Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c7.s5: Lonād
Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c7.s5
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Lonād
c7.s5.1
Five miles to the north of Kalyāṇ, on the other side of the river, is the small and rather insignificant temple of Rāmeśvara at the village of Lonād. It is a Śaiva shrine, but a very plain one compared with that of Ambarnātha. Like the latter, it has a sunken shrine, the floor of which is some three feet below that of the hall. The hall has fallen, and most of its material has been cleared away; but, lying around, are a good many sculptured stones, some of them with very obscene representations. An interesting thing upon one of the basement mouldings of the hall is the name of the ubiquitous *jogi* Magaradhvaja, with the once mysterious number "700" following it. This name occurs upon temples at Mārkanda, Bilhāri, Amarakantaka, Chandreha, Khurda, Khajarāha, Chitor in Bihār, in the Khairāgarh state and elsewhere, and the number puzzled the late Sir Alexander Cunningham and his assistants. They looked upon the "700" as indicating a date, but in what era they could not say, since it would fit in with no known era. It is of course impossible for a *jogi*, travelling on foot in the leisurely way they usually do, to have visited all these places in the course of one year, so we may at once discard the idea of the number indicating a date. Not long ago a bard when reciting a *kīrtana*, brought in the words, in the middle of it, "Goraknātha and his seven hundred disciples" which at once explained the mysterious number. Magaradhvaja, also, measured his importance by the number of his following: he was the leader of seven hundred disciples.¹
c7.s5.2
¹ Mr. Hiralāl, an official in the Central Provinces, and a keen antiquarian, called my attention to this.
c7.s5.3
Sufficient has been said to show that this part of the Koṅkaṇ has been a place of very considerable activity from the beginning of the Christian era down to the times of the Śilāhāra chiefs.