Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c8.s4: Sangameśvara
Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c8.s4
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Sangameśvara
c8.s4.1
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.)
c8.s4.2
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.
c8.s4.3
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.
c8.s4.4
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.
c8.s4.5
The śikhara of the temple has gone.