Context:
- An age-old pond in the heart of this historic town, which is popularly known as Lichu Pukhuri, has several varieties of litchis growing on its bank, such as ‘Bombaiya,’ ‘Bilati’ and ‘Shahi’ varieties, and has incidentally become a centre of tourist attraction.
- It is worth mentioning that although it is named Lichu Pukhuri because of the litchi orchard, yet the fruit itself has nothing to do with the excavation of the by now famous pond.
Highlights:
- History reveals that during the British reign, the headquarters of the undivided Darrang district was shifted from Mangaldai to Tezpur during 1835 and after the British bureaucrats had settled their headquarters in Tezpur, they shifted the two Biswanath Chariali-based army base camps ‘Gora’ and ‘Golami’ to Tezpur.
- Army personnel of the two platoons used these two ponds, one of which is known as Dhuba Pukhuri while the other is Paltan Pukhuri.
- Sahitya Kandari Padmanath Gohain Barua in the chapter on ‘Pukhuri Sanskar’ (improvement/purification of pond) his autobiography titled Mur Suworoni, mentioned that the two ponds (Paltan Pukhuri and Dhuba Pukhuri), which were used by the British army, were in fact excavated by the Ahom kings.
- Banamala Verma in his bronze plaque mentioned: padum phulere sushobhita sundar sarobar, which aptly speaks about today’s Padum Pukhuri that signifies the identity of Tezpur town.