Sri Surya Pahar is a significant but relatively unknown archaeological site in Assam. The Surya Pahar temple is an ancient sun worship center. The site is a hilly terrain where several rock-cut Shivalingas, votive stupas and the deities of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain pantheon are scattered in an area of about one km. Literally an art gallery of sculptures, Surya Pahar (Hill of the Sun) is dotted with ruins of several old temples.
Sri Surya Pahar is located about 12 km southeast of Goalpara town. A modern Sun Temple is also situated on the hill. Sun worship, as in other parts of India, goes back to ancient times in Assam.
According to the Kalika Purana written in the 10th Century B.C., Brahma created Pragjyotishpura as a city equal to the city of Indra – the King of the Devas. The word 'prag' refers to the 'east' and 'jyotisha' refers to star-astrology. Pragjyotisha is thus said to mean, 'eastern city of astrology'. The site is centered on the hills (Pahar) of Sri Surya which is profusely filled up with Shiva Lingas (Lingam). The popular belief is that 99999 Shiva Lingas were engraved here by Vyasa in order to build up a second Kashi (where there were 1,00,000 Shiva Lingas) and once it was one of the holiest pilgrimage sites in the region. There is no historical evidence exactly how many Lingams once dotted in these hills, but still there are hundreds of them, from tiny to large in size, scattered everywhere at the foot of the hill and covering the extensive area after centuries of neglect and pilferage. The exact figure of the Lingas (and also other deities and relics) in the hill is yet to be counted scientifically.
A few years ago, some archaeologists unearthed a few Shiva Lingas and a few houses at Sri Surya - findings which confirmed the long-held belief that a thriving civilization held sway around Sri Surya Pahar some centuries ago. The intricate and scientific designs of the houses with artfully designed bricks led some archaeologists even to believe that more unearthing the history of Sri Surya Pahar would change the understanding of the history of ancient Assam and India. Some scholars even referred to the accounts of famous Chinese traveler Huen Tsang to claim that it was Sri Surya Pahar and not Guwahati that was the ancient land of Pragjyotishpur or Pragjyotisha Kingdom, the capital of the Kingdom of Kumar Bhaskara Varman (600-650). The findings of the nearby archaeological site of Paglatek are cited to strengthen this claim. Since Sri Surya Pahar is very close to the bank of Brahmaputra river, it might have been an important trade centre or seat of administration in the past.
There also exist about 25 votive stupas of different sizes in the southern fringe of Sri Surya Pahar. The stupas are significant for it shows two points. One ,that there was Buddhist influence in Kamarupa and two, much earlier then the rest of the country, because the design point to the early Hinayana stage of influence , earlier to the Mahayana and Vajrayana esotericism seen in Bihar and Bengal. Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism all seem to have left their mark on this very sacred destination.
Archaeological excavations at the site have yielded numerous antiquities from the remains of two temple complexes datable from c. 6th to 12th century AD. Substantial terracotta art objects and stone antiquities are accumulated through these excavations. The noted discovery among the stone sculpture are the image of a Mahisasuramardini, stella fragments depicting kirttimukhas, Vidhyadaras, decorative objects, terracotta plaques, carved bricks, etc. Out of 173 antiquities in the museum, 93 are displayed in three galleries.
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