Lakshana Devi Temple, Bharmour – The Temple

Lakshana Devi Temple, Bharmour – The Temple

This temple is considered as the oldest temple in the Chaurasi Temple Complex. The temple is facing towards north and shows Gupta era architecture. The temple is rectangular in plan and stands over a square wooden platform. The external wall of the temple was plastered with mud with current thickness of about 0.85 metres (2 ft 9 in). The entrance and the facade of the temple follows the late Gupta style, with three parallel panels surrounding the doorway flanked by river goddesses Ganga and Yamuna.

Each band is separated by a thin carving of a floral scroll carved on a convex wood surface. The outer wooden band consists of reliefs of single females standing in tribhanga posture and of amorous couples. The middle wooden band features Ganga standing on makara on left and Yamuna standing on tortoise on right, with their attendants. Above them are a series of Hindu deities, including Shiva with Nandi, Vishnu Vaikunthamurti, four armed Vishnu and Skanda. A goddess and god in this panel are not identifiable because their iconographic signs are too eroded.

The inner panel forms the door frame of the entrance. The inner panel is carved with natural motifs such as leaves and flowers, two peacocks with their beak joined, and a pair of amorous couples in a mithuna scene. There is a triangular pediment with carvings of Vishnu and Garuda above the temple entrance doorway. The triangular pediment includes niches containing amorous couples in a range of courtship and intimacy (kama and mithuna) scenes. The interior of the temple currently has a sandhara plan on architecture.

The temple has an ardha mandapa, a mukhya mandapa, a circumambulation path and a rectangular sanctum. The mukhya mandapa is supported by six square pillars. The roof is pitch gabled, topped with slates. The original roof extended up to the main entrance. A roof projection to act as a canopy was added by the Archaeological Survey of India to protect the Gupta era style wood carvings. The original plan of the temple might have been an open twin-tiered hansakara plan.

The snow and weather may have led the community to add structure to protect the temple, modifying it first into a nirandhara plan of Hindu temple architecture, and therefrom to the current sandhara plan. The sanctum enshrines a 7^th century brass idol of Durga, locally called Lakshana Devi. She is shown with four arms, holding a trishula in one hand, a sword in another and a bell in third. Her left front hand holds the tail of the shape shifting deceptive buffalo-demon (Mahishasura). Her right foot is on the head of the buffalo-demon, as she kills the evil demon.