Joy Dol, Joysagar

The Keshavnarayan Vishnu Dol, better known as Joy Dol, was built in 1698 by Swargadeo Rudra Singha, Ahom king from 1696 to 1714, to honour the memory of his mother, Joymoti. Dedicated to Vishnu, earlier worshipped here as Kesavaraya Visnu, it is built of brick and stone, and its walls show celestial beings alongside scenes of the social life of the time, including the sports and pastimes of the Ahom kings.

The temple stands on the bank of Joysagar, a tank dug over 45 days and finished in December 1697 at the Rangpur capital; with its banks it covers 318 acres, 155 of them water. In 1699 Rudra Singha built two more temples beside it: the Sivadol on the north bank, 16.85 m high with four turrets round its main spire and stucco figures of Shiva in its wall niches, enclosed by a brick fort, and the Devi Dol on the west bank, a brick double-roofed hut. The small Ghanashyam House, or Nati-Gosain temple, stands to the south-west.