Saturday, October 6, 2012

Sheohar Raj - An offshoot of the Legendary Bettiah Raj

While writing about the great Zamindar estate of Sheohar Raj - which dominated over the entire Muzaffarpur Area of Bihar and erstwhile Bengal for for more than two centuries, it becomes our duty to pay obeisance to MAHADEV, in whose name the place - SHIV-HAR or SHEOHAR came into being.

Below is one of the beautiful scenery of the local Shiv Temple at Sheohar. The Shiv Temple in the photo


below belongs to the family of one of the earlier babus who had their origins from Bettiah Raj and came and settled around Sheohar even before Sheohar Raj came into existence. And as it is said, those who beleive in Lord Shiva, troubles just flyaway.

The pond beside the Shiva Temple is owned by the Zamindar family of Sheohar Raj and it serves as a Fishery. Once again, it is the family's thought, planning and investment over the decades that has beautified the environment.

And now that we did speak about Lord Shiva and Shiv-har, we have to pay our respects to Mata Parvati and the lord's favourite gana - Nandi. It is a sanskara that when we pray to the Lord, we pray to the Mother Goddess (Shakti) and his favourite - Nandi. Below are the silver idols (over 100+ years old) of the trio mentioned above. Courtesy - Sheohar Raj folks.

Also, there is a very nice "Hanuman" temple made in the premises of the descendants of Sheohar Raj - It was made by Rani Kishori Kunwar (Daughter of RAJA BAHADUR HARIHAR PRASAD NARAYAN SINGH of AMAWAN RAJ ) who was married to RAJA MAHESH NANDAN SINGH of SHEOHAR RAJ. She was popularly referred to as "Kishori Aaji Jee" by the people of Sheohar.

Watch out this space from more. While starting the write up on Sheohar Raj, the first thing that came into my mind was MAHADEV / LORD SHIVA - so started with his blessings first by showing his forms - courtesy the legendary SHEOHAR RAJ. More will follow on the high-profile family which not only survived the transformation from BRITISH INDIA to INDENPENDENT INDIA , but marched ahead with the same vigour leaving behind several Zamindar families of Bihar.

Also including the photo of crystal of Lord Shiva used for prayer -


4 comments:

  1. Great page,all effots must be made to restore Bettiah Raj palace compound and all it's temples.

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  2. Main priest of lord shiva tmple not mentioned at Raja Mahesh Nandan Singh

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  3. Main priest of lord shiva tmple not mentioned at Raja Mahesh Nandan Singh

    ReplyDelete