The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...
This group
of seven figures caught my eye as I wandered around the ruins of the rock cut
temples at Masroor. “Sapta Matrika!” I exclaimed, surprised to see them here.
Then, after
a closer look, I wondered – “Are they Sapta Matrikas, or simply seven figures?
I can hardly make out if they are women. Besides, they are seated on lotuses.”
They were certainly important figures, going by the detailed carvings above and
below them, though the figures themselves are too ruined to identify.
We moved
on, and stopped once more, at the sight of this panel…
Another
group of delicate, standing figures, certainly feminine this time. The first
was almost certainly Indrani – going by her vehicle, the elephant; and the
third must be Maheshwari, mounted on her bull. So, are they Sapta Matrikas too?
Well, there were more than seven figures here, so they couldn’t be. Could they
be Ashta Matrikas? No, there were more. Nava Durgas? By now, we were confused.
This group, once again seated on lotuses, was the last panel we saw. At first, we thought
they were just three. Then, we noticed the almost completely ruined figures on
the left and right. So, five goddesses… who could they be?
The central
one was surely Gajalakshmi – see the elephants by her side? Could this have
been part of an Ashta Lakshmi panel? The gods only know. The archaeologists
certainly don’t seem to, there is so little information on these temples
available!
There were
other panels, with other groups of deities, but they were certainly male. I was
more fascinated by these panels, depicting the goddesses.However, I shouldn’t
have been so surprised. The Kangra Valley is associated with a number of
temples dedicated to the Goddess, prominently among them, Jwalaji, Chitpurni,
Bagalamukhi, Vajreshwari, and Chamunda. Many of these shrines are considered
the most sacred to the goddess, and counted among the Shakti Peethas. No wonder
so many of her forms are depicted at the Masroor Temple, which is also in the
Kangra valley.
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