THREE ICONIC ANCIENT RUINS OF KASHMIR
THREE ICONIC ANCIENT
RUINS OF KASHMIR
BY WARVET
When one visits the ancient architectural ruins in
Kashmir, one is left bewildered with the scale and magnificence of the great
Hindu civilization that once flowered in the heavenly valley. The devastation
vested upon grand monuments by zealots is heart wrenching. One wishes that the
people of this beautiful piece of Earth would take justified pride in these
wonders created by their own forefathers and learn about their legacy. Visit of
school children and youth to these venerable sites along with description of
their grandeur can do wonders in promoting peace, harmony, dignity and self
confidence.
The (Dis)credit for destroying all the architectural
splendour of ancient Kashmir goes temples to one guy – Sultan Sikandar of Shah
Miri dynasty (1353 – 1413). For his zeal of destroying the ancient culture and
civilisation of Kashmir, under his advisor on religious matters – Sufi Mir Mohammad
Hamadani he converted lakhs of Pundits. Once he collected 7 mounds of sacred
thread or janeu of pundits who refused to convert and threw them into the Dal
lake with hands tied to drown. He earned the name – ‘Sikandar Butshikan’ or ‘Sikandar
The Iconoclast’ for his unfounded zeal. Only 3 of the ancient temples escaped
his wrath and I will cover them sometime later. As of now, we come to the first
Gem of today -
I MARTAND –
Around 20 km from Anantnag, on a hilly slope is one of
the most impressive ruins of Kashmir – Of the magnificent Martand or Sun temple. The
great edifice was built in 8th century CE by the mighty king of
Kashmir – Lalitaditya of Karkota dynasty.
It’s a Rock temple whose dimensions shock you if you consider
the remote location, cut off from the Indian subcontinent due to the geography.
The complete structure is utterly destroyed by the savage but still you can
picture the grand temple in your mind. Huge rock boulders have been shaped into
cuboidal blocks and placed over each other using lock and key technique – No cement
or lime was used. Defiled faces of various Gods including beautiful Ganga and
Jamuna look at you from the rocks. The sanctum sanctorum is on a raised plinth.
Its surrounded by 84 small shrines, each had a diety. It was a major centre for
worship of Surya. It was sited in such a manner that the early morning sunrays
bathed the diety.
‘As the marauders were unable to demolish the grand
temple with their tools, they brought mammoth amount of trees from jungles and
covering the temple in wood set it ablaze. The fire burnt for 3 months and
destroyed the temple’ a pundit in the present sun temple in nearby village of
Mattan had told me.
II PARIHASPORA –
‘You have lot of interest in our architectural wonders’
said Wizard sipping his kahwa ‘You must visit Parihaspora some day’! ‘Wheres
that sir’? I had asked.
‘Its not far from Srinagar. Just to the right of NH to
Baramulla, near Narbal. I had visited it 20 years back. Oh my God! What great
rocks! I salaam our ancestors who ferried those rocks from God knows where!
Those rock blocks are like those of Egyptian pyramids! Those days there were no
roads – nearest hills are so far away! and those hills don’t have such rocks!
The river too is far away’! The wizard was having that distant look as he in
his mind was roaming in Parihaspora.
‘ You know, Lalitaditya, the great king made his new
capital in Parihaspora. Parihas in Sanskrit means laughter, so it was the ‘City
of Laughter’. He build magnificent palace, temple and Budhist stupa there. He
commissioned a Vishnu statue made of 84000 tolas of gold, a silver bust of ‘Parihaskesna’
and a copper Buddha that reached upto the sky – to adorn the capital of the
mightiest empire of India. Those days Hinduism and Budhism coexisted in a syncretic
manner in valley. The main temple was larger than the one in Martanda’ he
added.
True to what he had told, I was dumbstruck by the
scale of the ruined edifices at Parihaspora. The area is now under protection
of ASI and few people visit it. It was another handiwork of our friend
Butshikan whom I cursed.
I researched and found that originally Vitasta flowed
closed to the plataeau on which the city was founded and that solved the
mystery of transportation of rocks. The river had later shifted course. Some
great traveller from Europe had described the peculiar ways of east where kings
abandoned mighty cities and palaces/made by their forefathers and created new ,
wasting resources. Same happened with Parihaspora and son of Lalitaditya,
shifted capital to Avantipora. Later, the city was destroyed during war between
ruler Harsha and rebel Uccala (1089-1101). Shankarvarman, son of Avantivarman
then made capital at Shankarpora or modern day Pattan with rocks harvested from
Parihaspora.
Of course, It was Sikandar who destroyed the city
completely much later in 15th century. The destruction continued and
in 1892, a Britisher, Auriel Stein found that the rocks were being transported
for Jhelum Valley Cart Road under construction by the Maharaja. The perturbed
guy rushed to the British resident who with much effort could convince the Maharaja
to spare the architectural treasure from being completely obliterated!
III AVANTISWAMI TEMPLE –
28 km upstream from Srinagar across the saffron fields
of Pampore and Cricket bat industry, is another example of the architectural
splendour of ancient Kashmir – Avantiswami temple in Avantipora we referred
above as the capital of king Avantiswami. It’s was a grand Vishnu temple built
in 9th century CE and is of same rock as Martand.Its almost same in
size, pattern and magnificence. Its close to the river and in background new
AIIMS Kashmir can be seen coming up.
One can again imagine easily how grand the original
structure must have been. The sanctum sanctorum is surrounded on 4 sides with
small shrines which held its own deities. The site is under ASI management and
a must see place. The temple was destroyed by our old friend.
As I was lamenting the zeal of Sikandar Butshikan one
day, the wizard disclosed an interesting fact ‘After he destroyed all Kashmiri
temples, one day an old manuscript from some hindu saint was found which
explicitly described how a zealot will wreck havoc on the sanatan places of
worship in 15th century. It devasted Butshikan who wished he had
found the document earlier as he would have never allowed the prophecy of hindu
saint true! Such are the quirks of fate and destiny! In case he had indeed come
across the prescient scrap earlier, he as well as I would have been much
happier !!!!
Comments