Unakoti or Subrai Khung is a sculptural emblem and ancient Shaivite place that hosts rock carvings, figures and images of gods and goddesses. The bas relief sculptures at Unakoti are on stylistic grounds ascribed to 7th to 9th century CE, to the period of Pre- Manikya rule. The rock art was patronised by Deva Dynasty of Sri Bhumi in Samatata. The only inscription at Unakoti is on the other Chaturmukhalinga image, consisting of a couple of records in Bengali Characters of the 11th to 12th century CE, which mentions one SriJayadeva, probably a pilgrim. Unakoti literally means "one less than one crore" or "koti" in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and Bengali. In the local

Kokborok Kokborok (or Tripuri) is a Tibeto-Burman language of the Indian state of Tripura and neighbouring areas of Bangladesh. Its name comes from ''kók'' meaning "verbal" or "language" and ''borok'' meaning "people" or "human", It is one of the anci ...

language, it is called ''Subrai Khung''. It was put on the

UNESCO world heritage site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

tentative list in 2022. It is the prime tourist spot of Unakoti District, in the

Kailashahar Kailashahar (or Kôilāśohôr) is the fourth largest urban area in the north eastern state of India, Tripura, located near northwest Bangladesh border. It is a Municipal council and the administrative center of the Unakoti district, this city ...

Subdivision of the

North-eastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—eac ...

Indian state of

Tripura Tripura () is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a populat ...

Description

The images found at Unakoti are of two types: namely rock-carved figures and stone images. Among the rock-cut carvings, the central Shiva head and gigantic

Ganesha Ganesha or Ganesh (, , ), also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka and Pillaiyar, is one of the best-known and most worshipped Deva (Hinduism), deities in the Hindu deities, Hindu pantheon and is the Supreme God in the Ganapatya sect. His depictions ...

figures deserve special mention. The central Shiva head known as ''Unakotiswara Kal Bhairava'' is about 30 feet high including an embroidered head-dress which itself is 10 feet high. On each side of the head-dress of the central Shiva, there are two full-size female figures - one of

Durga Durga (, ) is a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars. Durga's legend centres around combating evils and demonic ...

standing on a lion and another female figure on the other side. In addition, three enormous images of Nandi Bull are found half-buried in the ground. There are various other stone as well as rock-cut images at Unakoti.

Legend

According to Hindu scriptures, Lord Shiva once spent a night here en route to Kashi. 99,99,999 gods and goddesses followed him. He had asked his followers to wake up before sunrise and make their way towards Kashi. Unfortunately, none awoke, except Lord Shiva himself. Before he set out for Kashi alone, he put a curse on the others, turning them to stone and that is how the site got its name. Local tribals believe that the maker of these idols was Kallu gurjar. He was a devotee of

Parvati Parvati (, , IPA: /Sanskrit phonology, pɑɾʋət̪iː/), also known as Uma (, , IPA: Sanskrit phonology, /ʊmɑː/) and Gauri (, , IPA: /Sanskrit phonology, gə͡ʊɾiː/), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the Devi, ...

and wanted to accompany Shiva-Parvati to their abode on

Mount Kailash Mount Kailash (also Kailasa; ''Kangrinboqê'' or ''Gang Rinpoche''; ; ; , ) is a mountain in Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It lies in the Kailash Range (Gangdisê Mountains) of the Transhimalaya, in the western part ...

. On Parvati's insistence, Shiva reluctantly agreed to take Kallu to Kailash, on the condition that he would have to make one crore idols of Shiva in one night. Kallu got involved in this work like a man of his tune. But when dawn broke, the idols turned out to be one less than one crore (or ''unakoti''). Adamant on getting rid of Kallu, Shiva left him with his idols in Unakoti, making this his excuse, and kept on walking. The existence of 99,99,999 idols in Unakoti (according to the legend), is the apparent reason for the derivation of the village's name.

Festival

Every year a big fair popularly known as ''Ashokastami Mela'' is held in the month of April. The festival is visited by thousands of pilgrims. Another smaller festival takes place in January.

Location

Unakoti lies 178 km to the northeast from

Agartala Agartala (, , ) is the capital and the List of cities and towns in Tripura, largest city of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tripura, situated on the banks of Haora River, Haora/Saidra River, about east of the border ...

which has the closest airport, 8 km to the east from

, district headquarters of Unakoti district, 148 km to the south-east from

Silchar Silchar is a city and the headquarters of the Cachar district of the state of Assam, India. It is second largest city of Assam after Guwahati in terms of population and GDP. It is also administrative capital of Barak Valley division. It is locate ...

. The nearest railway station is 19.6 km away at Dharmanagar railway station on the Lumding–Sabroom section. From Dharmanagar railway station it takes about 30–40 minutes by car. Travelling from capital town Agartala has become much easier nowadays. The morning train from Agartala reaches Dharmanagar before 10 am. The afternoon train from Dharmanagar reaches Agartala by 8 PM.

Preservation

The site has suffered centuries of neglect causing degradation and loss of considerable scale to the rock art. Since its adoption by the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) as a heritage site, the situation has slightly improved, though a lot of work including substantial excavation remains to be undertaken. The Centre has recently granted Rs 12

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

to the state for developing the area, 178 km from here, as a major tourist destination. The site was added to the tentative list of the UNESCO

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

in December 2022.

Iconography

File:Unakoti 1.jpg, Shiva with the waters of Ganga flowing from his locks. File:Unakoti 5.jpg, Close up of the sculpture of Shiva. File:Unakoti (Scorpian ad).JPG, Image of

. File:Ganesha, Unakoti ( ঊনকোটি).JPG, Image of Gigantic

File:Unakotiswara Kal Bhairava,Unakoti ( ঊনকোটি).JPG, Image of KalBhairava File:Unakoti 6.jpg, A wall of stone with reliefs.

References

{{Authority control Unakoti district Archaeological sites in Tripura Hindu pilgrimage sites in India Tourist attractions in Tripura Tourism in Northeast India Rock art in India Rock reliefs in India Shiva in art World Heritage Tentative List for India