Asvakranta Temple: Where Krishna's Horses Came Ashore

The story this temple marks is observed across India every year, and most people who observe it do not know it belongs to Guwahati.

Who Narakasura was:

• Son of Bhumi, the earth goddess, and Varaha, the boar avatara of Vishnu, in the standard account
• So he is Bhauma, born of the earth
• King of Pragjyotisha, which is Guwahati
• He had a boon that he could be killed only by his mother

What he did:

• Conquered widely and oppressed the earth
• Took the earrings of Aditi, the mother of the devas
• Seized sixteen thousand women and held them captive
• Made himself unbearable to devas and men

The battle:

• The devas appealed to Krishna
• Krishna came with Satyabhama, his queen
• They fought Narakasura at Pragjyotisha
• When Krishna was struck down or feigned unconsciousness, Satyabhama took up the bow and killed Narakasura herself
• Because Satyabhama is an incarnation of Bhumi, the boon was fulfilled: he was killed by his mother

Satyabhama's part matters. The boon required his mother, and the solution the story gives is that Krishna's queen was the earth in another form and therefore was his mother.

So the asura is killed by a woman, in the field, with a bow, and that is the point of the story rather than a detail of it.

Narakasura's request. As he died, he asked Krishna for a boon: that his death should be remembered with lights and celebration rather than mourning.

Krishna granted it.

That is why the day is celebrated, and it is the tradition's own answer to the question of why anybody would light lamps over a death.

Naraka Chaturdashi:

• The fourteenth of the dark fortnight of Kartika, the day before Diwali
• Also called Chhoti Diwali, Kali Chaudas in Gujarat, and Naraka Chaturdashi across the south
• In much of south India it is the principal day of Diwali, more so than the amavasya
• Marked by the abhyanga snana, the ritual oil bath before sunrise

The abhyanga snana. The southern observance is specific and is worth describing.

• Rising before dawn, in the brahma muhurta or earlier
• Applying oil, traditionally sesame, to the head and body
• Sometimes with ubtan, a paste of gram flour and turmeric
• Bathing
• New clothes
• Then lamps and sweets

The bath is taken to be the equivalent of bathing in the Ganga, on that day, and the whole household does it before sunrise. In Tamil Nadu and Andhra the greeting on that morning asks whether you have had your Ganga snanam.

The sixteen thousand. Krishna freed the women Narakasura had held.

They could not return to their families, in the social conditions of the time, having been captives. So Krishna married them, which in the story's terms is an act of protection: it gave them status and a household rather than leaving them destitute.

That is the origin of the sixteen thousand and eight queens of Krishna, which is often quoted as a curiosity and which the tradition itself reads as a rescue.

How to read this well. The story is about a woman killing a tyrant and a man giving social standing to women who had been abducted, and about the freed captives being made secure rather than abandoned.

That is a reasonable thing to say to a family observing Naraka Chaturdashi, and it is a better account than the one that treats the sixteen thousand as a joke.

Where the day sits in Diwali:

• Dhanteras, the thirteenth
• Naraka Chaturdashi, the fourteenth, this day
• Lakshmi Puja on amavasya, the main day in the north
• Govardhan Puja or Annakut, the first of the bright fortnight
• Bhai Dooj, the second

And the second of those, observed in every part of India, commemorates something that the tradition places at a rock on the north bank of the Brahmaputra at Guwahati.

Most Krishna devotion is concentrated on the childhood at Gokul and Vrindavan. The Narakasura episode belongs to a different and less familiar part of his life, and it is worth setting out.

The phases of Krishna's life:

• Birth at Mathura, in prison, to Devaki and Vasudeva
• Childhood at Gokul and Vrindavan, with Yashoda and Nanda, the gopas and gopis, the Ras, and Radha
• Return to Mathura and the killing of Kamsa
• Dwaraka, where he establishes a kingdom on the western coast
• The Mahabharata, where he is Arjuna's charioteer and speaks the Gita
• The end, with the destruction of the Yadavas and his own death

Which phase people know. Almost entirely the second. The child stealing butter, the flute, the Ras, Radha.

That is the Krishna of the Bhagavata's tenth canto, of Surdas and Mira and Jayadeva, of the ras lila traditions including the Manipuri one, and of most temple imagery.

The Dwaraka Krishna is different. He is a king, a diplomat, a strategist and a warrior. He fights Narakasura, Jarasandha, Shishupala, Paundraka. He negotiates, he manoeuvres, he chooses sides in a war.

And the Gita Krishna is different again: a teacher, giving a sustained argument about action, duty, knowledge and devotion, on a battlefield, to a man who does not want to fight.

Why this matters for devotion. Because people choose which Krishna they relate to, and the tradition allows all of them.

• Vatsalya bhava, the parental mood, relates to the child
• Sakhya bhava, the friendly mood, to the companion
• Madhurya bhava, the romantic mood, to the beloved of Vrindavan
• Dasya bhava, the servant mood, and shanta bhava, the peaceful mood, to the lord

And the Krishna of Dwaraka and Kurukshetra is available to somebody who wants a deity who acts in the world, makes hard choices, and does not pretend that acting is clean.

The Narakasura episode in that frame. Krishna crosses a river, fights a king, kills him through his wife, frees captives, and marries them because otherwise they would have nowhere to go.

None of that is idyllic. It is the conduct of a ruler dealing with a situation.

Satyabhama. Since she is the one who kills Narakasura, she deserves an account.

• Daughter of Satrajit, who held the Syamantaka jewel
• Married to Krishna after the Syamantaka episode, in which Krishna was falsely accused of stealing the jewel and cleared himself
• Known in the tradition as proud, direct and quick to take offence, in contrast to Rukmini
• The Parijata episode is hers: she demanded the celestial parijata tree from Indra's heaven, and Krishna brought it, causing a fight with Indra
• She is the earth, Bhumi, incarnate
• At Narakasura's death she is the archer

The Rukmini and Satyabhama contrast. The tradition uses them as a pair.

Rukmini is devotion, patience and surrender. Satyabhama is assertion, pride and demand.

The tradition does not resolve this in favour of one. Both are queens, both are loved, and the Parijata story ends with the tree planted in Satyabhama's courtyard but flowering into Rukmini's, which is exactly the kind of resolution the tradition prefers to a verdict.

Krishna in Assam. The Vaishnava tradition of Assam, the Ekasarana of Sankaradeva, is a Krishna tradition, described in the Tezpur entry.

It is Krishna alone, without Radha, without image worship in the sattras, with the Naam and the Bhagavata at the centre.

So Assam has both: the epic Krishna who came here to fight Naraka, marked by this temple, and the Krishna of the sattras, worshipped as the sole refuge, with a book on the altar.

The north bank at Guwahati is a distinct area with its own sites, and Asvakranta is the reason most visitors cross.

Getting across:

• Ferry from the Guwahati ghats, which is the traditional and pleasant way
• The Saraighat bridge, the road and rail bridge, which was the first bridge across the Brahmaputra, opened in 1962
• The Naranarayan Setu and other bridges further out

The Saraighat bridge. Since it is named for the battle, it is worth noting: before 1962 there was no bridge across the Brahmaputra anywhere.

The river is that wide and that difficult. Everything crossed by ferry. The bridge changed the region's connectivity fundamentally.

What is on the north bank:

• Asvakranta temple, at the water's edge
• Doul Govinda temple, at Rajaduar, a Krishna temple and the principal site of the Assamese Doul Utsav, which is Holi
• Dirgheswari temple, on a hill, a Shakti shrine associated with Kamakhya, with rock cut sculpture around it
• Rudreswar temple
• Aswaklanta ghat, with the river views
• Rock cut images and older remains scattered on the hills

Doul Utsav. Assam's Holi, which is worth describing because it differs from the northern form.

• Called Doul Jatra or Doul Utsav
• Centred on Krishna, whose image is carried in procession and placed on a doul, a swing or platform
• Lasts several days
• With the burning of the Meji or the equivalent bonfire on the first night, corresponding to Holika Dahan
• Colours on the final day
• The Barpeta Doul, at the Barpeta sattra, is the most famous in Assam and draws very large crowds

Dirgheswari. Worth a mention as a Shakti site.

It is on a hill on the north bank, reached by steps, with rock cut sculpture in the surrounding stone, and it is treated as one of the sites associated with the Kamakhya complex of shrines.

It is quiet compared with Kamakhya, which for some visitors is the point.

Madan Kamdev. Around 40 kilometres from Guwahati on the north bank side, and worth the trip.

• Extensive ruins of a temple complex, tenth to twelfth century
• Very large quantities of carved stone, much of it scattered
• Sculpture of considerable quality
• Sometimes described as the Khajuraho of Assam, which oversells it somewhat but conveys the character
• Associated with Kamadeva, the god of desire, whom Shiva burned, and with his restoration

The Kamadeva connection. Since both Umananda and Madan Kamdev involve him, the story is worth a line.

Kama disturbed Shiva's meditation, at the devas' request, so that Shiva would notice Parvati and a son would be born who could defeat Taraka. Shiva opened the third eye and burned him to ash.

Rati, his wife, appealed. Shiva restored him, but as Ananga, the bodiless, present everywhere and visible nowhere.

Which is a sharper account of desire than most, and it is the story attached to these two sites on either side of the Guwahati river.

Hajo. Around 30 kilometres on the north bank, and one of the more remarkable sites in India.

• The Hayagriva Madhava temple, a Vishnu shrine on Monikut hill, rebuilt in the sixteenth century on a much older site
• Which some Buddhists, particularly from Bhutan and Tibet, regard as a site of the Buddha's parinirvana or as otherwise significant, and which Buddhist pilgrims visit
• The Poa Mecca, a mosque and dargah on Garurachal hill, associated with Giyasuddin Auliya, which is a significant Muslim pilgrimage site in the northeast
• The Kedareswara Shiva temple

So one small town on the north bank carries a major Vaishnava temple, a Buddhist association and an important Muslim shrine, within a few kilometres.

That is worth seeing simply as a fact about how religious geography actually works in India, as against how it is usually described.

Asvakranta's annual submergence is unusual enough to be worth a section of its own, and it connects to a wider pattern.

What happens:

• The Brahmaputra rises through the monsoon, from roughly June to September
• The lower parts of the temple, and in high years more than that, go under water
• Worship is suspended or moved
• When the water falls, the temple is cleaned of silt and reopened

How the temple copes. It is built of stone, at the water's edge, with the expectation of flooding.

There is no attempt to keep the water out. The structure is designed to be submerged and to survive it.

Other flooding temples. This is a recognisable Indian category and the parallels are worth listing.

• Stambheshwar Mahadev, in Gujarat, which disappears entirely under the tide twice a day and reappears
• Ratneswar Mahadev at Varanasi, the leaning temple by Manikarnika, which is under water for much of the year
• The Shiva temple at the Shivsagar and the submerged temples exposed when reservoirs fall
• Sangameshwar at Srisailam and other temples relocated for dams
• The temples of Hampi by the Tungabhadra when it is high

Two different situations. It is worth distinguishing them.

Natural flooding, as at Asvakranta and Stambheshwar, is part of the site's character. The temple was built where it was in the knowledge that water would come. The rhythm is the point.

Reservoir submergence, where a dam floods a temple permanently, is a different thing. Many temples across India were lost or relocated when reservoirs filled through the twentieth century, and some emerge only in drought years when the water level drops.

The Sangameshwar temple near Srisailam is a case: it emerges for some weeks a year when the Krishna is low, and people go to worship it then.

Temples that reappear. There is something particular about a shrine that comes back.

When a reservoir falls and a submerged temple emerges, people go, and worship happens, and then the water returns.

That is not the tradition's ordinary rhythm and yet it produces something the tradition recognises: the shrine that is there when it is there, and that is not always available, which is also what a mountain shrine closed for winter is.

The Brahmaputra flood more broadly. Since Asvakranta's condition is the valley's condition, the wider fact should be stated.

• Assam floods annually, and in serious years the floods displace lakhs of people
• The 2022 floods affected several million
• Erosion permanently removes land, and villages are lost
• Majuli, the great river island, has lost very substantial area to erosion over the last century
• Livestock and wildlife are affected. Kaziranga floods, and rhinos and deer move to higher ground, crossing roads, where they are killed by vehicles

Kaziranga's flood. Worth noting because it is a specific conservation problem.

When the park floods, animals move to the Karbi Anglong hills to the south. To get there they cross National Highway 37.

That crossing kills animals every year. Speed limits, animal corridors and highway closures during floods are used, with mixed success, and it is one of the clearest cases in India of infrastructure and wildlife in direct conflict.

The point for a visitor. If you are in Assam during the monsoon, understand that flooding is not an unusual event you have been unlucky to encounter.

It is the annual condition of the valley, it shapes everything from temple architecture to wildlife movement to where people build houses, and Asvakranta going under water is the smallest and most orderly example of it.

Getting there

• Asvakranta temple, north Guwahati, on the north bank of the Brahmaputra opposite the main city
• By ferry from the Guwahati ghats, which is the pleasant way and takes a few minutes
• By road over the Saraighat bridge, which is longer but works in any weather
• Guwahati railway station and airport are on the south side

Timings

• Generally morning to evening. Check locally, particularly in the monsoon when the temple may be affected by high water

When to go

• Naraka Chaturdashi, the day before Diwali, for the connection to the story
• Janmashtami
• Doul Utsav, Assamese Holi, though Doul Govinda nearby is the main site for that
• November to March for weather and for the river at its lowest, when the temple is fully out of the water
• Monsoon if you want to see the river high, though access may be affected

At the temple

• Footwear outside
• Modest dress
• The rock at the water's edge is what people come to see, along with the reclining Vishnu
• The steps and rock can be slippery, particularly where the water has been

The ferry. Worth doing rather than driving.

• Runs from the Guwahati ghats
• Short crossing
• Good views of the city, of Umananda island and of the north bank as you approach
• Check the last return timing so you are not stranded
• Ferries may not run in high water or bad weather

Combining the visit. Do the north bank as a group.

• Doul Govinda at Rajaduar, the Krishna temple
• Dirgheswari, the hilltop Shakti shrine with rock cut sculpture
• Rudreswar
• Further out, Hajo, around 30 kilometres, for the Hayagriva Madhava temple, the Buddhist association and the Poa Mecca
• Madan Kamdev, around 40 kilometres, for the ruined sculpture

A north bank day: ferry across, Asvakranta, Doul Govinda, Dirgheswari, then out to Hajo and Madan Kamdev by road, returning over the bridge. That is a full and good day and it covers ground most Guwahati visitors miss entirely.

On the south side, to complete the Guwahati circuit:

• Kamakhya on Nilachal
• Sukreswar at Panbazar
• Navagraha on Chitrachal
• Umananda on Peacock Island
• Basistha ashrama
• Assam State Museum

A closing thought. The temple marks the place where, in the story, a chariot stopped and the horses were unyoked before a battle.

That is a very small detail to build a temple around. Not where the fight happened, not where the king died, not where the captives were freed. Where the horses stood.

The tradition does that repeatedly. It marks the pause before the thing, the arrival rather than the event, the moment somebody stopped and looked at what was in front of them across the water.

And then every year the river comes up and covers it, and goes down again, and it is cleaned and opened, which is its own kind of observance.