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
No comments:
Post a Comment