Aparajitaprucchha

SR No.: 008438
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: B Bhattacharya
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra
Total Pages: 810
Language: Sanskrit, Hindi
Classification: Book_Devnagari, Culture, & Art
File Size: 12 MB

Page 141

CXXXVi
"Agiset of Kolhapur forms a link with the al culture. Inscriptions, copper-plates, and other vestiges carry the story of Kolhapur back to the 9th century of the Christian Era Settlements previous to that time were destroyed by a sudden cataclysm like an earthquake which convulsed the whole tract of country lying about the Nerbudda valley, about the 7th or 8th century with the result that the whole country sank to a great depth due to subsidence on a large scale.
New settlements arose over the ruins of old ones, and now sufficient facis have been revealed pointing to the antiquity of the place.
The image of Helent, the chief deity of the place and the goddess of prosperity, has a alt with a hood spread over the head of the goddess.
There is a tradition of a tunnel running from the temple of RETEHT to Panhala Fort about 12 miles away. The existence of an underground passage at some distance from the temple has been discovered by Mr. Topakhana in the garden of the fargla school.
The passage which is built up of the beautifully polished stone is wide and high enough for a horseman or a single bullock cart to pass through easily.
The Nāgas on Panhala fort were hemmed in by their natural eremy the Garuda or eagle, and in despair they dug an underground tunnel and escaped to Kolhāpur where they took refuge in the temple of Agiaaut.
There is a strange sculpture in the main gateway of the grant temple showing a bull or at with a human head.
The head of the bull is severed and lying at the back. The sculpture which looks almost like a sphinx illustrates the story of the King of the buffalo demon by the goddess महालक्ष्मी.
Although the sculpture is a late one and shows clear Buddhistic influence, the human head has every appearance of a Negroid type.
This leads one to the belief that Negro invasions of coastal towns were not infrequent in those days, and naturally when a demon was to be represented, a Negroid type suggested itself to the mind of the sculptor.
Apart from these and other stories there is a possibility that either Kolhāpur or probably Panhala was a na colony established on the plateau of the agita mountain about 2600 B. C.