Umā-Māheśwara in the Vindhya-s

5 minute read

This piece is on the Umā-Māheśwara in the Vindhya-s and the issues surrounding it.

Index

Location
Historicity
Uma Maheshwara forms
Jyotishpitha vivada
Mudra
Hari-hara in same style
Shrawana prasanga

Location

The temple is situated near old township of Ghorawal (root: Ghoḍāwala is literally, the coming of horses – used in context of either trade or war), on borders of states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in the Vindhya ranges.

Historicity

The area of the temple is within a radius of ~10 km from the historical Sone river. The route was heavily used for trade in earlier times, recorded rule/invasions from Islamic forces can be linked via rule over Vijayagaḍa fort. The rule of the British is registered in the buildings that they made.

Emergence of the sculpture:

By archaeological dating, the murti is believed to be of 10th-11th century – which might have been lost in the Islamic invasions.

Moti Mahato, a farmer from the village of Shatadwāri, found the murti while ploughing his field in the 1930s. Soon enough immediate construction of the temple was monetised by local landlords in 1938.

Later on, a claimed Śankarācarya, Jayendra Saraswati of Jyotirmaṭha (not referring to the Kanchi matham acharya with the same name, but some other) came as a leading figure in the opening ceremonies.

The sculpture follows the guidelines of texts like the Vishṇudharmottara Purāṇa and Matsya Purāṇa for the Ālingana-murtī of Śiva and Pārvatī.

Mudra : Śiva is seated in Lalitāsana(posture of royal ease) with his right leg hanging down while Pārvatī is seated on Shiva’s left thigh, a position known as Vāmāngāruḍha.

Mudra-s: Features –

Chibukotthāna:This is the most striking feature. Shiva’s front right hand reaches up to lift Parvati’s chin. Shiva’s front left arm is wrapped around Parvati’s shoulder/waist, drawing her close.
Pārvatī devī holds a circular mirror in her left hand.
Āyudha : Triśūla, visible in Śivas’ rear right hand.
Vāhana-s : Beneath the seat, Nandī and Lion can be observed.

Sculpture and Mudrā

The sculpture is 3 feet long, made in Lasya style (root: las-play)

Lasya is the dance of Devī Pārvatī contrasted by the counterpart godhead Naṭarāja, the lasya was first taught to Ushā the daughter of Bāṇāsura by Devī and was transmitted similarly to Gopikā(s).

Mohininaṭṭyam of Kerala and Maṇipura dance are believed to be sprung from the same style of dancing.

Jyotishpīṭha vivāda

We see, interestingly, that the claim of the temple being inaugurated by a Śankarācarya is likely a fake account or it was done by a fake ācarya.

It points out while the maṭha was weak due to the natural tragedies hitting its shelter, there could have been many claimants to the maṭha roaming around as pontiffs.

Umā-Māheśwara in same style

Śrāvaṇa-Prasanga

The temple receives lakhs of devotees every year in the month of Śrāvaṇa from the South-East part of Uttar Pradesh for Jalābhisheka and darśana.

The temple has uniqueness in performance of jalābhisheka as abhisheka here is done on sākāra-vigraha(the statue) and on Nandī compared to other places where abhisheka is done on the Śivalinga.

Devotees collect water mostly from the river Gangā in nearby district of Mirzapur or the Vijayagaḍha fort and walk barefoot ~50 kilometers to perform abhisheka.

Issues around, negligence of the historical timepieces: Image repository and more.

From first look, it is clearly visible through the amount of khanḍita sculptures, that area would have been subject to war by invaders at some point of time. Since unearthing of such sculptures, there has been zero to none efforts to preserve this heritage leaving one or two outliers.

Such sculptures are all around in the district and its surroundings, most of them which are left to care of nature and some still unearthed.

Have attached a few images below:

Most of such valuable sculptures are not taken care of. Some of them were transferred to other local temples without thorough research of the sculptures.

Location : Barakanhara, Ghorawal, Uttar Pradesh.

5. A devi ashṭadhātu murti from same location which was stolen and put back by thieves after unknown sequence of happenings.

6. Failed museum project : A museum was inaugurated by the then government on 3rd of November, 2009 with a great cost. Needless to say, other than that most of the restorations were never done, those who were even done are now in worse state than that they would have been underground.