Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c8.s3: Vāghlī
Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c8.s3
- Language
- English
Vāghlī
c8.s3.1
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.)
c8.s3.2
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.
c8.s3.3
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.
c8.s3.4
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.
c8.s3.5
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.
c8.s3.6
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.
c8.s3.7
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.
c8.s3.8
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.
c8.s3.9
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.
c8.s3.10
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.
c8.s3.11
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
c8.s3.12
¹ Epigraphia Indica, II 21