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Hindu Sites and Places of Interest ]
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of the Achaleshvara shrine. Though devoted Jainas, the two ministers, Vastupala and Tejapāla, are known for their generosities and liberal attitude towards other sects and are reputed to have repaired or built several Hindu shrines as well as a few mosques for the Muslims.
There is a big inscribed slab in a monastery near the shrine which refers to the repairs of the monastery, at the instance of its head, Bhāvashankara ( who was a well known saint ), by Mahārāvala Samarasimha of Mevād in the year 1348 V. S. (c. 1292 A. D.). Samarasimha also raised a golden flagstaff over the shrine, and made donations and arrangements for free meals for hermits residing in this monastery.
Another inscription, dated in V. S. 1377, lying in a niche outside the shrine, refers to the conquest of Ābu and Chandravatī by the Chauhāņa Chief Mahārāvaļa Lumbhā, and gives the geneology of Chauhāņa princes.
The old step-well behind the Achateshvara shrine is already referred to. It has an inscription of Mahārāva Tejasimha, dated in V. S. 1387, third day of the bright half of the month of Māgha. It seems that Tejasimha constructed the step-well.
Just in front of the shrine of Achaleshvara is preserved in a later cell, a big brass figure (fig. 56 ) of the bull-vehicle (Nandi ) of Shiva installed in V. S. 1464, Chaitra shukla 8, according to an inscription on the pedestal. By its side stands a portrait statue of the Chāraña poet (bard) Durāsā Ādhā, cast in brass, and installed by himself in V. S. 1686, Vaishākha shukla 5, according to the inscription on the statue. Outside the cell is kept a very big trident of iron which is the gift of Rāņā Lākhā, ļbākur Māņdaņa and Kunvara Bhādā. It was fashioned in the village of Ghaņerāv and offered to this shrine. ---