Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c9.s3: Añjanerī
Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c9.s3
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Añjanerī
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The village of Añjanerī is picturesquely situated on the eastern slope of the northern spur of Añjanerī or Añjanī Hill, about fourteen miles west of Nāsik. Just below the village, in the plain, scattered over an area of about half a square mile, there have been innumerable small shrines, of which sixteen now stand in whole or in part, while the rest are represented by mounds upon which lie heaps of their material—columns, images, beams and other carved stones. The most striking feature about these remains is that they all appear to have been built upon a small scale, and they are independent temples and not satelites to a larger one. They all seem to rest upon brick foundations, and have been dedicated to various deities, the more important being Jaina, two Vaishnava, and the rest Śaiva. They face all four points of the compass. They are not now used, nor do they appear to have been much used at any time; and the shattered condition they are now in points rather to wanton destruction at the hands of man than the ravages of time; trees, cactus bushes, and other plants still grow luxuriantly upon them. In addition to the temples there have been extensive masonry tanks, little of which, except their pits and a few bits of stonework, remains. (Plates LVII—LXI.)
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There is one group of shrines which, on account of their better preservation than the rest, and that in one of them is a finely engraved and important inscription, might be considered the principal group. This cluster contains six distinct buildings, which, at some time subsequent to the erection of the last, have been surrounded by a wall with an entrance gateway on the south. The largest, which we may call No. 1, faces the east and, like No. 5 at Balsāne, has an open front and verandah; in fact, they all have this open verandah in place of a porch. It consists of the shrine, with a pillared hall before it, and a deep pillared verandah before this again. The exterior of the temple is remarkably plain, the only decoration being a series of simple mouldings with a few fretwork bands running round it. This peculiar style of surface ornament, which takes the place of the panels and figure bands in the earlier examples, is seen more developed in the temples at Ratanvādi and Sangameśvara, and, combined with figures, in Chāngdeva and Tahākāri. The śikhara is in the northern style, but is plain, the main features being only blocked out.
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Within the shrine was an altar or seat, against the back wall, upon which, no doubt, an image of a Jina was placed. Only the lower part of this now remains, the rest of it lies about the shrine and hall, it having been wantonly destroyed. Upon the dedicatory blocks of both the shrine and hall doorways is a seated Jina, that on the outer one being flanked by images of Pārśvanātha, while that on the shrine doorway is flanked by devīs. The central bay of the verandah ceiling is domical and has a neat eight-pointed rosette pendent from the centre. The side ceilings are oblong, and are just sections of the side ceilings in the hall. The central bay of the hall ceiling is similar to that of the verandah, but more lofty. The antechamber has a plain oval, rising in two tiers, the oval being rather flat. It is like those in the temples at Sangameśvara and Chāngdeva, and is very unusual. Being rather dumpy in outline it is not a success.
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On either side of the doorway, in the verandah, is a niche for an image, but they are now empty. The floors of most of these temples have been upturned, probably by the Muhammadans in search of treasure.
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The pillars are after the style of those at Pātna, the kīrtimukha mask forming a conspicuous detail in their decoration, and they have no images upon them. Notwithstanding that this is a Jaina temple, the doorway has the kīrtimukha upon its threshold, one on either side of the centre projection. The female images at the foot of the jambs, holding waterpots, are probably intended for the river goddesses Gangā and Yamunā who occupy this position in the very early temples. The two large images of Pārśvanātha, above the door, indicate, no doubt, that the temple was dedicated to that tīrthankara.
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Temple No. 2, which stands at right angles to the last and close to it, was perhaps, the most important in the group, since it contains a slab bearing an interesting inscription. It is smaller than No. 1, but in other respects it is very similar to it. It has no pillars in the hall, the small size of the building not making them necessary. The two pillars in the porch, or verandah, are rather more ornate than those in temple No. 1, and approach more nearly to those of temple No. 2 at Balsāne, being almost counterparts of them.
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Before the hall doorway is a very prettily designed low step or *ardhachandra*. The altar and the flooring of the shrine have been destroyed; the doorway is like the outer one in the last temple, having two standing Pārśvanātha images above it. Two large mutilated Jinas are lying in the hall—one a seated image with the top of the head knocked off, and the other a nude image of Pārśvanātha. It was thus a Digambara shrine. It faces the south.
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The inscribed slab is set up on the side wall of the hall, above a niche. It is not built into the wall, but rather against it, being gripped and held in position between the beam above and the top of the cornice of the niche; and since the top of this niche is five inches lower than that of the niche on the other side, in order to allow of the insertion of the slab, it is likely the slab was put up when the temple was built. It records the gift of three shops in the city (probably Añjanerī) for the upkeep of the temple of Chandraprabha by the king Seuṇachandra III in *Śaka* 1063 (A. D. 1142). It further records that a rich merchant, named Vatsarāja, with two others, gave a shop and a house for the same purpose.
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There can be little doubt but that this temple was built before No. 1 for one would hardly expect to find a king settling gifts upon the lesser of two temples standing side by side.
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Of temple No. 3 only the verandah and part of the west wall of the hall remain, the rest being completely wrecked. The pillars and walls are very plain and the doorway even more so. On the block, above the latter, is a seated Jina. It faces north.
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Buildings No. 4, 5 and 6 in this group were, perhaps, rather *maṭhas* or rest houses than temples. They have no shrines, and the halls of Nos. 4 and 6 are oblong. Four pillars support the hall ceilings in each case, and each has a verandah in front. The central ceiling of No. 4 is flat, and is decorated with three circular rosettes. Thin slender pillars were inserted between the forward and back pairs of the pillars of the hall, to assist in supporting the extra long beams above, but only one of these still stands; part of another lies on the floor. Only one pillar of the verandah stands; the rest, with the whole of the roof, has fallen. The building faces the south. Nos. 5 and 6, which face the east, are in ruins.
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About fifty yards south of the last group is another smal Jaina temple No. 7, which is very plainly built. The shrine doorway, which is very simple in design, has a Jina upon the block but no work above the cornice. The pillars have plain square shafts with simply moulded bases and caps, and a few only remain. Beside this one, on the north, has been another Jaina shrine or *maṭha*, like Nos. 5 and 6, but nothing now stands except the doorway and a part of the adjacent wall. The whole appears to have had an enclosing wall of some extent around it.
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No. 8, which is a small Vaishnava shrine, built and sculptured in the same style as that of Gondesvara at Sinnar, is about a hundred yards to the west of the last temple and nearer the village. Only the shrine of the temple is now standing. The three principal images on the outside of the shrine are—on the east, Varāha, on the south Narasimha, and on the west the Vāmana avatāra. In the shrine, against the back wall, is a low altar, on the front of which is Garuḍa, and over the shrine door are Śiva, Vishnu and Brahmā, Vishnu being in the middle. The image upon the dedicatory block above the shrine doorway has been much mutilated, but it was probably Garuḍa. The antechamber ceiling is, in plan, lentoid or a pointed oval which is a very unusual shape. The temple faces north.
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Twenty to thirty yards to the west of the last is No. 9, a small plainly built temple, of which the shrine and śikhara remain, all except the kalaśa or finial, the hall being completely ruined. Above the shrine door is Gaṇapati. There are the remains of what seems to have been an altar, with a weather-worn image carelessly placed upon it. The temple faces east.
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No. 10 is about twenty to thirty yards to the north of the last, under a large banyan tree. It is the wreck of a small Jaina temple. Over the shrine doorway is a Jina, while sitting in the midst of this desolation, presiding over the ruins, is a much weatherworn life-sized Jina, sitting now in the open air, the shrine walls having fallen. The temple faces the east. Behind this shrine is a high rocky mound, having upon it some small memorial stones, set up in a line facing west, and daubed with red paint.
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About four hundred yards due north of the first group of temples (Nos. 1 to 6) is a little shrine, No. 11, with its śikhara and antechamber, but without its hall, which has been ruined. It is plainly built, but has a good sculptured doorway to the shrine, with Gaṇapati on the dedicatory block. The shrine is empty. The temple faces east, and has an inscription of one line upon a pilaster.
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A hundred and fifty yards east-north-east of the last are two small shrines (No. 12), the northern one of which is much shattered. The principal images upon its walls are the tāṇḍava (?), Gaṇapati, and Mahākālī, and Gaṇapati figures, again, above the shrine door. In the shrine, against the back wall, is an altar with Garuḍa on the front, which has probably been brought from some other temple. Loosely placed upon it are images of Śiva-Pārvatī, Narasimha and Vishnu (?). The temple faces east. About ten yards to the south of the last is No. 13, a plain, square little shrine, with a pyramidal roof, facing west.
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These last two shrines appear to have stood upon the edge of a large masonry tank, and, at a distance of seventy to eighty yards to the north-west of them, is a length of about ten yards of old masonry steps of the tank still remaining. Down below these temples, in what was the bed of the tank, was a mutilated boar similar to that at Balsāne, but it has only four small figures upon it—two forward and two aft. A large figure, however, stands beside the left shoulder of the boar with the right arm turned upward toward its snout which has been mutilated. This is, of course, a representation of the boar *avatāra* of Vishṇu, which, on a colossal scale, is seen at Erān in the Central Provinces.
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About three hundred yards east of the last, on the south-west corner of what was once a tank, but now a rice field, are the ruins of another small shrine (No. 14) which faces east. A *liṅga* lies half buried in the shrine. In front of it, on the south side of the tank, are the sites of two other small shrines.
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Nos. 15 and 16 are about half a mile east of the village, at the foot of some low hills. They are the ruins of two small buildings, one being a temple and the other probably a *maṭha*. In addition to the above, there are the sites of many more buildings, which are now represented by mounds scattered about the fields, upon which still lie, in many cases, sculptured stones, columns and images.
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Beside the temples in the plain, there are sundry remains upon Añjanerī hill. Upon the very highest plateau, 4,300 feet above sea level, and some 2,000 feet above the temples just described, is a small roughly-built temple dedicated to the goddess Añjinī, who is here represented by the usual red-bedaubed rough stone image. The material of which this shrine has been built belonged to a previous temple of a more pretentious design. In the upper cliff to the north-east, just above the pond and bungalows, is a small roughly-hewn Jaina cave. A small doorway, with coarse figures on either side, gives access to a long *verandah* room, off the back of which is the shrine with a roughly-cut Jina seated within. In the lower cliff, in the side of the gorge through which the rough ascent passes, is another small Jaina cave with its sculpture better finished than in the one above. Pārśvanātha flanks the doorways. Like the temples below, these caves belong to the Digambara Jains. Attached to the cave is a water cistern.