Mayong: The Witch Capital of India.
Thousands go to see the Pobitara Wildlife Sanctuary, they flock in herds with their cameras to capture and witness the beauty of the majestic one horned rhinos; with their single, black horn and grey-brown skin with folds that give off an armour-plate like appearance. However, a mere handful take a stop at Mayong; a village peppered with magic that comes along the way. So, make an exception. Visit Mayong, feel its breeze and decide for yourself if there is still some magic left in its winds or if it is all just a myth from the past.
The origin of the name Mayong is backed up by a number of stories. Some people say that it is derived from the Sanskrit word maya, which means ‘illusion’, however, most locals say that in the ancient era, the place used to be the habitat of the Moirang clan from Manipur and thus, the word moirang became mayhong and finally, turned into Mayong.
Keith Thomas has described magic to be the “debris of many different schools of thought”. So, is witchcraft really an alternative religion or just a whole mess of supplementary beliefs and practices? However, you might forget all these very rational and pertinent thoughts when you are bewitched by what you see on top of a mountain in Mayong overlooking the river Brahmaputra in all of its murky blue glory. A depression, semi circular in shape, called as the ‘Yoni Kunda’ whose shape is such so as to accommodate the outline of a goddess. An eight armed structure is sculpted here with an almost clinical precision, called as ‘Ashtabhuji Chakra’. According to locals there, these two things in unison are often connected with practices of ‘tantra-mantra’.
Witchcraft, rather magic if you may, can essentially be explained as a large body of beliefs and practices against a specific supernatural power which stands outside the world of formal religion and yet they are known widely as they help people cope up with anxiety, insecurities or news that they would often have troubles coming to terms with. However, the most common cause of its initial gain in popularity attributes to the promise it gives to manipulate supernatural powers and ward them off so as to prevent misfortune.
Many Mayongians have written and talked about the ‘capture of the tigress’. Books like ‘Mayongor Bej Aru Romanchakar Gherjali’ and ‘Tetiliguri Baghini’ are written as accounts. Ramesh Chandra Nath has written in rather superficial description, a tale called the ‘Tetiliguri Baghini’ (Tigress of Tetiliguri) wherein he describes how a magician named Muhiram Ojha, captured a tigress through magic in 1960 in a village called Tetiliguri. In the three days it took for him to capture the tigress, he reportedly didn’t take a single drop of water. However, Chandra Nath also adds of how they’ve “heard a lot about this incident but seen very little.”
Mayong was once upon a time a kingdom whose ruling clan claimed lineage from Mahabharata famed Ghatotkatch, the son of the mighty Bheem and Hidimbi. It is under the Mayong rulers that the practice of magic has been believed to have flourished. The current king of Mayong, Tarani Kanta Singha, who is the 40th, says, “ Mayong is known as the land of magic but now only the legends have remained, but there is still enough evidence to suggest that it was once the land of magic”. He claims to have seen several magicians himself but admits that most of them are no more.
They are trying to preserve what is still thereby collecting manuscripts from different households and preserving them in the museum but most people refuse to let go of these in spite of the fact that money is offered in lieu of them. Singha says that his grandfather was the last one in his family who knew mantras like the ‘Malsharam Mantra’, which gave him the strength of a hundred people. Since two generations, the popularity and acceptance of magic has declined exponentially and now those who want to learn it are often discouraged. This begs the question that is the decline of magic and witchcraft due to it being a large, loose, pluralistic affair without any clear or unifying principle or is it because we have been unable to accept something which owing to our negligence and superstitions can no longer be explained in theory.
There is a whole area of small hills in Mayong. One of these hills, or rather a hillock because of its slightly secluded nature, is called ‘Kasashila’, named after a huge Kasa-shaped (turtle-shaped) stone present on it. On this hillock, one can see symbols like ‘Ashtabhuji Chakra’, ‘Trishul’ and ‘Damru’ on rocks, the seamless marriage of these chakras alongside symbols often associated with the worship of Lord Shiva shows the culmination of Hinduism and Buddhism, as tantrics of both these schools of religions would often come to Kamakhya temple.. There are inscriptions seen on these rocks, speculated to be Tibetian in origin. They used to often draw symbols such as these on secret places which would often be difficult to visit. This hillock is covered by the Brahmaputra once every year during the Monsoon.
Historians believe that the gradual loss in popularity of the cult tantric studies was after Vaishnavism spread its wings in Assam. In spite of this, it still continued up till the British came in the 19th century AD. Most people went to tantrics for the advice on misfortunes, foretelling of losses and ways to avoid those. Thus, the Catholic school of thought the British brought along with them was against this sort of popular magic because their official teachings were that if a person had suffered any misfortune it was a result of divine providence. They said that it was either a test of one’s faith or a judgement of one’s sin and that the only proper response to the same was to pray, repent or trust God’s providence. Thus, they rejected any magical means of relief and overlooked them as bogus, blaming illiteracy for the continuity of these ‘unorthodox’ methods. They believed that such a shortcut could only be possible if evil sources were at play and they were instrumental in causing the decline in the popularity and social acceptance of witchcraft and Shamanism.
Hidden behind a tea stall in Mayong, a cluster of twelve hamlets about forty kilometres up the Brahmaputra from Guwahati, opposite Pobitara National Park, stands an unfinished brick-and-concrete building of, at present, a single large room, built by locals to preserve the culture and archaeology of Mayong to prevent it from disappearing from the pages of history. A plaque declares it the home of the Mayong Village Museum and Research Centre, and at the entrance is an image of the building’s proposed design. Inside, the place is dark, damp, and chilling. Walls are adorned by pictures of the art and the artists. There are terracotta dolls, old hookahs, weapons, utensils, stone busts, cannon balls — all of which once belonged to Mayong’s royal family, an obscure palanquin is also present. However, what usually interests one the most are the fifty manuscripts written on ‘Sanchi Paat’, all of which are assosciated with magic. Written in two early Assamese scripts, Brajavali and Kaitheli, the manuscripts contain various chants that some believe to have mystical powers, comprehensible to none but a handful of “magicians’’ in the village, most of them old men. Many of these manuscripts are lost as they were either thrown into the rivers of Brahmaputra or into the funeral pyres of magicians who have died in the past or have been washed away by the floods.The Srimata Sankardev Kalakshetra, with the help of the Nation Mission for Manuscripts, helps in the preservation of these manuscripts that remain by medicating them. Many of these are in the process of getting digitized so as to extend their lives.
Mayong’s reputation as a cradle of black magic stretches far into the past, and continues to draw visitors. But though that legacy is a crucial part of the local history and culture, it is at risk of fading away. Many young people see the belief in magic as little more than outdated superstition, and have little interest in carrying on the traditions associated with it. “There should be a way to legitimise this culture instead of shying away from it,” Utpal Nath, the brains behind the museum, says. He started displaying historical artefacts in 2002, first in a rented room and later at a vacant hall offered to him by the forest department. The project began “as a mere tourist attraction,” he said, but he soon expanded his goals. His hope now is to help preserve Mayong’s heritage by making people “consider magic as a cultural practice … rather than a superstitious act.”
Apart from this, there is very little done by the Archaeology Department of India for the preservation of hundreds of scriptures and symbols strewn around the entire city of Mayong, in spite of the many efforts of enthusiastic locals. The most monumental of which have been taken by Lokendra Hazarika, whose passion in life has been documenting Mayong’s history, archaeology and culture. He claims to have written several articles in magazines and newspapers. No concrete steps have been taken into the study of these by the Archaeology Department in spite of verbally informing them of these, says Hazarika.
The continuing remoteness of Mayong, even though it is now more mental than physical, is what has kept alive the myths of this place and has at the same time deteriorated its tourism potential. The whole area is dotted with Hindu sculptures, dating back to 8 th -11 th century A.D., still remains unexplored. Nothing exemplifies this statement more than Chonoka. Located in a small valley, kept isolated by a bow-shaped hill range on one side and the mighty Brahmaputra on the other, the trek to reach the actual place is almost ethereal due to the staggeringly beautiful landscapes present all around. Even after so many years, the only way to actually reach this place is by trekking. During the Monsoons, when a part of this trek goes under the waters of Brahmaputra, the only way to actually reach this village is by trekking across the hills or by a boat from the riverside. Still without a power connection, Chonoka is to Mayong what Mayong is to the rest of India. Remote. Isolated. Breathtaking.
Mayong, apart from being famous for its ‘magic’, has a lot of archaeological, cultural and historical material. The scientific preservation of all this is of utmost importance. Thanks to Pobitara, there are some significant steps taken up here by wildlife tourism. However, it also has a lot of scope for archaeological tourism and river tourism, owing to its close proximity to the banks of the river Brahmaputra. Additionally, it also has a lot of scope for cultural tourism as most of Assam’s culture is present in Mayong in lovely form. It is with this thought in mind that the locals organized the Mayong-Pobitara festival in the late 2011s which is a cornucopia of events not found under a single banner anywhere else. It is a colorfully decorated parade of its cultures and traditions showcasing an ethnic diversity of Assamese, Garos, Nepalese, Karbis and Bengalis; all coming out to participate in the festival. The best time to visit Mayong is during the dry season, between November — March. April — October is summer in Assam when temperatures climb up and the state experiences a lot of rain (especially between June — September). Additionally, the Mayong-Pobitara festival takes place in November, making it an ideal month for visit.
Located about an hour and half away from Mayong, is present the Kamakhya temple. Renovated several times between the 8th and 17th century A.D., it’s a temple showcasing a hybrid and indigenious style of architecture called the Nilachal Style. It’s a temple with a hemispherical dome on a cruciform base. The vimana, present over the main central part (the garbhagriha of the temple) has a pancharatna plan with plinth moldings adorned by dados, a characteristic of the temples of Khajurao and Central India. These dados are present on sunken panels which alternate with pilasters. The inner sanctum within the vimana, the garbhagriha, is below ground level and consists of no image but a rock fissure in the shape of a yoni (female genital). Kamakhya temple is dedicated to a tantric goddess. It is one of the 108 Shakti Peeths, which are 108 different places where the body parts of Sati fell when Lord Vishnu cut her body with his chakra in an effort to calm down Lord Shiva, when the latter had started performing the Tandav of destruction after learning that his beloved wife had jumped into the fire and killed herself. This temple is unique because the womb and vagina of Sati fell here. The deity of ‘Kamakhya Devi’ or Sati is thus installed and worshipped here. It celebrates the ‘Shakti’ within every woman.
For many outside Mayong, the place is a patchwork of stray news reports and books about touristy exoticism due to the whole shroud of perplex worthy enigma. A combination of the mystery of the magical power of the Mayongians and the reality that exists in the form of undeciphered stone inscriptions like the 3.85 metre long inscription present there, which is possibly Asia’s longest stone inscription; is what makes Mayong an interesting place to visit and explore. However, remember to keep your mind open and allow it to be malleable because in controversial topics such as this, most of us hang between belief and disbelief. The problem is that- belief is the base of magic. If one does not believe in magic, it simply does not exist.
