guwahati that is ideal to buy fresh river fish, early in the morning. The image below shows one of the traditional Assamese houses on Upper Stand road.

UGRATARA TEMPLE

The same road that goes towards Kachari ghat along the planetarium, if taken in the other (southwards) direction will pass along the boundary of Latasil grounds and then take you to Lamb road and the unassuming Ugratara temple.

It is one of the ancient temples of Guwahati built during the medieval Ahom kingdom.

Behind the temple, there is a big pond, Jorpokhuri. A road was built here which divides this pond into two. The pond is famous for its large number of geese.

Like the friendly geese of Umananda, these Ugratara geese are also aware that people and vehicles will never hurt them so they are completely fearless. It is not unusual to see a gaggle of geese walking in the middle of Lamb road while all the cars and autos, try to pass around them without hurting them.

ANCIENT ROCK-CUT SCULPTURES IN UZANBAZAR

Guwahati area has many bas-relief rock sculptures, rock-cut sculptures (carved into the rock) and rock sculptures. According to Prof. P C Choudhury (The History of Civilization of the people of Assam till the 12th century A.D., 1959), the rock-cut sculptures are from 5 to 12 century CE.

However, it seems that the actual archaeological dating of the rock-cut sculptures has not yet been carried out. According to a recent article in the Ancient Asia journal, “A number of scholars have highlighted on the rock sculpture and iconography of the region but no work focusing on the rock art and engravings of the region have so far been reported.”

The visit to Uzanbazar will give you an opportunity to visit two important sites of rock-cut sculptures in this area.

One group of rock-cut sculptures representing Vishnu (with adjoining figures of Surya, Ganesh, Devi, etc.) is present in the rocks facing the Brahmaputra river behind the Shukreshwar temple. These are locally known as Vishnu Janardan and are protected under the Archaeological Survey of India.

A second group of ancient rock-cut sculptures representing Ganesh are located on the island of Umananda temple, near its western tip facing the Neelanchal hill and Kamakhaya temple. Near by a path goes down towards the river, with some more sculptures. These sculptures look much older than many of the Umananda temple buildings.

CONCLUSIONS

I think that Uzanbazar is one of the most culturally vibrant area of Guwahati with a lot of places to visit.

All the places mentioned in this post are located close together and you can easily walk to them. Reaching Uzanbazar through public transport is easy and you can get down at the Kachari bus stop.

If you do not have time to visit all the places mentioned in this post, make sure to visit at least the Umananda temple and the island. The visit to the temple by the public ferry will require at least 3 hours. If you have less time, take a private boat from Shukreshwar ghat near Northbrook gate (BTW, don't try asking people about Northbrook gate, hardly anyone knows this name. However, most people can point you to Shukreshwar ghat.)

You can also look at the first part of this tour presenting other places to visit on the southern side of Dighalipukhuri, towards Cotton College and Paltan Bazar railway station.

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Leela Naidu: The Person Behind the Image

I think that it was 1966-67 when Doordarshan had shown Bimal Roy’s 1960 movie “Anuradha” and I had fallen in love with Leela Naidu. In the film, she had played the title role of Anuradha, a famous singer and dancer, who follows the man she loves, an idealistic doctor played by Balraj Sahni, to the village where he lives and works. In the process, she has to sacrifice her passion for music and singing. From that movie, the favourite image I have is near the end, when she sings the haunting “Hai re wo din kyon na aayen”.

I think that the idealistic doctor played by Balraj Sahni in this film was one of the reasons that had given me the idea of studying medicine. No wonder the film has been a personal favourite and I have watched it many times.

After “Anuradha”, I had not seen any other film by Leela Naidu for almost four decades. Only a few years ago, I had seen her looking older but still good-looking, in Shyam Benegal’s 1985 film “Trikal”. I had also been sad when I had heard about her death in 2009, at the age of 69.

A couple of months ago when I had come across her autobiography, “Leela – a patchwork life” (Penguin India, 2010), written with Jerry Pinto, I was very tempted to read it and at the same time, I was not very sure that it would be a wise thing.

Through experience I have learned that favourite film persons are better seen through the sepia tinted glasses of nostalgia. Knowing them as persons ruins their magic. However, in the end I had not resisted. The book has definitely changed my perception about Leela Naidu, the person behind the image.

Leela’s early life and upbringing

She was born in France in 1940, during the second world war. Her father was a well-known Indian physicist (Dr Ramaiah Naidu), while her mother was a French musician. Through my own experiences of living in Europe and my mixed Indian-Italian family, I could relate easily to her descriptions of growing up in France and Switzerland, and experiencing the casual discrimination and racism as a mixed race child.

While reading about her childhood in Europe, I found echoes of her life in a place that I had also visited and a person that I had known.

It was not such a big coincidence to find that a celebrity has been to a small little-known place, to which I have also been. The place was Divonne les Bains, a tiny town in France close to the Swiss border. In the book, she tells that once she had accompanied her mother to Divonne for a piano concert.

While reading this part, I had remembered my stays in Divonne with a friend and my walks around the place where they organise concerts in the summer. It was like having a direct connection with her, I could imagine her visiting the place with her mom sixty years ago.

Another coincidence was to find in her book, Abbe Pierre, the founder of Emmaus movement aimed at promoting missionaries for helping poor and destitute persons. Abbe Pierre's figure was a bit similar to that of Mother Teresa. Around twenty years ago, as a part of my humanitarian work with an Italian organisation, I had also met him.

In Leela’s biography, Abbe Pierre appears as a religious teacher in her school in Geneva. He does not make a very flattering figure in it:

I remember the conversation I had with Abbe Pierre, the religious preceptor at the Catholic school in Geneva to which I was sent. “In India” he told the class once, “they revere crocodiles and venerate fish. Their gods are wood and stone.”
If ever there was a misreading of the inclusive tradition of Hinduism, if ever there was a more narrow minded reading of the representation of the Ganga as crocodile and Matasya avatar of Vishnu, I have yet to hear it.
I was young but I was ready to stand my ground against such notions. “But Monsieur l’Abbe”, I said, “The statue of the Virgin Mary in the Chapel is also made of wood.”
He sputtered his contempt of this remark. Of course his statue was only a representation and a mnemonic, a reminder of the beloved Mother Mary. It was not an idol, it was a way of focusing attention on the Divine. I believe that even as he said it, he knew he was a digging a hole for himself, so he changed the subject.

From my own meeting with Abbe Pierre (1912 – 2007) in the early 1990s, I have more pleasant memories as we had briefly talked about Mahatma Gandhi and his work with leprosy affected persons.

However, it is not uncommon to find narrow views among Europeans about Hinduism, focusing on some specific aspects and unable to understand it because it is so different from their religious views, so I could visualise the discussions between a young Leela Naidu and a much younger Abbe Pierre in the 1950s.

Leela Naidu’s life experiences

Many famous persons, from Mahatma Gandhi to Indira Gandhi to Ingrid Bergman, Jean Renoir and different directors and actors of Indian cinema, appear in the book.

As you can guess from the part about Abbe Pierre above, Leela Naidu does not mince words or hide behind banalities to express her opinions about the people. In the book, often she has scathing views about these persons and she shares them without censoring herself. The only parts of her life she does not touch in the book are those related to her first marriage to Mr Tikki Oberoi, her divorce and her battle for the custody of her twin daughters.

Even those of you looking for tit bits about her marriage and divorce to Dom Moraes would be disappointed – she talks about him a bit, but does not go into any details.

About the different famous personas of the cinema world with whom she had worked including Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal, R. K. Nayyar, Sunil Dutt and Balraj Sahni, she remains a bit critical, calling the ways of working of Indian cinema industry as superficial, with need for constant improvisation due to lack of planning. There are no traces of the usual fawning and divification about these persons that usually appears in books and articles.

For example, her comments about Balraj Sahni during the making of “Anuradha”, shook the gentle nice-guy image I had about him:

Sahni was a perfect gentleman. But like many other perfect gentlemen, he was not above trying his luck. One day he dropped me home from the studios.
“I think of you all the time”, he said.
“That’s kind of you”, I said.
“You are in my head”, he said.
“And how is your dear wife?” I asked. I have found that this question generally manages to quench the libido of the perfect gentlemen.

She has few words of praise for any person in her book. However, she reserves her most caustic comments for the writer-activist Arundhati Roy, with whom she had worked in the film “Electric Moon”. The film was directed by Pradeep Kishen (ex-husband of Ms Roy), while Ms Roy was looking after the production.

I must say I admire the way that Arundhati Roy has turned her status as celebrity writer into a catalyst for causes she cares about, but there was very little of that caring Ms Roy on the sets of Electric Moon …

... and so when I watch her pleading for the disenfranchised and the marginalised, I think back to the ruthless Ms Roy on the sun drenched plateau in Madhya Pradesh and I wonder whether it is easier for us to sympathise with anonymous masses than with the actual people we are confronted with in the real life.

If you like reading nasty stories about the well-known people, which they hide behind their public personas, you will like Leela Naidu’s autobiography.

Conclusions

I think that Ms Naidu had a difficult life even if she was considered as one of the ten most beautiful women of the world by the American magazine Forbes in the 1960s.

Her first marriage in the rich Oberoi family, her divorce, her challenges in being close to her daughters, were difficulties in her personal life. In her working life as well, she laments that did not get her due from Hindi cinema.

I don’t know if it was these difficulties that made her bitter or if it was her character of being an outspoken and direct person that led to some of those problems.

The book is a good read. I could find a lot of resonance of my own life in the parts of the book regarding her work for the U. N. organisations, her travels across different countries, her work with disabled children and her interest in documentary films.

At the same time, I felt a little sad for her that she had so few good things to tell about the people. Most of her stories are about negative experiences. I am sure that people including celebrities are not saints, but I can’t believe that almost everyone we meet has only negative things.

Often, the stories show that the lives of beautiful women are not always very happy - she seemed to fit in with that stereotype.

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Guwahati Walking Tours - Uzanbazar, Cultural & Historical Area of Guwahati

A small area of Guwahati called Uzan Bazar, located between the south bank of Brahmaputra and the city railway station, is the most culturally and historically rich part of the city.

The ancient pond of Dighlipukhuri is placed like a jewel, at the centre of this area. Since the area has so many places to visit, this walking tour is divided in two parts.

The image above is from a small lane close to Dighlipukhuri and shows the preparation of Saraswati idols in preparation for the Saraswati Puja festival.

This first part of the walking tour focuses on the Dighlipukhuri pond and the area to its south including the Assam State museum, the state library, Robindra Bhoban cultural centre, Ambari archeological area, Cotton college and Nehru Park. Let’s start the tour by a brief introduction to the history of this area.

Uzan Bazar is very well connected by public transport. You can get down at Dighalipukhuri and then easily walk to all the places mentioned in this post.

History of the Uzan Bazar area

Ambari archeological area was discovered in 1960 and excavations are still going on. They show that this area was an important cultural centre in the ancient Kamrupa empire, when Guwahati was known as Pragjyotishpura. The excavations have shown constructions and artefacts from two periods – from 8 to 11th century CE and from 13th to 18th century CE. An artist guild with production of sculptures was located here. Glazed terracotta potteries, Kaolin pots and Celadon wares found here show that the area was an important trading centre in the medieval period.

Due to high level of subsoil water in the area, deeper digging was not feasible here.

During the British times, building of railway tracks and construction of the Paltan Bazar railway station, brought a different kind of development in the area. While the capital of the British Assam was in Shillong, important buildings in British colonial style were built here.

Dighalipukhuri Pond

According to Assamese writer-historian Kumudeshwar Hazarika, in 19th century, when the British had arrived in Guwahati (then known as Gauhati), there were around 300 ponds in the city. Pond-construction was seen as one of the duties of the kings, and often ponds were built to thank or to mark some special occasion. In 19th century, most of those ponds were filled.

However, Uzanbazar area still has some of these ponds. Dighlipukhuri is the biggest and oldest of all the ponds of the city.

I don't know how big a water body should be, to be considered a lake, rather than a pond - probably, Dighlipukhuri is big enough to be called a lake.

Dighlipukhuri, built during Ahom empire, was earlier connected to the river Brahmaputra in the north by a canal and used as a boat-port. This canal was closed and the European club was built here by the British, which is now used as part of the High Court (old campus).

To the south, the pond also connected to a marshy area called Shola Beel. This area was covered when Paltan Bazar railway station was constructed.

Dighalipukhuri has a children’s park, a boat club and paddle boats for the tourists. It is a great area for the morning and evening walks, though during office hours, it is a little noisy with the traffic rush.

Central Library and the State Museum

Assam state museum and the central state library are both opposite the south end of Dighalipukhuri.

The library courtyard has the statues of three of the famous Assamese cultural icons of 20th century – playwright, writer and film maker Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, pioneer of music and art Bishnu Prasad Rabha and actor-director Fani Sharma. Unfortunately India does not have a tradition of honouring its cultural icons, and most of the public statues are reserved for politicians. Guwahati and Assam are probably an exception to this trend.

I did visit the state library and museums for cultural events but not for their original purpose. Thus, I never managed to see the books in the library and to visit the exhibits of the museum. Instead, I participated in the cultural events held in their premises such as the annual conference of Indian museologists and the Indian youth festival, presented in the two images below.

Robindra Bhoban

Close to the state museum is Robindra Bhoban cultural centre that has a rich programme of plays, dance and other cultural events through out the year. The building also hosts a cultural museum which I never managed to visit it as well – finding it closed the couple of times I visited it. The image below shows an art exhibition held in its courtyard.

Like Kalakshetra, the other important cultural centre of Guwahati, even Robindra Bhoban (Bhawan) does not have a proper website or facebook page or even an email mailing list to get information about its events-programme. Thus, unless you live in the area and can check its billboards regularly, it is not easy to be updated about its activities.

Ambari archaeological area

Under the “History” section above, I have already given some information about the significance of Ambari archaeological area. It is a five minutes’ walk from Robindra Bhoban. The area is part of archaeology department of Guwahati university.

Here you can see the remains of the medieval houses of the old city as well as visit the small but nicely maintained museum that has many artefacts from 8th to 10th century and from medieval period, discovered in the diggings in this area.

The image below shows a 10th century Shivalinga and a medieval bamboo statue of Ganesh from the Ambari museum.

Cotton College

A side road near Dighalipukhuri, takes you to Cotton college and Nehru Park. Cotton college is one the old institutions of higher education in Guwahati, established in 1901, during the British colonial rule. It was also an important centre of the freedom movement in the north-east. With its wide open areas, low colonial buildings and huge ancient trees, Cotton college is a beautiful area.

The image below has one of the busts of the luminaries of Cotton College, which include Bhupen Hazarika.

Near Cotton college, a picturesque street going towards the river has the shops of flowers and plants-sellers.

This part of the city has been beautified by bas-relief artistic panels fixed along the walls of the buildings facing Dighlipukhuri. The image below presents the details of one such panel.

Similar panels have also been put up in Dispur. As far as I can tell, each panel is a work of art, different from all others. I wish that the city would give recognition to the artists of such works by indicating their names near each panel.

Nehru Park

The entrance of Nehru Park is from the Cotton college road. It is a nice garden with a lot of sculptures, starting from a nice group of terracotta statues including India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru with three children.

Close to the entrance, the garden on the left has terracotta statues presenting the different dance and music traditions of Assam. The image below presents the Zikar singers, a traditional art form of Assamese Muslims.

Another favourite area of the park is close to its other border towards the river, which has a Bhul-bhulaiyan (maze) made of shrubs, where once you enter, you can easily get lost and not find your way out (not so much for adults, as for children).

This area also has a lovely sculpture of Kushal Konwar, a follower of Gandhi ji and a believer in non-violence, who was hanged by the British in June 1943.

Road and Park events in Dighalipukhuri

Though formally Guwahati is not the capital of Assam and only the Dispur area of the city is called the state capital, the areas between Dighalipukhuri, state museum and library are popular venues for protest marches, public meetings and strikes to attract the government and public attention.

Every time I went to this area, I always went around to see who was protesting or doing hunger strikes and for what reason. The image below is from the Dighalipukhuri park showing a meeting of the farmers of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) with its leader Akhil Gogoi.

The next image is from a fashion show in front of the entrance to Dughalipukhuri park during the north-east GLBTQI pride parade in February 2016.

Conclusions

For me, in terms of its importance to the soul of the city, this area can be considered as the “centre of Guwahati”. As you can see, there are a lot of places to visit in this part. I have touched on only some of those places in this post.

The remaining places located to the north of Dighalipukhuri such as the famous Ugratara, Shukreshwar and Umananda temples, will be presented in the second part of this walking tour.

Let me conclude this post with an image of the steam train locomotiv of the North-East Queen outside the entrance to the Paltan Bazar railway station. This engine was built in 1956 and was in service till 1997.

If you have little time and can not visit all the places mentioned in this post, I suggest that you shoud make an effort to visit at least the Dighlipukhuri lake and Nehru park.

Read the second part of this post regarding the other places of interest in Uzanbazar.

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Guwahati Walking Tours - Discovering South Guwahati

Guwahati is known mainly for the Kamakhaya temple. Visitors to the city, also like to visit three other temples – Bashistha, Nobograha and Umananda. Most persons, even those living in Guwahati, are not aware of other places to visit in the city. This post is about places to visit in South Guwahati, which includes Dispur, the capital of Assam.

The image above shows sculpture of a Bhaona figure from the stage used for Sound & Light show at the Shrimanta Shankar Dev Kalakshetra, an important cultural centre located in South Guwahati.

Apart from the Kalakshtra, this visit will take you to a famous temple, the cathedral, some museums, an important cultural centre and to see some wildlife.

So let us start this visit with some general information about South Guwahati. All the places described in this post can be reached easily through public transport of the city – by buses that run along the G.S. road.

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT SOUTH GUWAHATI

Guwahati city started on the south bank of Brahmaputra river. In pre-independent India and for a few decades after independence, the whole of the north-east (NE) was part of Assam state and its capital was in Shillong.

In ancient times till around medieval period, it was known as Pragjyotishpura. During British times, it was called Gauhati. Since the NE was important for its tea gardens and timber, Gauhati was an important city for the British because of its river port and its railway station, that linked the north-east to the rest of India.

In 1972, the north-east was divided into different states including Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. Shillong became the capital of Meghalaya, while Gauhati became the capital of Assam.

In 1973, its name was changed to Guwahati and Assamese Government decided to move its capital to the southern outskirts of Guwahati city, to Dispur.

Guwahati-Shillong road (G.S. road) is one of the main arteries of the city, starting from the Guwahati railway station in Paltan Bazar and going southwards for about 7 miles till Khanapara, where Assam meets Meghalaya and the terrain becomes hilly. The G. S. road in the city has four flyovers.

Coming from Paltan Bazar, the third flyover, Ganeshguri flyover, marks the boundary of old Guwahati and the beginning of Dispur. Thus, south Guwahati starts from Ganeshguri flyover, continues over Six Miles flyover and finishes at Khanapara, where G. S. road joins NH 37.

With the widening of G. S. road and the building of the flyovers, Dispur and Six Miles are no longer considered as outskirts of Guwahati, rather they are part of the main city.

GANESH TEMPLE OF GANESHGURI

I will start my walking tour from the famous Ganesh temple of Ganeshguri. It is located on the road underneath the Ganeshguri flyover, to the right if you are coming from Paltan Bazar.

Ganeshguri has a vibrant market and it has some of the famous restaurants where you can get traditional Assamese food.

Ganesh temple was built here to mark the entry to the city of Kamakhaya, one of the incarnations of Parvati, the consort of lord Shiva. According to the Hindu mythology, Shiva had left for a journey when Ganesh was born. When Shiva came back, he found the boy blocking his way, since the boy did not know his father. In anger, Shiva cut off the head of the boy. Only when Devi told him that he had killed his son, Shiva promised to bring the boy back to life, but in the meantime, animals had taken away boy’s head. Thus, Shiva sent his followers to bring back the head of first baby they could find and his followers brought him back the head of a baby elephant. Since then Ganesh has the head of an elephant.

Thus, the baby Ganesh of the Ganesh temple of Ganeshguri is guarding the entry to his mother’s town.

It is a small temple, with most of its statues being placed outside on its walls. Inside the temple, Ganesh is shown as a natural uncarved rock covered with vermillion. At different religious festivals, this temple and the whole area is crowded with believers.

I am more of a spiritual person and I do not feel particular devotion when I visit temples. Rather, I have an anthropological curiosity to understand the rituals. However, among all the Hindu gods, Ganesh is my favourite since I feel that he represents the unity of man and nature, and asks us to be respectful of the nature.

THE ZOO OF GUWAHATI

The same road of Ganesh temple, on the other side of the flyover will take you to Chandmari and the Guwahati zoo. (BTW, Assamese language lacks the ‘ch” sound of ‘church’, thus Chandmari is pronounced as ‘Sandmari’). To reach the zoo, you should take a bus from the Ganeshguri crossing.

The zoo of Guwahati has a beautiful location, with hills, forests and canals. Some water birds and animals have open enclosures separated by moats so that they can be seen properly without any barriers.

Some enclosures of the zoo give an impression of being a safari park. For example, the elephant enclosure has a small pond at the edge of a dense green forest, and is very beautiful. However, here it is difficult to see the elephants unless they come out of the forest to drink water at the pond. Similarly, the raised up view-platform of the tiger enclosure is a good place to observe these animals, while ensuring visitors' safety.

Unfortunately, most enclosures in the zoo are old fashioned, ugly looking iron grills or nets. Many sign boards are missing and overall maintenance of the zoo seems to be poor.

Assam is full of wildlife and wildlife parks. Compared to that experience, visit to the zoo can feel a big let-down. With a bit of effort, Guwahati can have its own wildlife park inside the zoo, with a better view of the birds and animals. Perhaps, the zoo officials can visit the city wildlife park of Nairobi (Kenya) to get some ideas about how it can be done.

The zoo also needs to make more efforts to teach visitors about importance of nature and how to behave with the animals and birds.

ASSAM STATE ASSEMBLY AND SECRETARIAT

The Assam State Assembly, a short distance away after the Ganeshguri flyover, is not accessible to visitors because of safety concerns. This part of Guwahati is called Dispur. The place has armed police guarding it, so you can just look at it from far away.

Many Assamese are very particular about Dispur being their state capital and not Guwahati. However, it is difficult to tell the boundaries of Dispur. It is just one of the bus stops for the Guwahati buses.

BELTOLA MARKET

The road next to the State Assembly leads to an area of Guwahati called Beltola. The road connecting Beltola to Jayanagar holds a roadside market, especially a vegetable market, every Thursday and Sunday. Farmers and tribals from all around, including the neighbouring Meghalaya, bring their produce to this market. It also provides a glimpse into the wonderful biodiversity of India. You can see tens of variaties of each common vegetable here, something that does not exist in any supermarket.

In my opinion, this market represents a wonderful tradition and hopefully, the authorities will safeguard it and not destroy in their search for soulless ‘development’. The image above shows one of the market stalls at night.

I have read that Beltola was a small kingdom till early twentieth century and it had the palace of its king. However, in spite of asking to a lot of persons, I could not find more about the king of Beltola and his family house. Like so many old traditional heritage houses, replaced by concrete buildings, it is a part of the lost history of Guwahati.

CATHEDRAL OF GUWAHATI

The cathedral of Guwahati is located close to the Six Miles flyover, a short distance after Dispur, on the right side of the road. It is of a recent construction and has a utilitarian architecture, thus it is not very impressive from the outside. Inside, the paintings behind the altar and the coloured glass windows, make it look much better.

The cathedral is venue of a large gathering of the faithful in November each year for the festival of Christ King, when Catholics from all neighbouring cities and towns come here to hold a procession. The image above shows the Christmas lighting at the cathedral.

SHRIMANTA SHANKAR DEV KALAKSHETRA

Kalakshetra is one of the most important cultural centres of Guwahati. Inside, it has different museums, galleries, a daily Sound & Light show about history of Assam and has a rich calendar of cultural events.

Kalakshetra is located in Punjabari, on the road underneath the Six Miles flyover. It is a couple of kilometres from the flyover. Near the flyover, you can get a Punjabari bus which will drop you in front of its entrance.

The idea of setting up of the Kalakshetra was of Bhupen Hazarika, considered to be one of the most important contemporary cultural icons of Assam. It includes a beautiful ethnographic museum and an art gallery with works of contemporary Assamese artists. It also has a small but nice auditorium. The image below is from the ethnographic museum.

The above image is of a sculpture by Dhan Singh Basumaty from the art gallery of Kalakshetra.

During my stay in Guwahati, I was fortunate to be able to watch some wonderful cultural performances in Kalakshetra. Unfortunately, it does not have a proper website with updated information and a calendar of its cultural events. Thus sometimes I found that its beautiful events did not have a big audience, even if they were free, which was a great pity.

SHILPAGRAM

Shilpagram, located close to Kalakshetra is a venue for handicrafts exhibitions and trade fairs. It is a beautifully made structure with nice traditional buildings. It also has a small auditorium and an open air space, often used for music concerts.

The picture below has a singer of the NE music group called Soulmate during a performance in the open air theatre of Shilpagram.

CHINMOY MISSION AND THE FILM MUSEUM

Swami Chinmoy Mission and the Guwahati film museum are both located in the small lane next to Kalakshetra that takes you to Shilpagram.

I am not sure if the film museum is open for visitors. All the times I passed in front of it, it was closed.

KHANAPARA SPORTS COMPLEX

Khanapara sports complex is located on G.S. road, about one kilometre after the Six Miles flyover, on the right side of the road. A couple of times, I saw cultural programmes in the stadium hall of this complex, but never saw it being used for any sports meets.

The grounds of the sports complex are a popular venue for trade fairs, handicrafts shop fairs and Bihu celebrations, like the handloom fair shown in the image below.

SCIENCE MUSEUM

The Science Museum of Guwahati is located on a small side-road of G.S. road on the left side, a little after the new Vivanta Taj hotel building. The science museum is full of things to discover, both for children and for adults.

Some things of the museum are quite low-brow, including the “deforming mirrors”, where you can look at your deformed shapes and laugh at yourself (predictably, the low-brow things are very popular with the visitors!). Other things are more high tech.

Outside the museum, the gardens have many other things to see including an aeroplane and some robust machine models to understand functional mechanics, such as the pulleys in the image below.

VETERINARY GROUNDS

The grounds of the veterinary college of Guwahati, some fifty metres further down the road from the Science Museum are venue for big events such as the republic day parade and the annual horticulture fair.

Every morning and evening, the road near the veterinary grounds is closed to traffic and hundreds of local residents use it for their morning or evening walks. The house of the chief minister of Assam is located on the hill, just behind the veterinary grounds. This area also has the office of the Assam Public State Commission while the veterinary college on the G. S. road has the Khanapara post office.

Finally, the nearby Khanapara-NH crossing has buses, shared taxis and other vehicles for all the major towns of the north-east.

CONCLUSIONS

If you have only a little time for sight-seeing in Guwahati, you can give a miss to most of the places described in this post. However, if possible, you should at least visit Kalakshetra.

Like many cities of India, Guwahati also has antiquated laws regarding photography for entry in many places presented in this tour. Rather than accepting and using the selfie culture and photography for providing free publicity through social networks, they prohibit photography and ask persons with cameras to pay extra. In a world where everybody clicks pictures with their smartphones, is it really logical to ask persons with cameras to pay?

Let me end this visit with a question. The image above has some of the famous Indian scientists from the Science Museum. When I saw the statues shown in this image, I was able to recognise only Raja Ramanna and Homi Bhabha. How many Indian scientists can you recognise in this picture?

If you are looking for information about other places to visit in Guwahati or in the NE, check the list of my blog-posts on this theme on my Travels page.

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