Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c8: Temples in Khāndesh

Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c8

Language: English

c8.s1 Balsāne — 16 parts
c8.s2 Pāṭṇā — 12 parts
c8.s3 Vāghlī — 12 parts
c8.s4 Sangameśvara — 5 parts
c8.s5 Chāngdeva — 6 parts
c8.s6 Erandol — 3 parts
c8.s7 Minor Miscellaneous Remains in Khāndesh — 17 parts

Temples in Khāndesh

Balsāne

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THE village of Balsāne is situated upon the north bank of the Burāi stream, at a distance of about twenty-seven miles in a north-westerly direction from Dhulia in Khāndesh. Near the village there are the remains of nine separate old buildings—eight temples and a *matha* or monastery. In a field, just above the bank of the stream, to the south-east of the village, are three of them; four are on high ground to the east of the village; the *matha* is at a short distance to the north-east of the last group, and there is a small temple in the fields across the river, some distance to the south of the village. Sculptured stones lie about, among which are images of the *panchalinga* and Brahmā, and the only inscription is one over the doorway of the *matha*. (Plates XVI—XXIV and XXVIII).

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Of the temples in the field, first mentioned, two are built parallel and close to one another, both facing west, while the third stands out in front of these and faces east. The larger one of the first two, to the south of the other, has been a very fine triple-shrined building, most elaborately and profusely sculptured, but it is now very shattered and weatherworn. Parts of the *sikharas* of the east, or main, and the south shrines remain, but that of the north has fallen, leaving the walls in a very shaky condition. The temple is of the same style as that of Ambarnātha, though differing in minor details, and the two must have been erected about the same time. It will be seen that the plan is very different, it having three shrines and one porch instead of three porches and one shrine as at Ambarnātha. It faces the west, and has been, from the beginning, a Śaiva temple. The shrine here is not sunk, but is on the same level as the rest of the floor of the building, and the antechamber is of full depth. In the main shrine is a *linga* and Nandi, the usual outside pavilion for the latter being absent as at Ambarnātha. The bull here, again, is not the original one. The dedicatory figures over both the shrine and main doorway have been wilfully damaged. The images upon the exterior would point to the south shrine having been occupied by a Vaishnava deity, but it is now empty. The north shrine is also empty, the images upon its walls, outside, being two *devīs* or goddesses. The east or main shrine held the *linga* of Śiva. Over the doors of the two side shrines is Ganapati, while, within each, is an altar for an image.

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There are six pillars—four in the hall, and two in the porch—of one pattern, and simpler in design than those of Ambarnātha. They have very few images upon them, their place being taken by fretwork designs.

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The ceiling patterns are similar to those of Ambarnātha. The central bay is domed, and rises, in two ascending rings of cusped mouldings, to the centre, which then falls in a cusped rosette pendant. The corners, in the angles between the beams and the circle of the dome, are filled with florid kīrtimukhas. The marginal ceilings of the hall are coved upwards from the walls to the tops of the beams over the central pillars, and are decorated with lines of ribbing as at Ambarnātha. The ceiling of the shrine is hardly less elaborately decorated than that of the hall, while that in the porch has been like that of the hall, but it is very much weatherworn.

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Passing on to the outer walls of the temple, we find them more richly encrusted with ornamental detail and more overlaid with tracery than in the temple of Ambarnātha; in fact, we have here the style in its fullest development, crystallized into its richest details, and sparkling with light and shade from summit to basement. Being a smaller building than Ambarnātha—64 feet over all—the basement is reduced in height by the further omission of the elephant moulding, thus making the basement four mouldings short of the full complement. But there is a change here in the torus moulding of Ambarnātha which has become wedge-shaped with a sharp edge. The walls above the basement are much the same as in that temple except that there is rather more richness in details. The śikharas, again, are more lavishly worked. Introduced into the walls will be found a few narrow vertical panels of scrollwork, which, later on, with surface fretwork and lozenge-shaped oranament, were used more fully to take the place of the more expensive image carving, as may be seen on the Kokamthān temple, Gondeśvara at Sinnar, and the temple of Mahādeva at Pātna. It is, here, but sparingly used.

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The principal images on the exterior of the temple are as follows: On the west face of the south shrine the image is much corroded and is not very distinct. On the south face is Narasimha, and on the east Trivikrama or the "Three Strides of Vishnu." On the south face of the main, or east shrine, is Bhairava; on the east Śiva dancing the tandava, and on the north face Mahākālī. On the west face of the north shrine is Mahisāsura-mardanī; on the north is a devī (Pārvatī?) with ten arms, who arranges the ornaments in her hair with two of her right hands, and holds up a mirror in one of her left. Two other hands, one on each side, seem to be tying something about her left leg which is raised towards them—perhaps putting on an anklet. The other niche of this shrine has fallen away. There are the usual indecent figures on the temple, but they are confined to the smaller images on the bands.

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Of the same style and age is the decorated temple with the three porches in the group on the east of the village. Here we have a temple on the same general plan as that of Ambarnātha except that, in the plan of the shrine the corners are at different angles with one another. The plan is of the star-shaped variety, as will be found repeated in the temple of Mudhai Devī at Vāghlī and in Gulteśvara at Sarnaī in the Kaira District and elsewhere. The temple faces east. The shrine is a total wreck, sufficient of the basement remaining to show what its plan was like. The ceiling panels, within the hall, are similar to those in the first temple described, save that the marginal coved ceilings, being much broader, struts rise at an angle, from the capitals of the four central pillars, to help to carry the additional weight. In the basement the garāspatti, or band of kīrtimukhas, is here replaced by a band of rosettes and lozenge-shaped flowers, the former being not unlike the heraldic rose. The shrine doorway, which still stands, is almost identical in design with that of the first temple, and, upon its dedicatory block is Gaṇapati. Curiously, the kīrtimukha faces are absent from the threshold of the first temple but are inserted upon the face of the slender pilaster on either side.

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This building is in a very dilapidated state; the stone of which it is built is of a soft nature, and has weathered in many parts to a state of murum which now crumbles away at the least touch. The broken masonry, at the back discloses the secret of the construction of its walls. An outer and an inner shell of block masonry, set up more or less on edge, are filled in between with loose blocks and boulders, without the least attempt at bonding, and with no cement of any kind. In fact, the outer and inner shells just keep the ‘filling-in’ from rolling out altogether. To prevent confusion in the description of these buildings and in the absence of names, they are numbered. This is No. 4. No. 5 is not far from it.

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Temples Nos. 2 and 3 in the first group, close to No. 1, and No. 5, are all of a later type by at least fifty years. They are characterized by less complex plans, and are practically free of figure carving on their exterior. No. 2, on the north of No. 1, though so much plainer in design, has its own merits, and cannot be considered a falling off from the more florid style of Nos. 1 and 4. It is a different style altogether, which seems to have been abruptly introduced, and to have been the type from which the later “Hemāḍpanti” of the fourteenth century may have been derived. Were it not that these temples bear the stamp of twelfth century work, one might almost think that the discontinuance of images upon the outside was due to the approach of the Muhammadans whom the Hindus soon had reason to dread as uncompromising iconoclasts and the most bitter foes of idolatry. Images, out of sight within a temple, might pass unnoticed, but those paraded upon the outside walls would but exasperate them and be a direct invitation to sacrilege.

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This particular temple had, like No. 4, a star-shaped plan, though little now is left of it. In its upturned floor—in all probability the work of Muhammadans in search of treasure—is a huge linga, while in a large niche in the back wall is a standing female image, the bust alone remaining, the rest having disintegrated away. This was probably an image of Pārvatī in one of her forms; and this being such a prominent and important image, here, it is possible she also occupied the north shrine in temple No. 1.

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The roof of the hall has fallen in, the pillars and beams remaining in their places. The type of pillar has changed entirely from those in the hall at Ambarnātha, but those in the north and west porches in the latter temple, stand about midway between the two. They are conspicuous by the absence of figure carving upon them, its place being taken by scroll and fretwork patterns. It will be seen that the pillars of both temples are made up of practically the same parts. The figure panels on the bases of the earlier ones are replaced by triangular facets, and the images upon the lower square part of the shaft are omitted, leaving the surface quite plain. The two bands of sculpture above this are replaced by fretwork panels, the kīrtimukha band above this, again, is retained, and so are the triangular ornaments above them. The capital is almost identical, and the whole is surmounted, in each case, by brackets, with squat supporting figures beneath them. There are a few small indecent figures on the walls of this shrine.

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Temple No. 3, opposite the last, is, even, a greater wreck. It is of precisely the same style. From the fallen blocks it is seen that it possessed a very finely designed ceiling panel—a small central dome adorned with cusped ornament and florid kīrtimukha corners. Ganapati presides over the shrine door. The two temples face one another and are built upon the same centre line. This one faces the east. The outside walls are rather plainer than those of No. 2. Around about, in this same field, are what appear to be the sites of other buildings.

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Returning to the group on the east of the village we find temple No. 5 a very differently planned one to those we have been considering. There is nothing new to note with reference to the main shrine, and the ceiling of the hall is supported, like others, upon four central pillars. But around the sides of the hall are a series of ten small shrines, as may be seen on the plan. In front of the hall doorway is a verandah-porch with a shrine at each end. As the temple faces the north it could not possibly have been dedicated to Śaiva worship. It was very likely Vaishnava, the main shrine containing an image of Vishnu and the ten smaller ones, round the hall, the ten avatāras of that deity. Within the main shrine is the image of a horseman, which may possibly be one of these, viz., the Kalka avatāra; but at our visit the front of the temple had been walled up, all but a small doorway, and the interior was so dark and filled with the overwhelming stench of bats, that it was not possible then to examine it thoroughly. The pillars and the exterior walls agree in style with those in temple No. 2. Beside the temple, on the same platform, is a little shrine with a partly mutilated standing devī somewhat similar to that in the shrine of No. 2. This building is plain and consists of a small shrine and an open antechamber, and it also faces the north. To the west of these is a small, simply constructed temple, very plain, facing east.

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Upon a knoll, about a hundred and fifty yards to the north-east of this group, is a low square plain building which is, as an inscription over the doorway declares, a matha or residence for priests. It consists of a large square room with plain walls, and four central pillars supporting the roof. A doorway leads out into a verandah, now partly destroyed, in each end of which is a small cell-shrine. The doorway has been, unlike those of the temples, fitted with a wooden door, sockets being provided in the stone frame, above and below, for the door to swing in, and large square deep channels in either side, about half way up, for a beam to slide in, behind the door. The outside walls are perfectly plain, and no ornament whatever appears to have been applied.

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The inscription which is above the doorway, in five long lines, records the rebuilding of the *matha*, which had been ruined, by Pandita Śrī Mahālūka on the banks of the Kesara at Balasāṇa in Saka 1106 (A.D. 1184). The river is now known as the Burāī.

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In addition to the remains already described, there are a small temple about half a mile to the south of the village, several *sati* and memorial stones, and mutilated sculptures in and around the village. One of the best of the memorial stones stands in front of temple No. 5. They are generally tall, square columns—not flat slabs as found in the Kanarese districts—sculptured upon all four faces with representations of warriors, death scenes of the heroes commemorated, their arrival in paradise, the *liṅga* as their object of worship, and other scenes. A group of these stands upon high ground between the river and the village. Amongst other sculptures lying about is a large boar covered with little figures in rows along his back. This may have been connected with the Vaishṇava temple No. 5.

Pāṭṇā

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Pāṭṇā, ten miles to the south-west of Chālisgaon in Khāndesh, is the site of a deserted town, now overgrown with jungle, where, scattered among the ruins, are the remains of several old temples. The range of the Sātmāla hills, running east and west and separating Khāndesh from the Nizām's territory, is at this point recessed, forming a horse-shoe-shaped valley. The hills at the entrance of the valley are about a mile apart, while the glen between them runs back about a mile and a half. At the upper end of the valley, above the temple of Āi Bhavānī on the eastern side, a rough mountain path winds up the lonely ravine—the Pitalkhorā or "Brazen Glen"—at the top of which, in the wild solitude of the rocks, is a group of very old Buddhist caves. A stream, fed by the innumerable rivulets that trickle down the sides of the hills around, winds down the Pāṭṇā valley, in one of its curves sweeping by the shrine of Āi Bhavānī, where there is still kept up a yearly *jatrā* or fair. The stream inclines, throughout its meanderings, towards the eastern side of the valley leaving a considerable area between it and the western cliffs, in which, high up above, are the cave-temples known as Nāgārjuna's Kotri, Sītā's Nhānī, and the Śrinagar Chāurī, a space ample enough for the old town of Pāṭṇā, whose ruins now occupy the ground. The whole of the valley is thickly wooded, and, being quite uninhabited, save by the owl and the jackal, the pig and the panther with an occasional tiger, it is, between the lights, quite an eerie and lonely place to camp in. The ruins of the old town are thickly scattered about, and, with difficulty, maintain their ground against the jungle which, where unable to displace them, just grows over and casts its creeper entanglements firmly around their mouldering walls. (Plates XXV—XXXII.)

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Beyond the few ruined temples, tanks and wells, there is now little above ground to represent the more ancient city. The ruins that now exist, composed of mud and rubble stone walls and Musalmān graves, are of a comparatively recent town, and that of no great size. It appears to have been walled in.

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with high mud walls and lofty bastions, as was usual in the Dakhan, within which was a citadel similarly fortified. The crumbling walls of these enclosures, with the foundations of mud and rubble-built houses, still exist. One of the walls runs along east and west by the side of the principal temple, that of Maheśvara, and is built on to it on either side; this makes the temple itself, which is upon high ground, part of the wall, the north face being within, while the south face is without the fort. Opposite this, on the south, and separated from it by a broad passage, is another small fortified enclosure in which is a small ruined temple with an inscription over its doorway. Besides these, there are two other small ruined shrines, which, like them, have been included within the fort wall on its east side. These are a few hundred yards to the east and north-east, respectively, of the first temple, one being Brahmanical and the other Jaina. With the temple of Āi Bhavānī, up the valley, these are all the remains visible of the more ancient city of Pāṭṇā.

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The temple of Maheśvara, the largest and most important, is built upon the usual plan with shrine, *maṇḍapa* or hall, and porch. The hall has been an open one, the marginal pillars, supporting the eaves, standing upon a dwarf wall which encloses the hall. There has been but one entrance, on the east side, the direction in which the temple faces. The plan of the shrine is star-shaped, being formed on the basis of a circular star of twenty-eight angles or points. Two points are absorbed, on the north, west and south, in forming the central panels on those sides, and eight have had to make way for the antechamber and entrance. The inside of the shrine is, of course, square. The pillars are of a somewhat later type than those at Ambarnātha or Balsāṇe, but their design is dignified and their proportions good. The *kīrttimukha* mask, which does not appear in the basement mouldings outside, is used very much as a decorative detail on the pillars, which have absolutely no images upon them.

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The shrine doorway, which is neatly decorated, has Gaṇapati upon the dedicatory block above, and on the threshold, on either side of the centre, is the *kīrttimukha*. In a frieze of small niches at the top, above the cornice, are images of Śiva in the centre with the *saptamātṛīs*, or seven mothers, and Gaṇapati on either side of him. In the middle of the floor of the shrine is a *liṅga*, and in the centre of the back wall is a niche to hold an image.

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The exterior walls of the temple, though fully decorated, are not so thickly overlaid as those at Balsāṇe; and what is very noticeable is the absence of much figure sculpture. The only large images have been those in the three principal niches round the shrine and on the central angle of the walls between them. Beneath them, and just above the basement, are small niches with tiny images in them. Beyond these there are no others. The image in the north niche is Mahākālī, and in the south one Bhairava; the west or back niche is empty. The *śikhara*, or spire, has disappeared. There are several images lying about which were probably in some of the niches of the temple, among which are Śiva, Pārvatī, Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa and Sūrya.

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Built into the wall of the antechamber, on the south side, is a large inscribed slab, bearing a record in ancient Devanāgarī. It belongs to a chieftain of Khandesa named Govana, and ancestor of the rulers of 1,600 villages, Sōidēva and Hēmādidēva, mentioned in the inscription at the temple of Āi Bhavānī. It records the consecration of a temple of Śiva, which had been begun by Indrarāja, the father of Govana, and had been finished after his death, as well as a grant of a village, called Devasamgana, made by Govana on that occasion. Govana's minister was Chāngadeva.¹

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¹ Indian Antiquary, VIII, 39.

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The building beside this one on the south, in the other enclosure, which is now in ruins, seems to have belonged to the larger temple. Its axis, passing through the entrance doorway and the doorway of its enclosure, passes through the centre of the shrine of the large temple; and it faces the large temple. Its interior is much like the interior of the hall on the south side of the enclosure of the temple of Gondeśvara at Sinnar. It has no shrine, the interior being a long plain hall. It was probably a maṭha or resthouse attached to the large temple. Over its entrance doorway, as already mentioned, is a much worn and damaged inscription, just as occurs over the door of the maṭha at Balsāne.

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Straight in front of the large temple, at a short distance from it, is the small ruined Brahmanical shrine, already mentioned, facing the north; and, in front of this, about a hundred yards away, is another ruined shrine originally dedicated to a Jina, having a seated Jina over the entrance doorway, and an empty throne seat, well-carved, within the shrine.

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At the upper end of the valley, on the east side of the stream, is the old, but very insignificant, temple of Āi Bhavānī. Very little of the original building remains intact, most of what is seen being rebuilt from the material of an older temple. From what little does remain the temple would appear to have been a cluster of small shrines, with one or two small halls. At present the place is in a very ruinous and dirty condition. Built into the outside of the enclosing wall is a much abraided inscription slab, but as this wall has been built partly of old temple materials, this may not be in its original position. The greater part of it is in Sanskrit, the remainder in a kind of old Marāṭhī. Its main object is to record that the chief astrologer of the Yādava king Simhaṇa, Changdeva by name, grandson of the well-known astronomer Bhāskarāchārya, founded a college for the study of the Siddhāntaśiromaṇi and other works of his grandfather and relations. The college was endowed with land and other sources of income by the brothers Sōidēva and Hēmādidēva, two members of the Nikumbha family, who, as feudatories of the Yādavas, ruled over the country of the 1,600 villages. The metrical part of the inscription is followed by a prose passage which records a grant made by Sōidēva in favour of Chāngdēva's college in Śaka 1128 (A.D. 1206). This grant must, of course, have been made some time before the inscription itself was composed; for we know, from the preceding, that the inscription was put up during the reign of Simhaṇa who began to rule in Śaka 1131. and at a time when the feudatory Sōidēva was dead and had been succeeded by his younger brother. The inscription itself is not dated, but it may have been composed in the first quarter of the thirteenth century, some time after A.D. 1209-10.²

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² Epigraphia Indica, I, 338.

Vāghlī

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About seven miles to the north-east of Chālisgāon is the village of Vāghlī, where there are the temples of Mudhāidevī, a mile to the south-west of the village, and of Krishna in the village. (Plates XXXIII—XXXVI.)

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The temple of Mudhāidevī is placed upon an artificial mound upon the bank of the river and is now partly in ruins. Smaller shrines which surrounded it, and stood upon the margins of the platform, have disappeared, save the ruins of one which stood on the south side of the temple. The foundation of a forward porch or *chhatri* are seen at the east end of the platform in line with, and facing, the entrance of the temple, which is turned towards the east. Midway, between the two, a few stones mark the site of a small *kuṇḍa* (tank) or pavilion. The *śikhara* has disappeared.

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The temple would seem to have been originally dedicated to Sūrya. Of the three images in the three principal niches around the outside of the shrine walls, that in the back or west niche—the most important one of the three, and always indicating the deity to whom the temple is dedicated—is Sūrya with his seven horses beneath him. That on the north is Mahākālī, and that on the south is Gaṇapati. Lying within the temple are two large corner blocks of what seems to be part of the *vedi* (dwarf parapet wall) of a pavilion or the hall, while, without, is another similar one, on each of which are three well-carved standing images of Sūrya, these being the only images upon them, each of which is about a foot high. On the block above the shrine door is, Gaṇapati, who is as universal in the Dakhan, in this position, as Gaja-Lakshmī is in the Kanarese districts. Immediately above it, on another block, is a seated figure which may possibly be that of Sūrya, but it is much corroded and bedaubed. It sits upon a seat, with legs hanging in western fashion, arms depending to the elbows, and the hands brought to the lap, from each of which starts upwards, to either side of the head, what might easily be taken for the stems of Sūrya’s lotuses.

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In addition to these evidences of the temple having been dedicated to Sūrya there are in the shrine door-posts of small shrine doorways, or, perhaps, the flanking posts of the back of a throne, upon one of which Sūrya, in a standing position, is repeated all the way up in little niches.

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The exterior of the *maṇḍapa* walls are finished off quite plainly. From this fact it might be inferred that there was an outer corridor with sloping cornice and *vedi* around it, for such a plain flat wall would hardly have been left on the outside of a temple whose shrine walls have been carefully decorated and wrought.

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As in the case of the temple of Maheśvara at Pāṭṇā, the shrine of this one has been built on the star-shaped plan of twenty-eight points, two being absorbed in each of the panels on the north, west and south faces, and eight in the antechamber and entrance.

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The roof of the hall is supported, within, upon four very plainly decorated pillars, which have no images upon them. The central ceiling, and that of the porch, are square in plan, and rise as hollow truncated pyramids, the sides being decorated with a series of horizontal concave mouldings. From the top hang five rosette pendants. The antechamber is similar, except that it has but one central rosette. The shrine ceiling is circular in plan, rising in diminishing circles of plain mouldings.

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Within the shrine, placed upon a temporary altar, is now an image of Śiva-Pārvatī, having Nandi below them. This is all bedaubed with red pigment and is the object worshipped.

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The small shrine which stood on the south side of the temple has fallen down bodily over the edge of the platform, which is much broken away here.

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The temple of Krishna, as it now stands, is of little interest save for three large inscription slabs built into the inner wall of the hall. There is no separate shrine, and what little of the original temple remains has been so encased in mud walls that not even its plan can be made out. One of its ceilings is sculpted in bold relief with a group representing Krishna and the gopis. Within the hall, upon a raised platform, is an arrangement made up with a brass mask and which is now worshipped as Krishna by members of the Mānbhāva sect.

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The inscription records the foundation of a sattra or hall of charity for travellers and the learned and indigent, and the erection of a temple of Śiva, under the name of Siddheśanātha or Siddheśvara, with a tank or well attached to it, by a prince Govinda or Govindarāja and his wife. The second part of the inscription records various donations in favour of the temple and the charitable institute, made both by Govinda himself and by (his sovereign lord) the Mahāmaṇḍalanātha, the illustrious king Seuṇa. The grant was made on the occasion of a solar eclipse which corresponds to Tuesday, 21st July, A.D. 1069. The king Seuṇa is the Devagiri Yādava Seuṇachandra II. A long list of petty ruling chiefs is given, who are said to have come from Dwāraka.¹

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¹ Epigraphia Indica, II 21

Sangameśvara

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About fifteen miles to the north-east of Chālisgāon is the small village of Sangameśvara where, near the junction of the two streams, perched upon the high bank, is the old temple of Mahādeva. It is built upon a very high knoll which was once a stone platform, with, apparently, a brick core. It faces the east, and now consists of the usual shrine, a hall whose roof has disappeared, and a very prolonged porch. The exterior of the temple is perfectly devoid of figure sculpture, its place on the walls being taken by three running bands of geometric ornament. These are exceedingly chaste and effective, and are carried round the three sides of the exterior walls of the hall and shrine in unbroken lines. The long approach to the hall from the porch seems to have been flanked the whole way, on either side, with a dwarf wall and inside bench. The hall is very plain within, there being no free-standing pillars in the middle of the floor. The whole space was covered by a large dome which has fallen, leaving but one ring of its mouldings, which rests upon a polygon of sixteen equal sides. Upon either side of the hall are plain recesses, without doorways or any indications to show that they had been used as shrines. The pillars are, as a rule, plain, but two at the entrance of the porch, and the pilasters, have been decorated with similar surface ornament to that on the bands round the exterior of the temple. (Plates XXVI, XXXIV, XXXVI and XXXVII.)

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The ceiling of the antechamber is peculiar, inasmuch as it is oval in design, a very rare form. The rosette in the middle, which forms the pendant, is also oval.

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The doorway of the shrine is well sculptured after the style of that of Gondeśvara at Sinnar and Maheśvara at Pāṭṇa, but more squat and clumsy in execution. Over the door, upon the block, is Gaṇeśa, and within the shrine is a liṅga. Lying within the hall are several loose images, among which are Gaṇeśa, Mahākālī and Śiva-Pārvatī.

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Standing out before the temple is a small modern shrine to Hanumān, and in a row to the south of the temple, and round about its porch, are a number of little samād shrines. Lying out before the porch is the mutilated body of a small stone elephant having, on its back, four heads joined together as in the images of Brahmā, and around its back, like the boar at Balsāne, are four rows of seated devīs, with some ornamental work, surmounted by the kīrtimukha over the tail.

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The śikhara of the temple has gone.

Chāngdeva

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Of about the same age as the temple at Sangameśvara is that of Chāngdeva at the village of the same name near the junction of the Purnā with the Taptī, fifteen miles east of Bhusāval. It has been a large and fine building, but whether it was ever originally finished or not is not very clear. It has been finished off in later times, with brick and mortar in a very clumsy manner. The whole length of the temple measures 97 feet, and it faces the east. At the entrance there are some inscriptions, but they are much effaced. The roof of the hall has gone, together with some of the pillars, and portions, only, of the lower parts of the walls of the hall remain, upon which mud and brick continuations have been carried up to supply the missing portions. The basement is silted up, and two or three feet of the lower mouldings are buried. The original stone walls end with the string course above the cornice, and it is possible that the śikhara was built, or was intended to be built, in brick and plaster as in the temple at Kokamthān in the Ahmednagar District. The temple appears to have been dedicated to Vaiṣṇava worship. (Plates XXXVIII—XL.)

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Upon the broad sculptured band around the shrine walls are some boldly cut images, which stand out in relief from the walls, and are not placed in niches as in the earlier temples. Most of these are female images, the only male ones occupying the principal panels, one on each. On the north, west, and south central panels is a group of three figures, being in each case a male with a female on either side of him, which may well represent Kṛiṣṇa and some of his lady friends in whose company he is generally shewn. These male figures are possessed of but two arms each, which show that they cannot claim a higher status than demi-gods or avatāras.

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As in the temple of Mahādeva at Sangameśvara there is a small oval dome in the antechamber to the shrine. Within the shrine is an image which is said to be that of Chāngdeva. Where the water of ablution runs out through the shrine wall on the north side, there is a very ornamental gargoyle in the shape of a *makara*, much like the one at the temple of Gondeśvara at Sinnar in the Nāsik District.

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In the river bed is a temple of modern construction, built, it is said, by Queen Ahalyabāī of Indor, which has come to grief in a curious manner. The whole of the upper part of the temple has tumbled over into the bed of the river *en bloc*, and now lies partly buried in the sand, leaving the lofty platform, upon which it was built, with nothing upon it except the lower courses of the temple plinth. The two styles of construction—the older and the more recent—are well exemplified by these two temples. In the older no mortar was used, the massive blocks

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FIG. 6.—Temple in the bed of the river at Chāngdeva.

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being kept in their places by their own weight, superimposed one upon the other without any cementing material, and, sometimes, with a very sparing use of clamps. It thus naturally follows that when the foundations of such buildings give way the superstructure comes down like a house of cards, the blocks sliding off one another. In the more modern, mortar has been used with smaller blocks; and, the mortar being exceptionally strong, the whole has hardened into a solid mass. The temple of Ahalyabāī having been thus built, went over during a severe flood, in one mass intact. In the bed of the stream at Patunde between Chālisgāon and Vāghli, is another instance of the great tenacity of mortar in similar circumstances. It is the great square room of what appears to have been a Musalmān mausoleum, canted over off its basement into the sand at such an angle that a person may stand upon the accumulated sand outside and look down into the interior over the tops of the four walls, the dome having slid off. The four walls just hold together in an apparently uninjured state.

Erandol

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In the middle of the town at Erandol, thirty-seven miles east of Dhulia, is a large solidly-built old quadrangle known as the Pāndāva’s Vādā. It is the remains of one of those strongly built and enclosed mosques—or rather partly mosque and partly fort—which were erected in the early days of Muhammadan rule, and is of the general plan upon which the great ‘Adina Masjid at Anhilvād-Paṭṭan was probably built. Like the latter, the greater part of this building, at the west end of the courtyard, seems to have been built of the remains of older Hindu temples. The courtyard and the mosque were enclosed by a lofty substantial stone wall, having high arched recesses all around the inner side, in each of which is a barred or grated window. There appears to have been a fine porch before the entrance to the courtyard on the east, but it is now represented by a huge pile of fallen masonry, over which the visitor has to climb to reach the interior. The mosque which, as usual, occupied the whole width of the west end of the enclosure, has almost entirely disappeared; the central bay only remains, and this has been enclosed by mud walls and is still used as a mosque. Of the rest, except a few solitary blocks, has disappeared, leaving some beautifully carved *miḥrābs*, or prayer niches, in the back wall, which are partly buried in accumulated debris. (Plate XLI.)

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The Hindus claim the place as a Hindu building which had been appropriated by the Muhammadans, but this is not quite correct. The building, as it now stands, is purely Muhammadan, but, as already mentioned, it has in great part been built, as all the earlier mosques were, of pilfered material. Judging by the few columns that now remain, the whole of the pillars of the mosque were probably taken from some Hindu temple or temples; and, where the courtyard wall is broken down in places, carved temple stones and broken images may be seen built into the interior. The beautiful *miḥrābs*, with their Persian inscriptions above them, are purely Musalmān work, though carried out in Hindu spirit, and, probably, by Hindu workmen. They remind one much of the designs of temple doorways. A Hindu temple possibly once existed here, and may have occupied the site on which the mosque now stands—nothing more probable—but the Hindus have now not the shadow of a claim to the place.

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One of the inscriptions tells us that “The building of this ‘Jāmi’ Masjid was finished during the reign of the Defender of Islām and ‘Breaker of Idols,’ Jahāngīr Bādshāhi Ghāzi. May God perpetuate his kingdom! Dated the fifth month [or fifth of the month] of Zūl-Hijjah, in the fifth year of his accession” (A.D. 1610). The reference here to Jahāngīr, as the breaker of idols, would seem to imply that Hindu shrines had been raided and dismantled to provide material in this case.

Minor Miscellaneous Remains in Khāndesh

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At Pimpalgāon Budruk, ten miles south-east of Pāchora, is the temple of Hari-Hareśvara, standing at the junction of the Bāvulā and Dabbā streams about a mile south of the village. It faces west. Though originally an old temple it has been almost entirely rebuilt with brick rubble and plaster masonry, and is now of no account architecturally. The modern finials, which are stuck upon many of these temples, are remarkable for their ugliness and inappropriateness.

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Kurhād Khurd, seven miles from Māiji railway station. There is here a small old ruined temple, but it is of no particular interest. The shrine walls and part of the west walls remain. In the shrine is a *liṅga*, which, since the temple faces north, points its *śaluṅkā* toward the doorway.

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Lohāra, fourteen miles east by north from Pāchora. The ruins of an old temple, with very plainly moulded walls, on the Sonāi stream about a mile south of the village, called Tapeśvara.

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Shendurni, sixteen miles east of Pāchora, has a small ruined temple of Viśveśvara or Viśdevali. It has had an inscription covering about three feet by two feet of the outer wall on the south side, but it is too much defaced to make anything out of it. Over the shrine door is an image of Ganapati. Numbers of little slender pillars are inserted between the larger ones for support.

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Gārkhed, eleven miles south of Bhusāval, possesses the ruins of what has once been a very fine temple of the best class. Portions, only, of the plinth and walls of the back of the shrine now remain, shewing the mouldings of the basement and a portion of the richly sculptured wall above it. For the rest, the addition of mud walls has preserved the place as the habitation of the god.

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Lāling, six miles south of Dhulia. To the south of the village, by the roadside, is a small old temple, which consists of a shrine and antechamber only, the rest having been destroyed. The roof has been closed in with plaster masonry. The walls, which are for the most part original, are much weather-worn and do not appear to have been of first class workmanship.

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been a Musalmān mausoleum, canted over off its basement into the sand at such an angle that a person may stand upon the accumulated sand outside and look down into the interior over the tops of the four walls, the dome having slid off. The four walls just hold together in an apparently uninjured state.

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ERANDOL.

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In the middle of the town at Erandol, thirty-seven miles east of Dhulia, is a large solidly-built old quadrangle known as the Pāndāva's Vādā. It is the remains of one of those strongly built and enclosed mosques—or rather partly mosque and partly fort—which were erected in the early days of Muhammadan rule, and is of the general plan upon which the great ‘Adina Masjid at Anhilvād-Paṭṭan was probably built. Like the latter, the greater part of this building, at the west end of the courtyard, seems to have been built of the remains of older Hindu temples. The courtyard and the mosque were enclosed by a lofty substantial stone wall, having high arched recesses all around the inner side, in each of which is a barred or grated window. There appears to have been a fine porch before the entrance to the courtyard on the east, but it is now represented by a huge pile of fallen masonry, over which the visitor has to climb to reach the interior. The mosque which, as usual, occupied the whole width of the west end of the enclosure, has almost entirely disappeared; the central bay only remains, and this has been enclosed by mud walls and is still used as a mosque. Of the rest, all, except a few solitary blocks, has disappeared, leaving some beautifully carved miḥrābs, or prayer niches, in the back wall, which are partly buried in accumulated debris. (Plate XLI.)

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The Hindus claim the place as a Hindu building which had been appropriated by the Muhammadans, but this is not quite correct. The building, as it now stands, is purely Muhammadan, but, as already mentioned, it has in great part been built, as all the earlier mosques were, of pilfered material. Judging by the few columns that now remain, the whole of the pillars of the mosque were probably taken from some Hindu temple or temples; and, where the courtyard wall is broken down in places, carved temple stones and broken images may be seen built into the interior. The beautiful miḥrābs, with their Persian inscriptions above them, are purely Musalmān work, though carried out in Hindu spirit, and, probably, by Hindu workmen. They remind one much of the designs of temple doorways. A Hindu temple possibly once existed here, and may have occupied the site on which the mosque now stands—nothing more probable—but the Hindus have now not the shadow of a claim to the place.

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One of the inscriptions tells us that “The building of this Jāmi‘ Masjid was finished during the reign of the Defender of Islām and ‘Breaker of Idols,’ Jahāngīr Bādshāhi Ghāzi. May God perpetuate his kingdom! Dated the fifth month [or fifth of the month] of Zūl-Hijjah, in the fifth year of his accession” (A.D. 1610). The reference here to Jahāngīr, as the breaker of idols, would seem to imply that Hindu shrines had been raided and dismantled to provide material in this case.

Linked texts (7)

Harihareshwara Temple
Mudhai Devi temple
Mahadeva(Rameshwara) temple
Ambarnātha
Maheswara Temple
Sangamesvara temple
Siddhāntaśiromaṇi — Bhāskara II, Sanskrit