Kundalpur – Shiva Temple | Puratattva

Kundalpur is a city within the Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh. It’s a distinguished Jain pilgrimage middle consisting of about sixty temples. It is among the earliest and largest Jain websites in central India.¹ Legends inform that the city’s identify is after the close by hill’s kundal-like (earring) form. In response to a legend, Mahendrakirti Bhattaraka found the Jain temples over these hills. The legend goes that he as soon as visited Hindoria and misplaced his route whereas looking for Vairatnagar. He one way or the other reached Patera village. Nevertheless, there was no Jain temple within the city. The saint had vowed to take meals solely after seeing a Jain statue. Two days had handed, and the saint was with out meals. On the third night time, he had a dream the place he was instructed to go to Kudalgiri hills, which had a Jain temple. The saint reached the hills, however no villager knew in regards to the stated temple. One older man from the Bhil group helped the saint find the temple. The saint was very happy to seek out the temple and its statues. He cleaned the temple and appointed the Bhil older man as its caretaker. Since then, the place has been well-known for pilgrimage.²

Late nineteenth-century paperwork present that the city was a well-known Jain pilgrimage website, and a fortnight-long annual honest was held in March.³ The honest was so massive and necessary that the chief commerce of the Damoh district used to return from it. The honest traces its origins to the Jain temple erected by the Punwar Banias.⁴ J D Beglar was the earliest archaeologist who visited the location in 1878. In short, he describes whitewashed Jain temples on the highest of a hill spur, domestically often known as Bahori Ban (Boorabun on maps).⁵ Cunningham visited the city in 1885 and described the temples with some particulars. Whereas Beglar tells the chief picture of Neminatha, Cunningham recognized it as of Mahavira, stating a lion on its pedestal. He additionally mentions an inscription of Chhatrasal (1649-1731), courting Samvat 1757, comparable to 1700 CE. He additionally notices one other inscription courting to Samvat 1501. He found two extra temples close to the pond, each flat-roofed. One was empty, and the opposite had a picture of Vishnu. These temples are usually assigned to the 6^th CE, and these are the earliest architectural stays within the Damoh district. He additional tells that the honest that was once held in March had not been held for the previous 13 or fourteen years. The explanation for this was an settlement that the then-deputy commissioner and honest planners made to maintain the honest throughout colder months, however when the time got here, the attendance was very low. Because of this, the honest was not organized within the coming years.⁶

Russell, who edited the district gazetteer in 1906, mentions that the honest, which was in abeyance for nearly thirty years as a consequence of water provide deficiency, had been revived on the occasion of Seth Brindawan Parwar Bania, the honest’s supervisor. Crucial honest ceremony is Jaljatra, the place the idol is bathed in water and the water is subsequently auctioned. The honest is the place for an annual panchayat the place all of the issues associated to the Parwar Bania group are settled.⁷ The city has witnessed appreciable progress, with new Jain temples being constructed and outdated ones renovated and enlarged. The honest continues to be held yearly, although the character and grandeur have modified with time.

Vishnu Temple –  Beglar and Cunningham talked about two temples within the complicated. Nevertheless, just one has survived. The temple faces north and is constructed on a low-rise jagati (platform) approached with a two-step staircase. It’s composed of a garbhagrha and a mukha-mandapa. The entrance pillars of the mukha-mandapa have heavy sq. bases supporting an orthogonal shaft. On the highest are heavy brackets supporting a flat roof. The garbhagrha is a sq. room supporting a flat roof. A number of photographs are positioned contained in the garbhagrha. Beglar and Cunningham solely talked about a picture of Vishnu that’s nonetheless seen contained in the garbhagrha. They didn’t point out the remainder of the statues, and it appears they have been positioned someday later. Amongst these is a statue of Uma-Maheshvar and a yaksha-yakshi, attendants of a Jain tirthankara. The temple’s flat-roof type made Cunningham declare that the temple was constructed in the course of the post-Gupta interval of 600 CE or later. Not many students have agreed with this suggestion; the type and compositions of statues contained in the garbhaghra additionally don’t conform to the Gupta or post-Gupta conventions. These statues are usually assigned to the Kalachuri interval.⁸ S N Mishra has included these temples in his listing of Gupta temples, stating that Cunningham’s suggestion that these temples are just like the flat-roofed temples at Tigawa and Udayagiri, however this doesn’t maintain because the temple in Kundalpur has a single slab flat roof and different temples have a number of slabs forming the flat roof.⁹

Jain Temples – Greater than fifty temples are strewn across the Vardhamana Tank and over the hill encircling the tank. The principle temple is over the hill and devoted to Mahavira. The temples have been restored in the course of the reign of the Bundela king Chhatrasal within the eighteenth century CE. The whitewashed temples could be seen from a protracted distance and mark the majesty of this Jain pilgrimage website as an atishaya-kshetra.

Inscriptions: Alexander Cunningham studies two inscriptions from the Jain temples.

1. Inscription of Chhatrasal¹⁰ – It’s a 24-line inscription dated to Samvat 1757, comparable to 1700 CE. The inscription refers back to the rule of the Maharajadhiraja Shri Chhatrasal. Not all verses are very clear, however what may very well be gleaned from the learn strains means that the restoration of the current Mahavira temple was initiated by a pupil of Bhattaraka Surendrakirti, who belonged to the Mulasangha, Balatkargana, Sarasvatigacha. The family tree of Surendrakirti is supplied, ranging from Yashakirti, adopted by Lalitakirti, Dharmakirti (creator of Ramadevapurana), and Padmakirti.
2. Inscription in a small temple¹¹ – the inscription is dated to Samvat 1501. No additional particulars are recognized.

¹ Titze, Kurt (1998). Jainism, a Pictorial Information to the Faith of Non-violence. Motilal Banarasidass. New Delhi. ISBN 9788120815346. p. 125
² Javeri, Thakurdas Bhagavandas (1914). Bharatvarshiya Digambar Jain Listing. pp. 261-262
³ Grant, Charles (1870). Gazetteer of the Central Provinces of India. Schooling Society Press. Bombay. p. 249
⁴ Hunter, W W (1881). The Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. III, Dabha to Harduaganj. Trubner & Co. London. p. 30
⁵ Beglar, J D (1878). Report of a Tour in Bundelkhand and Malwa, 1871-72, and within the Central Provinces, 1873-74, vol. VII. Authorities Printing. Calcutta. p. 58
⁶ Cunningham, Alexander (1885). Stories of a Tour in Bundelkhand and Rewa in 1883-84; and of a Tour in Rewa, Bundelkhand, Malwa, and Gwalior, in 1884-85, vol. XXI. Authorities Printing. Calcutta. pp. 166-167
⁷ Russell, R. V. (1906). Central Provinces District Gazetteer, Damoh District. The Pioneer Press, Allahabad. pp. 203-204
⁸ पाठक, अशर्फीलाल (1981). दमोह जिला का ऐतिहासिक पुरातत्त्व, Ph.D. thesis (unpublished) submitted to the Sagar College. pp. 155-156
⁹ Mishra, Sudhakar Nath (1992). Gupta Artwork and Structure. Agam Kala Prakashan. New Delhi. pp. 84-85
¹⁰ Lal, Hira (1916). Descriptive Lists of Inscriptions within the Central Provinces and Berar. Authorities Press. Nagpur. p. 52 | Javeri, Thakurdas Bhagavandas (1914). Bharatvarshiya Digambar Jain Listing. pp. 259-261
¹¹ Lal, Hira (1916). Descriptive Lists of Inscriptions within the Central Provinces and Berar. Authorities Press. Nagpur. p. 52

Bibliography:
सोनी, संजय बाबू (2002). दमोह जिले का पुरातत्त्व, Ph.D. thesis (unpublished) submitted to the Dr. Harisingh Gour College, Sagar. pp. 226-227

Acknowledgment: A number of the photographs above are in CC0 1.0 Common Public Area from the gathering launched by the Tapesh Yadav Basis for Indian Heritage.