Mother Tripureswari : The Matrix of Synthesis Mother, Divine Mother and Motherland Neither it is possible, nor a child intends to measure the depth of mother’s heart; mother’s love and affection showered unasked satisfy the child. Yet, as one matures in body and mind, somewhere deep within his/her consciousness, one becomes aware of an impenetrable mystery that envelops mother’s being. This gives rise of an awe-inspiring sentiment that has prompted Humanity to worship one’s own earthly mother as the divine reality from time immemorial. Again in that phase of human history when man for the first time wanted to grasp the unfathomable Reality, the words and thoughts recoiled back, being frustrated to lift the veil that covers the face of Truth; man desired to offer his/her salutation to the Ungraspable One and for this sake s/he imagined suitable forms and relations of adoration, s/he couldn’t but consider a better image of God than the image of mother, the source of love, compassion and peace. Every evolution presupposes an involution. Wherever is the power to create, there itself lurks the power to destroy. Thus, Divine Mother holds the power not only to create, but also to destroy. This dual aspect of mother, once again, bewildered Man to watch one’s whole life process as an inseparable complex of life and death, light and shade, benign and terrible. The life springs from earth and into the earth life returns. Therefore, in ancient time profound sentiment to one’s own earthly mother was spontaneously transferred to mother earth. A partial vision of it was attained through the adoration of one’s own motherland. Long before the wake of nationalism in India, in the period of Tantras and Puranas, several spots, connected spiritually and culturally, were believed to be hallowed by the presence of Divine Mother. They are fifty-one in number and are called Peethastanas of Devi, the Mother Divine. Matabari of Udaipur, Tripura is one such peethastana. In the present article, a brief historical, mythological and architectural study of this hallowed seat of spirituality Matabari is done to throw light upon this dual aspect, benign and terrible of Mother Tripureswari. By this attempt, we will show Her as the Matrix that holds the opposites and thereby serves the support of cultural and religious synthesis. Historical perspective The history of Matabari, Udaipur is invariably associated with the history of Tripura, since Udaipur was the capital of the state at least for one thousand years. One of the most important sources in Tripura’s history is the text Rajamala, compiled under the patronage of Dharmamanikya1 (1431-62 A.D.) In this text the ancient name of Udaipur was mentioned as Rangamati. Long ago, the kings belonging to Buddhist Mog community ruled here. In 6th century A.D. Yujhar Fa defeated the Mogs and acquired Udaipur. Historically, the first prominent king, in whose name the coins have been discovered, is Ratna Fa (1464-1488 A.D.). He defeated his brothers and ascended to the throne with the royal title Manikya and after his name the Manikya dynasty came in vogue. In 1567, the name of the township was changed to Udaipur after the name of the then king Udaimanikya. The Mogs as per their religious faith considered the spot, where Tripureswari temple stands today, sacred. Being defeated by Yujhar Fa in 6th century A.D., they left the place. In 1501, king Dhanyamanikya built the temple and dedicated it to Mother Tripureswari. In fact he wanted to dedicate the temple to Visnu, but he received instruction of Divine Mother in a dream that the king should bring Her from Chittagong where under a tree the Mogs were worshipping Her divine form. Dhanyamanikya followed this instruction and brought Her image from Chittagong and enshrined Her in the temple. Tripureswari temple since then was associated with the rise and fall of Manikya dynasty. In 16th century, the king Amarmanikya (Remember Tagore’s drama Mukut?) was defeated in the hand of invaders from Arakan in the battle of Chittagong. The temple tower was somewhat damaged in the hand of these Arakanis. In 1623, when Yasodharmanikya refused to send taxes to the Mughal Emperor Jahangir, Tripura had to face the fierce Mughal invasion. Yasodharmanikya was defeated. Udaipur went to the hands of Mughals for three years. Mughals plundered the township and left the place after a terrible famine broke out. Later, Kalyanamanikya (1626-1660 A.D.) repaired the temple. In 1681, Ramamanikya once again repaired the temple. In the middle of 18th century i.e. at the end of the period of Vijaymanikya-II (1746-51A.D.), a Muslim subject of Meherkul (Kumilla) Samser Gazi raised a violent rebel and attacked Udaipur but initially couldn’t succeed. After seven days’ bloody battle, Samser received the instruction of Mother Tripurasundari to please Her by worshipping Her divine form. In this way alone, Devi prophesied, Samser would succeed. Samser worshipped Devi accordingly and captured the capital. The prince Krishnamanikya, in spite of several attempts, could never defeat Samser and finally shifted his capital to old Agartala. Although, by the intervention of Mir Kashim, the then Nabab of Bengal, to whom Krishnamanikya took refuge, the career of Samser Gazi came to a sad end, the capital of Tripura never returned to Udaipur after this period. According to some of the historians, the temple was on the same spot, even before Dhanyamanikya, who is believed to be its founder. The temple was used as a fort. It had only one door and its walls, just as today, were very thick. Even now, two peep holes, in the eastern and southern wall for looking through from inside, are extant. In 1240 A.D., the king Chheng Thump Fa was afraid to face the army of Gaur that attacked Tripura. His valorous queen fought herself in the battlefield and defeated the invaders. Her name, incidentally, was Tripurasundari. It is probable that this temple at that time was a fort and afterwards, Dhanyamanikya might have transformed the fort into the temple and dedicated it to Divine Mother. The name of the illustrious queen of history, probably, had been intermingled, in the memory of her subjects, with Devi. The other possibility is that the historical queen had been deified in the minds of the commoners and throughout the ages, they have worshipped Mother Divine whose veritable representation they witnessed in the heroic queen. A fort turned into temple reminds us the voice of the Terrible! Centering the punishment of the prisoners, human sacrifice here was in vogue. In the days of prosperity, Divine Mother was propitious to the Manikya rulers. It is the same Mother, who at the time of the worthlessness of the kings, inspired a Muslim Samser to take hold of her temple. And why not? Is not she the Mother of all? Is not She again, as Swami Vivekananda has described in his celebrated poem Kali The Mother, the Time-all destroyer? The Buddhist Mogs have worshipped Her. The Hindus have worshipped Her and the Muslims also have worshipped Her. Now all of them come to the temple and worship Her together. Our life is never a straight line, but it is a circle. One half of this circle is the benign aspect of Mother. Without the other half, representing Her terrible aspect, life remains incomplete. Historical perspective of Tripureswari temple shows this noble truth evidently. Mythological background Dream that visited Samser or the vision of Mother that came through a dream to Dhanyamanikya, may appear to be unnecessary to a historian while discussing the historical perspective of the temple. However, an objective historian should carefully note how the course of history or the fate of a populace is changed by these dreams, which are entirely subjective in nature. Dream is a phantasmagoria, a wonderful creation of mysterious mind and often it sheds more light upon the gloom of the past than a-matter-of-fact historical research. Just as the dreams, so are the myths, although not of same degree of subjectivity, are the projections of the creative energy of human mind through which many grand discoveries in the field of philosophy and spirituality remain hidden in their embryonic forms. The ancient legend of Peethasthanas is well known. Once upon a time, Sati, the divine consort of Shiva, was born to a king, named Daksha Prajapati, a disbeliever in Shiva. In spite of Her father’s dislike, Sati was betrothed to Shiva and married Him. Later, Daksha arranged for a sacrificial ceremony where he evoked all the gods except Shiva. Uninvited Sati came to the sacrificial ground, but when She heard Her father abusing Her spouse Shiva, She could not bear it and gave up life. When the news reached Mt. Kailas, Shiva’s abode, the demons of Shiva killed Daksha and destroyed the sacrifice. Shiva appeared on the sacrificial ground. At the sight of Sati, lying lifeless on the ground, Shiva went mad. He lifted Her lifeless corpse, placed it on His shoulder and started dancing the dance of dissolution in the form of Nataraja. Visnu, the protector of the universe, to save the earth, separated Sati’s lifeless frame into several parts with his celestial disc. These separated limbs of Mother, scattered in different directions, touched the ground in fifty-one places of India and these spots are worshipped as Peethasthanas. Later, when Shiva found the absence of Sati’s lifeless frame on his shoulder, He stopped dancing, became calm and sat in a deep meditation. This legend has been told and retold in Brihaddharma Purana, Kalika Purana, Shivapurana, Peethamala Tantra, Kubjika Tantra and in various other texts. Brihaddharma Puranam says: Yatra yatra satidehabhagaha petuh sudarshanat / Te te desha dharabhaga mahabhagaha kilabhavan. Te tu punyatama desha nityam devyahyadhisthitaha/ Siddhapeethaha samakhyataha devanamapi durlabhaha. Mahateerthani tanyasan muktikhsetrani bhutale. -- “The lands where the parts of Sati’s body fell, became the holy lands, the blessed lands and in these lands, Devi dwells forever. These are siddhapeethas, the lands of perfection, these places are difficult to attain even by the gods. In the world, these places are the lands where human soul can easily attain liberation from birth and death”. In the Peethamala Tantra, it has been mentioned – Tripurayam dakshapado devi tripurasundari/ Bhairavastripureshashcha sarvaveestaphalapradaha - In Tripura the right foot ( of Devi has fallen); Devi is named here as Tripurasundari, the name of Her consort here is Tripuresha who is the fulfiller of all desires. In Udaipur, the temple of Tripuresh is also extant. When Dhanyamanikya received Mother’s instruction in a dream to bring Her from Chittagong where the Mogs were worshipping Her, his general officer in commandant Raykachag was busy to fight against the Mogs in Chittagong. Unknowingly, Raykachag came in front of that temple of Mother on the hilltop. It was a dark new moon night. Raykachag opened the door of the temple and saw a small and lovely girl of black complexion with disheveled hairs was smiling at him. Bewildered general asked, “who are you, my dear girl?” The girl replied, “ I am the Goddess of the Universe. Blessed are you that you have got my vision. Go and fight the battle of your life. Be victorious!” The sweet yet sonorous voice trembled in the air of the valley. After the victory in that battle, when they were carrying the image upon the back of a huge elephant, king received another instruction in dream. The oracle said that they had to install the image on the place where they would reach at sunrise. Accordingly, they arrived at a place at sunrise and saw the land upon which they were standing was exactly like the back of a turtle. According to tantrika tradition, a turtle shaped land is fit for tantrika worship. This is the spot where Tripureswari temple stands. The legend of the sacrifice of Daksha is quite meaningful. The poet sang – truth is beauty, beauty truth. Shiva stands for Truth; Sati stands for beauty and auspiciousness. They are inseparable. When one wants to satisfy all the desires of life, ignoring truth itself, beauty and auspiciousness from one’s life depart. Destruction follows. That is the meaning of Shiva’s cosmic tandava dance. Yet, somewhere behind this terrible aspect (here it is Nataraja), lurks the protective power (here it is Visnu) that rescues human for the time being. Different parts of Sati’s body are the symbols of deceased beauty and auspiciousness. They are the objects of worship and meditation. Through such meditation, one learns to respect the Truth and by the perfection of this meditation, one is identified with Truth that is one with Beauty. Auspiciousness and Beauty then return to one’s life, one regains one’s lost empire. Architectural symphony Let us now imagine that we have gone to pay a visit to the temple and are standing in front of its western gate. Our sight is naturally attracted to the huge magnificent temple of dark red colour, made of burnt bricks. The top of the temple is built in provincial charchala style i.e. four inclined curved roofs in four sides meeting at a central point, very much similar to Kalighat, Calcutta. Upon that, the dome looks like a Buddhist stupa or like a budding lotus. At the topmost point seven small pitchers stand one upon another, gradually reducing in their sizes and metallic upturned amalaka fruit (Emblica myobalan), reminding Nagari style of Uttar Pradesh. This is called Dhvajadanda or the flag-post. The flag is made of brass. The walls are very thick (thickness: 8 feet) and decorated by many horizontal lines. Four half circular minars, holding four walls of the temple resemble the architectural style of Muslim period. Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and the provincial styles have merged in the architectural symphony of the temple. Let us now enter into the temple compound. The ascending steps of the staircase will lead us to that turtle’s back, now a wide precincts, left of which is a small temple of Shiva, who is like the guardian angel of the sacred spot, although not Mother’s officiating Bhairava Tripuresh whose temple is situated 5 K.M. apart. We offer our salutation to Shiva and advance further. The main temple stands in the center of the court. To the north of the temple are the temple-office and the hall where the devotees partake prasad. To the south, stand a number of rooms for the priests. There are number of white swans in the temple, now and then toddling on the temple compound with their beautiful gait. Let us cross them carefully and proceed further. We are now standing in front of the baleeghar, a small roofed terrace covering the altar of sacrifice. To its right is a huge tree, spreading its branches on the roof. Next to this is the spacious natmandir, or music hall where devotees and local minstrels offer devotional songs to Mother. Drums and other musical instruments are also there. Number of huge bells is hanging from the terrace of the music hall. Devotees ring this bell prayerfully. There are four doors in the northern and southern walls of the music hall. Let us cross this music hall and emerge through the eastern door. Now, we are standing in front of Mother’s temple, actually in front of the open door of the temple through which Mother is looking at us face to face. The Divine Mother Tripureswari The black basalt image of the Mother, often draped in red-bordered sari stands upon the prostrate body of Her Divine Consort Shiva, the symbol of the Absolute. Her feet are decorated in red alakta and in red hibiscus. Her appearance is like a small girl of black complexion. Her face is oval. She had three eyes. Two parallel eyes are round in shape with a mixed expression of benign and terrible. Her nose is not so sharp; a huge nose ring falls upon her protruded tongue. She had four hands. The lower left hand holds a severed human head and the upper grips a blood-stained sabre. In the upper right hand, She holds a mudra, symbolizing boons to Her children. In the lower right hand, She holds another mudra, representing fearlessness. She wears a golden crown and her matted locks have made her face sweet. On Her neck She puts on a necklace made of thirteen decapitated heads. She is like an anxious mother, waiting for Her long lost child. She represents the terror of destruction and the assurance of motherly tenderness as well. The inside of the temple is very dark, lit up only by a lamp placed on a small kulungi or a rack curved in the wall itself. The slab in the left side, on which the priests sit and worship Mother, is slightly erased. The majestic presence of Mother Tripureswari evokes an awe-inspiring sensation in the mind of the visitors that is expressed through their utter supplication to Mother. On Her right, there is another small image of Kali. She is called Chhoto Ma or Little Mother. The height of Little Mother is 48 cm., whereas, the height of the image of the main deity is 1m 57cm. The Little Mother resembles the image of the main deity. It is believed that the Little Mother was here even before the image of the main deity was installed. Some say that Buddhist Mogs used to worship Her before the temple was built. The image was found immersed in a nearby pond. Little Mother is worshipped in the temple as Chandi, since according to tantrika tradition, two images of Kali cannot be worshipped in the same temple. Another interesting point about this temple is that along with Devi, Salagrama, the symbol of Visnu is worshipped in the temple. As per Rajamala, Dhanyamanikya at first decided to dedicate the temple to Visnu. But his decision was changed with the dream that visited him. Afterwards, the royal priest assured him that it wouldn’t be wrong to worship both Visnu and Kali in the same temple. There was an inscription on the wall of the temple (seen by Sri Kailash Chandra Singhha, the editor of Rajamala, who visited the temple in 1892) that began with ‘ Maya murareriyamambika ya’ i.e. Ambika or Mother is the very divine Maya of Murari or Visnu, so there is absolutely no distinction between them. This shows a profound sense of unity between various religious cults, present in the spiritual atmosphere of the temple, which we will now discuss. A profound sense of unity Every year at the time of Dipavali, a village fair around the temple takes place. People from different parts of the state, irrespective of caste, creed or religious denominations join this fair to enjoy the festive mood. Shop-owners decorate their colourful shops; devotees, wearing vermilion marks on their foreheads, carry small earthen pots of sweet padas , to be offered to Mother. Dhoti-clad middle aged gentlemen, sari-clad women, hilly women with their provincial dresses ria and pacchra, kurta-pajama-salwar-kamiz-jeans-t-shirt-clad young boys and girls with their cell phones; foreign tourists, plugging their ears with walkman make it a colourful panorama. People speak in Bengali, Hindi, English, Kokborok and in Chakma. Children, yelling loudly, stand with all curiosity on the ghat of kalyansagar (the huge pond at the back of the temple) to watch the century old turtles surfacing slowly to eat puffed rice thrown by the children into the pond. Catching fish or tortoise is strictly prohibited here. From their shields, these age-old turtles slowly extend their heads like mysterious question marks. The emerging trend of Vajrayana, Sahajayana, Kalacharayana Buddhism was to popularize the abstract philosophical precepts of Mahayana by presenting them through the worship of concrete symbols or pantheons like Tara, Nairatmadevi or Prajnaparamita. Afterwards Hindu Tantra assimilated these Buddhist gods and goddesses in its fold. Tripura was the land of Buddhist Sahajayana, the proof of which has been found by the excavation that is still going on in Pilak. Were the Buddhists Mogs worshipping the image of Tripureswari as Taradevi at Chittagong? It is said that the worship of Mother never stops in a peethastana. There are many peethas where Goddess is worshipped without any image. Was Matabari one such place before the temple was erected? Or did the image of Little Mother receive the worship of these Buddhists as Tara at that time? While leaving the place were the Mogs unable to carry the image and therefore immersed the image into the pond? The stupa like structure in the dome reminds us of Buddhist architecture. Whatever may be the case, even today the Buddhists in this state show deep respect to Matabari, Udaipur. To the Muslims, Tripureswari is their Matai Thakurani. Gazinama of Sekh Munahar, the chronicler of Samser’s carrier records that Mother appeared in the dream of Samser and introduced Herself as Matai Thakurani. It is also said there that Samser worshipped Mother in sixteen prescribed rituals. In Islam, worship of any image or picture is strictly prohibited. But in this case, perhaps, Samser listened to the voice of his heart that is far greater than the dictates of all the world religions put together. Even now, devout Muslims carry tender feeling for Mother and they offer now and then the first products of their vegetable gardens to Her. It has been said that Salagrama is worshipped with Mother in the same temple. Many of the kings of Manikya dynasty were devout Vaisnavas, yet they had deep regards for Divine Mother. If you visit the temple at 9 o’clock in the morning, you will find some local devotees, sitting in the Natmandir, are reading the praise of six renowned teachers of Vaisnavism. One of those men, I heard one day, was chanting from a Sanskrit treatise, which I could not identify, that presents in the style of Srimad Bhagavatgita - the scene of the battle field where Sri Krishna is showing Arjuna the cosmic form of Divine Mother. The priests of the temple are Brahmin in caste. Those who clean the sanctum, pluck flowers from the gardens and clean utensils belong to kayastha community and are called Taluas. Men belonging to Malakara community make garlands. Those who sacrifice animals in the balipeetha and lit up torch on every new moon night in the temple compound are called respectively Galim and Jolai. They belong to the tribal community of Tripura. The guards deputed by the kings to protect the temple were Muslims. Appointed in various responsibilities, these men of different castes and communities are equally respected and enjoy equal privileges. This mutual love and respect for each other belonging to different castes or creeds is the very tradition of Tripureswari temple. Conclusion Motion is possible only when two opposing forces keep a body going. Life is motion. It is a continuous process to find out the trajectory through which it can move to unfold itself amidst the continuous strife between the divergent powers of self-denial and self-expression. This collision or strife is the motivating factor that has kept humanity moving through the intricate turns of history. Divine Mother is the representation of this tension or strife. Yet, in Her, lies that calm point where contradictions meet. Unifying all these conflicting emotions of human, thus, Mother Tripureswari has become the Matrix of a socio-cultural synthesis in Tripura and elsewhere. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Time Line Year Event related to Tripureswari temple 6th century A.D. Yujhar Fa defeated the Mogs and acquired Udaipur ……… 1240 Queen Tripurasundari defeated the army of Gaur and conducted the battle from a fort that probably was turned into the temple later on. ………. 1501 Dhanyamanikya built the temple 1567-76 1585 Ranagan Narayan repaired the temple Amarmanikya was defeated in the hand of invaders from Arakan 1623 Yasodharmanikya refused to send taxes to the Mughal Emperor Jahangir, Tripura had to face the fierce Mughal invasion 1626-60 1681 Kalyanamanikya repaired the temple Ramamanikya once again repaired the temple 1751 A Muslim subject of Meherkul (Kumilla) Samser Gazi raised a violent rebel and acquired Udaipur & the temple 1857 The temple was repaired by Jagadiswari Sumitradevi 1904 Radhakishoremanikya repaired the temple for the fifth time
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 09:08:15 +0000
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