Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c8.s6: Erandol
Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c8.s6
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Erandol
c8.s6.1
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.)
c8.s6.2
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.
c8.s6.3
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.