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| Temple of Bells |
There is an unwritten connection between the bells and religious places. Bells have found distinct places in many religions. Whether it is a Hindu temple or Church of Christians or for that matter some other religion, there will be bells. The decibels, those are created by the bells also vary from one religion to another. Imagine that you are watching a movie. Once you hear the ringing of the bells from on-screen scene in the movie, your audio metric nerves immediately send signals to the brain to distinguish between the sounds of bells from Hindu Temple or Church. Even with the closed eyes you can confidently say that this is a scene at Hindu temple or at Church, only from the frequency and pitch of the sound of bells.
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| Devotees at the temple |
Dangling bells of different shapes and sizes are integral part of the Hindu temples, irrespective of the idol of God or Goddess sitting inside the temple. The temples are named after the reigning deity in the sanctum sanctorum and bells adore the place of worship. Interestingly, there is a temple where it has happened other way round. The temple is known as ‘Bell Temple’. Though it is a temple of Lord Shiva, it is called Bell Temple or Tilinga Mandir. In Assamese language, Tilinga stands for bell.
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| Dangling bells within the premise |
The place is Bordubi, a small town located in Upper Assam.
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| While crossing Bordubi |
When one drives from Tinsukia town towards Duliajan along the National Highway no 315A, at a distance of about 20 kilometers, a temple would be found on the left side of the road. In other words, it is short of 7 kilometers from oil town Duliajan on the same direction. Depending upon the traffic conditions it may take nearly one hour to reach Bordubi from Tinsukia.
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| Country road |
As one draws closer to the temple, series of small shops appear on both sides of the road, selling puja items. Rows after rows of glittering bells dangling outside each shop cannot be missed by anyone passing through that road.
The temple has a distinct look which is different from other Shiva temples. Instead of typical conical dome at the top, there are one plus three gold colored bells on the top. Interestingly, they are of different sizes and placed in a row. The very first model of the bell is partially fixed on the front porch of the temple. The balance three are full in shape and with increasing sizes i.e. smallest in the front and largest is at the end.
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| Bells are everywhere |
When this temple was established is not very clear. However, according to local folklore, sometime in Nineteen Sixties, some workers of the local tea garden noticed that one ‘Shiva Linga’ has emerged from underground at the root of a Banyan tree. They started worshiping Shiva and later a small temple was built. Gradually, over time, popularity of the temple increased as the news of its miraculous power spread far and wide. Nowadays , worshipers of Mahakala visit this temple not only from different parts of Assam but from all over India. The faith and trust in the followers of Mahadeva has made this temple a must visit in Upper Assam.
Inside the temple premise, there is a gigantic Banyan tree. At the base of the trunk of the huge tree there are small crevices.
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| Sacred Banyan tree |
Near that base there is a low table top on which sits a small idol of Hara-Parvati. That’s all about the place of worship and rest of the area is open, calm and quiet. Offerings are kept in front of the base of the sacred Banyan tree. However, an area of concern is that some decay has developed near the root area of the tree.
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| Idols of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati |
The simplicity of worship at this temple is impressive. The process of puja is simple and without much hullabaloo contrast to many other temples. The cacophony of pilgrims and pandits is not found here. Neither blaring bhajans through loudspeakers nor hankering by pandas. The near silence at the place of worship is in resonance with the serene atmosphere of surrounding tea gardens. One can buy ingredients for puja viz. flowers, fruits, sweets, coconuts, incense sticks, scared threads and bells from the temporary shops located outside, on the highway. There is no haggling of price for puja thali etc.
People flock to the temple with different prayers or wishes. As an integral part of the puja, a bell is tied in the branch of the banyan tree. However, over the years the number of people thronging into the temple has gone up and so is the number of bells. It became a Herculean task to accommodate all the bells on the branches of the tree. So to tide over the situation provision was made to hang bells inside the temples on supported iron bars along the boundary wall of the temple. As the numbers bells are ever increasing, arrangement has been done to hang them outside the boundary wall of the temple too, parallel to highway.
There is no specified size or weight of the bell that can be offered to Maheswara. It can vary from as small as 50 grams to 50 Kilograms or more. Also there is no hard and fast rule about metal or make of the bell. The bell can be made of Brass, Bronze, Copper, Aluminum etc.
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| And more bells |
Other than offering of bell, some other options do exist. For example, one can also present a Trishul (Trident) to Lord Shambhu. Some people do offer live pigeon to Lord Shankar. It is a common sight that these pigeons hop around and fly in and out of temple premise.
Monday is termed as the day of Lord Umapati and hence every Monday witnesses a mad rush of people and stream of bells. Year after year, bells of different sizes and variety of materials are being presented at the temple. The significant aspect of the temple administration is that till date all the bells have been accumulated and still being stored. As they are treated as gift to Vishveshwara, they are not sold off or disposed of. These stacks of bells, with punctuated tridents, are growing with the passing of every month.
The sight inside the temple premise is simply mind boggling. Thousands of bells are either hanging or stacked in every possible direction. A few of them are brand new and glitter in the rays of early morning Sun like golden bells. Some are tanned due to long exposure to the hot and humid weather of Assam. Some are rusted. On the supports of the bars, bells are hanging, one layer over another and there are several layers. On the heaps, bells are stacked at random. They are literally small mountains of metallic bells. Though dumped, they can easily pass as modern art of bells. Overall it is a marvelous sight.
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| Heap of bells of various sizes |
Normally a bell is tied with a prayer or wish to Nataraja for fulfillment. But there are incidences when devotees stay at far off places and they are unable to visit the Bell Temple. They pray to Lord Omkaara to fulfill their prayer with a promise that once the wish is met, they would visit the temple and would tie a bell. So there is a group of devotees who pay a visit to the temple, after their wishes are granted, to tie the bell.
It is believed that the temple has some supernatural mysterious power and the prayers are heard. If the heaps of bells are any indication of rock solid faith of the followers then it can be inferred that ringing of bells at Bell Temple is definitely heard by Nilkanth at Mount Kailash.
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| Author, during the visit |
Getting there:
Rail: Tinsukia is well connected by rail through Rajdhani Express and other trains. However, a note of caution is that alighting point is New Tinsukia railway station, as Tinsukia station (old one) does exist and operational.
Air: Nearest airport is Mohanbari (Dibrugarh). There is another airport at Chabua but that is not available for civil aviation. The driving time from Mohanbari airport to Tinsukia is about one hour (45 kms approx.).
Stay: There are a few moderate hotels available. Hotel Highway, Aroma Residency etc., are in a higher bracket accommodation considering Tinsukia is a small town.
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| One of the hotels |
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Bengali version of this travelogue about Bell Temple of Assam was published in the Durga puja souvenir in 2016.
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