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APPENDIX III
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three known shrines of the goddess, at Mahoba, at Maniyagarh, a large ruined fort, situated on a hill overlooking the town of Rajgarh in Chhatarpur State, and at the village of Barel in Hamirpur District. The Devi Jagadāmbi temple at Khajuraho is among the best, and like the others, has been assigned to the tenth century.
There is no doubt that Saivism was the prevailing religion in Bundelkhand, and the architectural grandeur of Khajurāho rests on the great temples dedicated to Siva: but the cult of Vişnu had also a recognised place, as shown by some of the temples dedicated to that deity. The Baghārī inscription found near Mahoba commemorates the building of temples to both Vişņu and Siva by the ministers of Parmāl or Paramardi in 1195 A. D. We may refer in this connection to the allegorical play Prabodhacandrodaya, which was produced during the reign of the Chandel king Kirtivarman, about the year 1065 A. D.: it refers to shrines of Vişnu ( v. 5) and glorifies Visņubhakti (Faith in Vişņu), one of the prominent characters in the play. It may, however, be noted that Siva is glorified in the second verse of the prologue; and we are told in v. 9 that the Absolute is variously designated as Brahmā, Vişņu or Siva."
Saivism was prevalent not only in Bundelkhand but in other areas of Central India. Jaso, the chief town of the tiny state of that name in Baghelkhand, seems to have been an important place in the middle ages. It contains an old temple of Siva and a large tank called the Rekra Talav. Two colossal images of Siva as Tripurări and Natesa were found close to the Rekra Talav. The temple of Kumhra Mahādeva is a building in the Khajurāho style of about the eleventh or twelfth century,
The most important is the Caturbhuj completed in 954 A. D. (see above). The temple is 85 feet 4 inches in length and 44 feet in breadth, or almost exactly the same size as Visvanātha.' Immediately to the east of the Caturbhuj temple is a small open temple containing a colossal statue of the Varāha Avatāra of Vişnu No. 17 in Cunningham's list is a large temple situated close to the north end of the village. The temple is called Vamana or the Dwarf Incarnation of Vişnu, a name which is certainly not correct; for, although there is a large statue of the dwarf god, 4 feet 8 inches high, enshrined inside, yet there is a small figure of Śiva himself over the centre of the entrance to the sanctum, with Brahmä and Vişnu to the
right and left.' One or two more temples of Vişnu are mentioned by Cunningham. 2 For the Chandel kings and their monuments see Vincent Smith: History and
Coinage of the Chandel dynasty in Indian Antiquary, 1908. “The remains, more or less complete, of more than thirty temples are traceable at Khajuraho and the neighbouring village of Jatkari.' See also Cunningham: Archaeological Survey og India, Vol. II, pp. 412-39. Cunningham writing in 1865 says that Khajurāho is still frequented by pilgrims who assemble in thousands for the celebration of the Sivaratri in the month of Phölgun, at which time an annual fair is held. It may be noted that a similar fair is held at Elephanta on the occasion of the Sivaratri festival every year in February when pilgrims visit the island in large numbers to worship the linga enshrined in the great cave temple in the western hill. Sastri: A Guide to
Elephanta, p. 32. 3 Progress Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, Western Circle, for the year
ending 31 st March, 1919, p. 60.
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