Jarai Ka Math, Barua Sagar – The Temple

Jarai Ka Math, Barua Sagar – The Temple

This temple is facing towards east and considered as an excellent example of early Pratihara architecture. The temple stands on an elevated ground that dominates the surrounding area. This temple might have been built in panchayatana style of architecture. Panchayatana is an architectural style where the main shrine is built on a raised platform with four smaller subsidiary shrines at the four corners and making it a total of five shrines. However, only the subsidiary shrines on southwest and northwest corner survives at present.

The temple consists of sanctum, antrala and mukha mandapa. The mukha mandapa is completely lost except its foundation. The temple is pancharatha on plan. The doorjamb of the sanctum doorway has four bands of decoration. The lintel of the doorway has four rows of figures. The topmost row shows five dancing deities, one of them is goddess Sarasvati holding Veena. The next row below shows the ashtadikpalas riding on their respective mounts. Two images of Varahi facing each other can be seen at the centre of this row.

The next row below shows images of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva with two Bikshadana at the cardinal points. The lowest row depicts images of six goddesses namely Gaja Lakshmi, Brahmi, Maheshvari, Sarasvati, Vaishnavi, and Indrani. The lowest row has a mutilated image of sixteen-armed goddess at lalatabimba at center. The lower panel attached to the lalatabimba shows navagrahas on the left and Sapta Matrikas on the right accompanied by Veerabhadra & Ganesha flanked by Brahma and Shiva on the cardinal point.

Dvarapalas and river goddesses Ganga & Yamuna can be seen at the base of the doorjambs. An image of Lakulisa with his four disciples can be seen above the Yamuna. The sanctum is rectangular in plan. The main image of the deity is missing from the sanctum. Only the pedestal, and the jeweled right foot of a female placed on a lotus stalk, remains. The jeweled foot on the lotus stalk is associated with the Goddess Tara or Mateswari. The ashtadikpalas can be seen at their respective directions over the karna niches of the shikara.

The niches of the adhistana has images of Varahi, Durga & Chamunda on the south, images of four-armed Harihara, Kartikeya & Bhairava on the west and images of Kalyana Sundara, Kubera, Ardhanareesvara and Durga on the north. There is one Bhadra niche on each lateral side on south and north and two niches on the west due to the rectangular arrangement of the sanctum.

Images of Narasimha on the south, Surya riding chariot accompanied with Danda & Pingala and three-head & three-legged Shiva on the west, Lakshmi-Narayana accompanied with Shankha-purusha and Chakra-purusha on the north can be seen on these niches. The top portion of the shikara had been lost completely and only five tiers of the original shikara survived. The shikhara was probably reconstructed during 17^th century CE by the Bundela rulers. Erotic sculptures similar to Khajuraho can be found in the exterior walls of the temple.