Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c6.4

c6.4

In most parts of the country the building of these old temples is ascribed to a certain Hemāḍpant, just as those of North Gujarāt and the Kanarese districts are placed to the credit of Siddhārājā and Jakanācharya respectively, while those of Khāndesh are frequently assigned to the Gavali Rājās. Who the latter were, if not the early patriarchal rulers of the Yādava family, it is impossible to say. The earlier caves are ascribed to the Pāṇḍavas or Viśvakarma, and, like the temples, they are said to have been constructed during a single night. Hemāḍpant is sometimes described as a famous physician who, in return for some great cure which he effected, demanded the construction of three hundred temples;³ but, more correctly, as the famous minister of Rāmchandradēva, the Yādava king of Devagiri, who lived in the second half of the thirteenth century. This Hemāḍpant, or Hemādri, as he is also called, was a man of many parts who, in addition to his administrative duties, found time to compose several literary works; and, having been much attached to religion, he is credited with having erected some three hundred temples. Having been in a position to command the requisite funds for the purpose, it is quite probable that, like the brothers Tejaḥpāla and Vastupāla of North Gujarāt, in the thirteenth century, he caused a good number of temples to be built, and started a revival in temple building which was followed by others. But the earlier and more decorated examples, found in the Dakhan, were, as we shall see, erected long before his time. The true Hemāḍpanti temples are characterized by heaviness inclining to clumsiness, with severely plain exteriors. This absence of outside figure sculpture may be due to the want of sufficient funds, but that could easily have been met by building fewer and building them better. It is, however, more likely that it was due to the advance of the Muḥammadans, who were merciless iconoclasts and who mutilated and destroyed all they found in their path that savoured at all of idolatry. Images displayed upon the outside of temples would only have exasperated them and invited destruction. It was, no doubt, the uncompromising attitude of Islām which, about this time, caused the building of many temples to be temporarily suspended, and which was taken up again in later times, being finished off, or at least made usable, in a very rough and ready manner.