Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Sugandesha Temple, Pattan, Jammu and Kashmir

Sugandesha Temple, Pattan, Jammu and Kashmir
Sugandesha Temple is a Hindu Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva located in Pattan Town in Baramulla District in Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The temple is in a dilapidated condition and worship is no longer conducted. It is listed as one of the most important temples for promotion of tourism in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. This site is one of the listed sites under Archeological survey of India.


History
Kalhana, author of Rajatarangini (River of Kings), an account of the history of Kashmir. He wrote the work in Sanskrit between 1148 and 1149. In his work, Kalhana wrote about King Avanti Varman (855 – 883 AD), the first king of the Utpala dynasty and his son Shankara Varman (883-902 AD). Shankara Varman founded a new town called Shankarapattana and built two temples at Shankarapattana dedicated to Lord Shiva. King Shankara Varman named one of the temples after his wife Sugandha as Sugandhesha. After the demise of his husband and early death of her two boy kings, Sugandha got the opportunity to rule Kashmir from 904 to 906 A.D. 

Kalhana mentions that just like a bad poet steals material from other poets, a bad King, plunders other cities. Shankara Varman plundered the nearby Buddhist site of Parihaspora to build his new town. The stones used in the construction of the temples in his capital came from the ruins of Parihaspora. Studies have shown that the temple first underwent significant damage in 10th or 11th century. However, the major damage was done in 1885. In 1847, the two temples at Pattan were identified by Alexander Cunningham (1814-93) as the ones mentioned in Rajatarangini. Based on the fact that one of the temples was smaller and less decorate that the other, he marked it as Sugandhesha temple.
The Temple
The shrine is 12' 7'' square and has, as usual, a portico in front. It is open on one side only and has trefoiled niches externally on the other sides. These niches contained images. The temple stands on a double base, but it seems probable from the flank walls of the lower stair and the frieze of the lower base, in which the panels intended for sculpture decoration have been merely blocked out, but not carved, that the temple was never completed. The entrance to the courtyard is in the middle of the eastern wall of the peristyle, and consists, as usual, of two chambers with a partition wall and a doorway in the middle.


Among the architectural fragments lying loose on the site, the most noteworthy are (a) two fragments of fluted columns with their capitals, (b) two bracket capitals with voluted ends and carved figures of atlantes supporting the frieze above, (c) a huge stone belonging to the cornice of the temple, bearing rows of kirtimukhas (grinning lions heads) and rosettes, and (d) a stone probably belonging to the partition wall of the entrance, having two small trefoiled niches in which stand female figures wearing long garlands and below them two rectangular niches, in one of which is an atlant seated between two lions facing the spectator, and in the other are two human-headed birds.


The cornice of the base of the peristyle is similar to that of the Avantisvami temple. The cells were preceded by a row of fluted columns, bases of some of which are in situ while those of others are scattered about in the courtyard. The slots in the lower stones of the jambs of the cells. These are mortices for iron clamps which held pairs of stones together. Pieces of much-corroded iron are still extant in some of the mortices. The temple complex is fenced to protect the stones scattered around the complex.


Connectivity
The Temple is located at about 2.5 Kms from Pattan Railway Station, 28 Kms from Baramulla, 27 Kms from Srinagar, 30 Kms from Srinagar Bus Stand, 36 Kms from Srinagar Railway Station, 35 Kms from Srinagar Airport and 290 Kms from Jammu. Pattan Town is situated on National Highway connecting Srinagar with Baramulla. It takes half an hour to reach Pattan from Srinagar. Buses and private taxis are available to access the temple.
Location

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