Ranachandi Temple - Bijoypur Village | Bodo and Dimasa Heritage Digital Archive

Summary:

Ranachandi temple is related to Dimasa Kachari history,

Description:

The narrator Nayan Barman describes in the video that this temple was established in the year 1852 at Bijoypur, Cachar. A piece of sword is worship in this temple as a symbol of Goddess Ranachandi. It is being worshipped since the reign of Dimasa King in Dimapur, then shifted to Khaspur, after that shifted to Haritikar , from there to Ranighat and finally to Bijoypur. In this temple puja is performed every week on Sunday by both Dimasa and non-Dimasa. The main grand puja celebration happens twice in a year, one in the month of January and the second event is in the month of April.

Cultural Narrative:

Dimasa king Nirbhayadhwaj Narayan was about to lose war with Ahom's, and at that very moment the King had a dream where the Goddess Ranachandi asked the king to worship her and in that dream the goddesses asked him to melt iron and pour it over the field, and when birds eat the melted iron and defecate, the goddesses asked to wield a weapon with the faeces of the birds. The king did as he was asked to and it took days to wield the sword. Suddenly one day sound from blacksmith stopped and the king enquired and found out that the sword is completed but it was small in size. The king got angry looking at it and imprisoned the blacksmith. The king again dreamt and saw the goddesses where she told him that the blacksmith was not to be blamed and told him that she will appear in front of him in the form of snake in a pond and asked him to place his hand on the head of the snake and then he will receive the sword. The king did as he was told by the goddesses , he visited the pond and saw a huge snake in the water. He got scared and couldn’t place his hand on the head of the snake. The king's brother then pushed the king towards the snake so that he could place his hand on the head. But accidentally his hand touched the tail of the snake and when he lifted up his hand he saw just a piece of sword lying there. Then the king began to worship the piece of sword after which he gradually won the war.