History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c19.s4.1

c19.s4.1

A good datum on the age of the Nachnā buildings is the cult-figure of Śiva. The face to the south is Bhairava. Śiva was worshipped in his auspicious (Śiva) form by the Bhāraśivas; the forms at Bhūbharā, and Nakṭi(Khoh) and the one discovered by me (see below) are all of that aspect.² The Vākāṭaka Rudrasena I, on the other hand, worshipped that god in the Mahā-Bhairava form (G.I., p. 236). It was interdicted to make Bhairava in the main shrine (na mūlāyatane kāryo Bhairavas tu...Matsya 258. 14). Hence we have his fierce face (tīkṣṇa-nāsāgra-daśanaḥ karālavadano mahān; 258. 13) combined with other faces.³ Two more Bhairava-Śivas in the same style are found at Jāso, one on a platform in the village, fashioned in the same red stone as the Bhūbharā sculptures, and another in black stone in the Jāso temple (brought there and deposited from some neighbouring site). The Nachnā temples will go back to the time of Rudrasena I, for Pṛthivī-sheṇa worshipped the god in the Maheśvara form (G.I., p. 237). The Pārvatī temple has the date-palm trunk design in one of its windows.⁴ This design is prominent at Bhūbharā. R. D. Banerji has pointed out the intimate structural and material affinity between the Pārvatī and Bhumara temples (Memoir, No. 16, p. 3). Nachnā is nearer Guptan Art and serves as a link between that and Bhūbharā.