Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c9.s2: Jhodga
Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c9.s2
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Jhodga
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Jhodgā is about seventy-five miles to the north-east of Nāsik on the borders of Khāndesh. At the foot of a small hill, to the west of the town, is a well-finished old temple of Mahādeva, which looks exceedingly well as it stands out in the open, without any surroundings, upon its high basement. It consists of a central hall with its porch and three shrines, the main *śikhara* being all but complete. The whole is richly wrought and decorated. The It has the appearance of a temple of the best period of Chālukyan work, that is, about the eleventh century, and is possibly older than that of Gondēśvara. There are some details it seems to have borrowed from the northern style, such as, for instance, the *kichaka* bracket above the capital of the pillars—the little squat figure in the act of supporting the beam. This is not found in Chālukyan work.¹
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¹ Compare the walls and pillars with those in the temple of Malikārjuna at Kuruvaṭṭi, and with some of the pillars in Nannesvara at Lakkundi. The *Chālukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts*, plates LXXIII and CVIII.
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The temple, as it stands, consists of a shrine, with nearly the whole of its tower missing, and two groups of four pillars standing out in front of the shrine, which formed part of a long hall, or two halls, one in advance of the other. These retain their beams above them. There were enclosing walls around these, which is shewn by parts of their foundations which still remain (Plate LV).. There was also a raised platform around the shrine as the indented outline for the elephant moulding of its foundation shows. There would appear to have been images in the recesses between the pilasters all around the shrine walls, but they have been removed. The group of pillars, nearest the shrine, are octagonal in plan with recessed corners, but of the outer group of four, the inner two are six-sided in plan, and the outer pair are square. There are three-very ornamental niches in the base of the shrine, one on each side.
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Among the images still remaining on the outside of the temple, which are all small, is a *devī* (Pārvatī?) seated upon a tiger or a lion with curly mane up above the cornice on the south face. Little corner lion-brackets occupy the tops of the wall pilasters while, between them, in the running band, are small figures of sorts, some of which are very indecent. Around the lower part of the wing walls, a portion of which remains on the north side, there have been some very fine carved groups, some of which have been carried away and have been built into the wall of a little shrine on the bank of the stream nearby. A fragment of one of these groups still exists in the north wing wall, west face, with two on the north face representing incidents from the *Rāmāyaṇa*, the other being a group of three standing figures in an attitude of adoration.
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A most superb piece of carving overarches the entrance to the antechamber.. Forming a semicircular arch are three bands, the centre one of little dancing dwarfs. These rise from the jaws of two *makaras*, one on either side, with the most wonderful tails of flowing arabesque, which turn up over their backs and forward on to the arched bands. The central semicircular panel, under the arch, is occupied by a representation of Śiva dancing the *tāṇḍava*. A musician on his left keeps time on his drum, and Pārvatī sits on his right amazed at his performance. Three wedge-shaped slots in the stone, under this sculpture, show that another slab had been slipped on below which probably was a sculptured band containing Śiva's *gaṇa*.
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The ceiling of the antechamber is flat, and is divided by deep cross bars into nine sunk squares, in each of which was a group of figures, but the central one has been destroyed. The remaining represent the *aṣṭadikpālas* or the regents of the eight points of the compass. This is a very favourite ceiling in Chālukyan temples and has been fully described in a previous volume.¹ The sculptor has, however, made a blunder in putting Agni, on his ram, in the north compartment which should have contained Kuvera, on his horse. Kuvera is probably in the wrong place in the south-east corner where Agni ought to be, but this sculpture is damaged beyond all recognition. The regents should be as follows:— N. Kuvera on the horse. S. Yama on the male buffalo. N-E. Īśa on the bull. S-W. Nirriti on a man. E. Indra on the elephant. W. Varuṇa on a makara. S-E. Agni on the ram. N-W. Vāyu on the deer.
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¹ The Chālukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts.
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Above the shrine doorway, which is fairly well decorated, is a line of figures representing the *saptamātṛis* or the "Seven Mothers," another sculpture peculiar to Chālukyan temples, since the members of the Chālukya family were under the special guardianship of these divine, mothers. There are, eleven figures in the row. On the left side is Śiva with a standing attendant, and on the right, Gaṇapati and Śiva as Bhairava. On the dedicatory block we find the Chālukyan Gaja-Lakshmī instead of Gaṇapati who is the favourite presiding deity among the Dekhan temples. Occupying the middle of the band of mouldings, immediately above this, is Vishnu upon Śesha. On the lower inner face of the south antechamber pilaster is Brahmā, Vishnu occupying the north one. On the outer pilasters are *dvārapālas* or door-keepers. The larger female figures on the pillars have been well carved, and exhibit exceptional elegance of pose. Among the smaller figures are some of the *avatāras* of Vishnu. The interior of the shrine is perfectly plain, and a *liṅga* now occupies the centre of the floor.
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In addition to the temples just described, there are two other old ones in the village of no particular interest, save that one has four doors to its shrine. It has the usual *maṇḍapa* or hall before it, into which one door enters, but the door in the other three walls of the shrine lead out into the open. The shrine walls are complete with all their mouldings on the outside shewing that there was no other enclosing wall beyond it, and, therefore no *pradakshiṇa* to which the doors could have led. There may have been porches before each of these. Above the door leading into the hall is Gaṇapati, but above the others there are no images. The *liṅga* now occupies the shrine.
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Out in the fields, about a mile east of the town, is a small "Hemādpanti" shrine which is partly in ruins.
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Just outside the east gate, by a well, were two Jaina images, each of them being a colossal figure of a female seated on a tiger. These were half buried in the earth.
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Jhodgā is about seventy-five miles to the north-east of Nāsik on the borders of Khāndesh. At the foot of a small hill, to the west of the town, is a well-finished old temple of Mahādeva, which looks exceedingly well as it stands out in the open, without any surroundings, upon its high basement. It consists of a central hall with its porch and three shrines, the main *śikhara* being all but complete. The whole is richly wrought and decorated. The main shrine, hall and porch are of original construction, but the two side shrines are of later and inferior workmanship: and no attempt has been made on these to preserve the lines of mouldings which run round the older work. It is possible the side shrines were not in the original plan, but had been added in the place of porches. This alteration made the interior very dark, and so four irregular rectangular openings were made in the side walls to let in a little light. These appear to have been made by knocking out the most convenient blocks of stone from the walling. The temple faces the west, and Ganapati presides above the shrine doorway. (Plates LIII—LVI.)
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The style of tower, and the mouldings of the outer walls, closely resemble those of Gondeśvara at Sinnar, and the more complete top with the little finials in the wall ornament, enable us to reconstruct the top of the śikhara at Sinnar. The kīrtimukha faces at the top of the tower are replaced by human faces in later temples. The face of the projection on the front of the tower is carved into an elaborate arrangement of kīrtimukhas and arched scrolls of arabesque. In a panel, in the centre, is a six-handed seated image. The lower hands rest in the lap, but the upper hands and the head have been destroyed. Below this is a row of niches, in the centre one of which, judging from the general outline of the fractured surface, was Śiva, probably dancing the tāṇḍava. On his left are the remains of a standing figure, with one of its left hands across its chest as if holding a flute to its mouth, as Kṛṣṇa is usually represented, while below is a small kneeling figure—perhaps, Garuḍa—with head and shoulders destroyed. On the right of Śiva was a figure which has disappeared all but one foot, but the goose, below, shows that it was Brahmā. Thus we have the traid of gods who are flanked, on either side, by a female chauri bearer. Beneath this line of figures, in the centre, is a small rectangular opening into the hollow of the śikhara, which does not appear ever to have been used as a shrine; it has no dedicatory image over it, nor has it any door-frame.
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A curious thing about this temple is that it has no framed doorway to the hall, the entrance being the whole width between the pilasters in front.
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The temple is decorated with a greater number of images than that of Gondeśvara at Sinnar, and these are chiefly confined to the walls of the shrine. On the east, or back of the shrine, the principal niche is empty. Above, on the base of the śikhara, is Indra seated with his elephant beneath him. On the north side, the principal niche contains the tāṇḍava, but the legs and arms are broken off; the image on the base of the śikhara, above, is gone. On the south side, the principal niche contains Bhairava, while, above him on the śikhara, is Yama on his buffalo. These upper niches, therefore, contained the regents of the points of the compass which they face. In addition to these, other panels and corners of the walls are filled with images, singly or in pairs, such as musicians, female dancers, the dikpālas, Mahiṣāsura-mardanī, several times repeated, Mahākālī, and warriors with round and rectangular shields.
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The interior of the temple is comparatively simple and plain. One large domical ceiling covers in the maṇḍapa which is unsupported by any intermediate pillars. The dome rises in a series of thirteen concentric circles of mouldings, in the usual manner, to the apex, from which a pendant hung at one time. About half way up, is a ring of eight bracket figures, which are now much damaged. The eight pillars at the main entrance and the entrances to the antechambers, are very clumsy and do not match the pilasters: they appear to be an addition made subsequently to the building of the temple. The beam above the entrance to the principal antechamber is cracked, and the failure of this was probably the reason for introducing them throughout. As the columns now leave very little unsupported space beneath the beams, the cracked one could hardly have given way after their insertion.
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The ceiling of the antechamber is rectangular, and rises in diminishing rectangles, the mouldings being somewhat similar to those of the hall ceiling. The shrine doorway is fairly well decorated, but the work is a trifle coarse, in fact the work on the whole temple is not of the first class.
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The only original free-standing pillars in the temple are the two in the entrance porch.
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In the side shrines low altars have been placed, upon which were set up small piṇḍis. Out in front of the porch, upon a roughly raised platform, which may be all that is left of a pavilion, is a large mutilated Nandi, looking towards the shrine.
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About a hundred yards to the west, or front, of this temple is the shrine and antechamber of a smaller one, of plainer design. There is nothing of interest about it except a curious little panel sculpture on the back representing a two-leaved door surmounted by the chaitya-window ornament.
Linked texts (1)
- Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa — Vālmīki, Sanskrit