Frontispiece of the book ‘L’art des cuivres anciens au Cachemire & au Petit-Thibet (1883)’ [Art of Antique Brass of Kashmir & The Little Tibet by Ch. E. Ujfalvy, drawings by B. Schmidt] Captioned as: ‘The god Ganesha served by two young girls’ [available here at archive.org] (These early European collectors obviously had no idea what they were hoarding, proper studies started only much later) In the above image, the deity sits like an emperor
Mubarak Mandi Gate (Darshani Deodi), Old Jammu
Painting on top of the gate
Ganesha with wives Riddhi and Siddhi
On top of another gate to a building complex in Mubarak Mandi
A century ago, when the digging began at Avantipora, people expected to find two temples dedicated to Shiva. Instead they found one dedicated to Vishnu (Awantiswamin Temple) and the other dedicated to Shiva (Awantisvara Temple). The smaller of the two, Awantiswamin was found to be more stunning while Awantisvara was found to be in a more decrepit state.
Awantisvara temple is located near the hamlet of Jaubrar about a kilometer to the north-west of the Awantiswamin temple. While leaving Srinagar and moving onto Bijbehara, this is the first ruin of Avanitpur.
This temple too is believed to have been built by King Avantivarman (AD 855 – 883 AD), the first king of the Utpala dynasty.
Archaeologist Debala Mitra gives the layout of the complex:
“Facing the west, the complex consists of a panchayatana temple in the middle of an oblong courtyard, two subsidiary shrines (one each at the north-easter anf south-eastern corners)”, a quadrangular array of cells around the periphery of the courtyard and a double chambered imposing gateway in the centre of the western row of cells in two flanks.”
The ruins suggest that the temple was laid to be a immense monument but for unknown reasons the construction was never completed.
From the book ‘Pandrethan, Avantipur & Martand’ (1977) by Debala Mitra
What would have been a ‘ghata– (pot) shaped’ pillar. Something not found in design of Awantiswamin temple.
“The interior of the central shrine is still covered with a heap of large stones, and it is not yet known if any fragments of the image of Avantisvara-Mahadeva, which was worshipped in this temple, will be found.” ~ D. R. Sahni in 1913 after doing the initial digging.
The relief of Avantivarman and his queen. The ground is littered with stones bearing such carving which were meant to be part of the temple.
Some part of the relief is buried under the ground
The injury to the stone is definitely recent and man made. From the book ‘Pandrethan, Avantipur & Martand’ (1977) by Debala Mitra, the carved stone in a more pristine form. Apparently there is something about breasts that makes the modern man very violent.
Found this beautifully carved and selectively mutilated stone slab sitting under a tree somewhere in Gurgaon, right next to a yellow, dusty, empty plot. [2010]
This is one of the fluted shafts of the smaller shrines around the main complex
In 2014, Awantiswamin is kept by ASI as site keeping in mind the tourists, there is an office and a ticketing system, while Awantisvara is more like a local public park. It is open for everyone with just a low barrier at the main outside gate designed to keep out the animals.
Something I always wanted to do: Visit a historic site in Kashmir that I had read a lot about and seen a lot of vintage photographs of. Done.
About 28 kilometers southeast of Srinagar, on the right bank of upriver Jhelum, on the main road to Bijbehara, are located the ruins that mark the Awantiswamin Temple. Travelling by road to Kashmir, this is the first major historic site that one gets to see. The place is know as Vantipor or Avantipor and was founded by King Avantivarman (AD 855 – 883 AD), the first king of the Utpala dynasty, on the ancient site called Visvaikasara.
The first mention of these ruins in old western travelogues can be found in George Forster writing about his visit to the place in 1783 although he identified it as Bhyteenpur. Then in writing of Moorcroft who visited the place in 1823, Baron Hugel in around 1835 , Vigne in around 1837. All of them saw a confusing mass of stones hinting at remains of ancient ruins buried under ground.
Alexander Cunningham in about 1848 took the first serious look at the ruins, did some basic digging, exposing remains of a bigger structure. Even though a lot his assumptions were proved to be wrong (like his assertion that the temple must have been dedicated to Shiva and the size of the temple).
The scene was recored for posterity by John Burke in 1868 and presented in Henry Hardy Cole’s Archaeological Survey of India report, ‘Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir’ (1869).
Photo1: Burke’s photograph from 1868
The first serious excavation work at Avantipur began at a cost of about 5000 rupees in 1910 under J. C. Chatterji on recommendation of Sir John Marshall to the state Durbar in 1907. His digging went to no more than 7 feet below ground level i.e. about 8 feet about the courtyard floor level of the temple. Chatterji found some copper coins and charred remains of a birch-bark manuscript. The floor, several stairs, central shrine and the basement of peristyle remained buried.
Then in 1913, Daya Ram Sahni did the second and most extensive round of excavations at the site. His findings were first published in ‘Annual report of the archaeological survey of India 1913-14’ under title ‘Excavations at Avantipur’.
It was this dig that uncovered the structures that we see it today at the site. The excavation also revealed artefacts that shed light on the way Kashmiris lived their life during various eras as coins of various kings and earthenware were uncovered. Among other things he found earthen heating bowls, the kind used by boatmen and poor in Kashmir. He found jars with still some corn in them, the same kind that were used in Kashmir till recent times. He found evidence that during various eras, a part of the structure may have continued to be used as a religious site by the Brahmins.
The ruinous state of the ancient temple (as in case of almost all ancient temples in Kashmir) was and is attributed to Sikandar Butshikan. But, supporting an earlier claim by Cunningham, Sahni found that “The courtyard of the temple had filled up with silt for more than two-thirds of the height of the colonnade already before the time of Sikandar [Butshikan].” During violent eras only the structure above ground had suffered. In this way one of Kashmir’s the most finely decorated ancient structure was discovered. It’s fortunate well preserved state a result of nature’s small mercy in the form of silting from either a catastrophic event or slow changing of Vitasta’s course and it’s flood area saving it from the hands of both man and nature during much of 13th and 14 century.
Photo2: Ground Plan of Awantiswamin temple by Sahni
Awantiswamin temple was built by Avantivarman in around 855 CE. Kalhana’s Rajatarangini tells us it was just before his accession to throne and also mentions that this was this fortress like temple in which royal officers of King Jayasimha (1128-1154 A.D.) successfully survived a siege by Damaras (feudal barons of ancient Kashmir), an event that must have occurred during Kalhana’s time. Before the excavation, some of the observers had assumed that the temple was dedicated to Shiva (Baron Hugel without much evidence actually thought it was a Buddist temple) . But once the base of the temple was excavated, Awantiswamin temple was found to be devoted to Vishnu. Avantivarman did built a Shiva temple which is nearby and is now known as Avantishovra Temple.
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Photo 8: Built in Grey Limestone prone to vagaries of nature
Photo 9: Ganga in niche on left with lotus in right hand, quadrangle porch, outer chamber, northern wall. Identified because in left hand she has a vessel and is riding a crocodile
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Photo 12: Yamuna in niche on right with lotus in left hand, quadrangle porch, outer chamber, southern wall. Her ride, the tortoise was missing even in 1913 [more about Ganga Yamuna iconography in Kashmir]
Photo 13: Medallions in lower part represent Garuda
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Photo 21: Left wall to the stairs.
Photo 22: Six armed Vishnu with his consorts
According to Sahni, “To his right and left are Satyavama and Sri. The emblems in the right hands of Vishnu are a mace (dada), a garland and an ear of corn (manjari). The uppermost left hand has a bow (pin aka, and the lower most a lotus bud. the middle hand rests on the left great of the goddess on that side. In front of the seat on which Vishnu sits are three birds, apparently parrots. The tilaka on the foreground of the central figure is a circular dot. Thos on the foreheads of the goddesses are dots enclosed in crescents. The panel is enclosed in square-pilasters of quasi-Greek type, surmounted with a multi foil arch with a goose in each spandril.”
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Photo 24: Right block of the staircase
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Sahni presumed this one too to be of Vishnu. He writes, “The subject depicted on the front of the other flank is identical, except that the figure of Vishnu is four-armed and his forehead-mark is similar to that of the goddesses.” But later scholars (Sunil Chandra Ray in Early History and Culture of Kashmir) mention it as “Kamadeva with his wives Rati and Priti” [update April, 2016: The identification of Kamadeva was done by J. Vogel in 1933 while reviewing Kak’s book for annual Bibliography of Indian archaeology 1933, Vol. 8]
Photo 26: Left block of the staircase
Photo 27: King with his queens and attendants Inner side of Left block near stair case Sahni, had suggested that it might be the image of a Brahma. The scholars now agree the the image represents the chief patron of the temple, the King. “Whether the fiure stands for King Utpalapida, Sukhavarman who became the de facto ruler or Avantivarman himself is not know”[Debala Mitra, Pandrethan, Avantipur & Martand, 1977]
Photo 28: The Geese Motiff
also found on Harwan tiles
Photo 29: A Harwan tile
Photo 30: Prince with his queens and attendants Inner side right block
Photo 31
The particular block is interesting as Sahni in 1913 had identified it as Krishna and the Gopis. He writes, “The central figure presumably represents the youthful Krishna standing facing with a flower bud in each hand. To his right and left are archangels bringing presents of sweets and garlands in the upper corners. To the proper right of Krishna we notice a pair of figures, the lower one being a female (cowherdess), who is feeding a cow from a bowl. The other figures on this side and the four figures on the other side may be cowherd boys (gopa).”
The scholars [Debala Mitra, Pandrethan, Avantipur & Martand, 1977] now consider this to be image of a Prince, possibly Avantivarman.
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Photo 33: Inner Courtyard
Photo 34: The central structure
Back in 1913, Sahni noticed that the blocks were used by people as construction material in Srinagar.
The central statue was never found only parts of pedestals
Photo 35: Left block was dedicated to Ganga. These are of a slightly later date than the main structure.
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Under ASI, it is one of the best maintained of ancient monuments in Kashmir. The entrance only costs rupees five. I visited the place in the afternoon of 22 February 2014 in midst of wintry showers. There were no tourists. I found my self alone in the ruins. Well, almost alone. The government tourist guide, a guy with a crazy eye, proved to be surprisingly good. He knew the basics and the important elementary facts about the site perfectly. He took no extra money for the service and in fact refused extra money. At the end of his guided tour, he was in for a pleasant shock when he realised that I was no normal tourist but a fellow Kashmiri.
If the place was somehow again buried today, in a couple of hundred years when they dig it up again, they would find bottles of cold drink and assume the climate of Kashmir had started changing. They would look at the marks of fresh violence on the stones and assume man was heading no where.
-0- To be updated with download link for Sahni’s papers.
Main brick structure to Right: Tomb of Zain-ul-Abidin’s (1420-1470) Mother Queen Miran (Jonaraja’s Meradevi). Dating to about 1430 and built atop an earlier structure belonging to Hindu era.
The enclosure to left houses the graves of Zain-ul-Abidin and some other royalties like Muhammad Haidar Dughlat (1499 or 1500–1551), a cousin of Mongol Babar who ruled Kashmir.
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Photograph of the enclosure surrounding Zain-ul-abidin’s tomb taken by John Burke in 1868 for his ‘Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir’ (1869). Via British Library.
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Women are anonymous. Most books written on Kashmiri history in last 100 years by Kashmiris is nothing but replication of text from older books written by Europeans. With each replication a certain loss of information is induced. Internet is inane replication of data. Mix them together and all you get is mindset that fails to ask basic questions. Here’s a fun exercise. Near Zaina Kadal is the “Budshah Tomb”, the tomb of Zaina, his mother and some other royalties. Do a quick Google search, you will find thousands of entries for “Tomb of Budshah’s Mother”. The question: What was the name of Budshah’s mother? The monument was built for her but how come nobody mentions her name?
It took me hours trying to look online but with any success. Finally found the answer in a beautiful book that costs $50. ‘The Arts of Kashmir’ (2007) by Pratapaditya Pal.
Sangin Darwaza/Per. Stone Gate: The more ornate of the two three gates (other two being Kathi and Bachi) built below Hari Parbat on orders of Akbar for his ‘Nagar Nagar’ township.
By Geoffroy Millias.
from ‘Irene Petrie : Missionary to Kashmir’ (1903).
At Shah Hamadan By Brian Brake, 1957
by Douglas Waugh (late 1950s, early 1960s)
From the book
“Tikkus’ tourist & shopping guide of Kashmir covering Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh ” (1970) by Bharat Tikku.
2008
“In the upper part of the city the banks are lined with houseboats in which the visitors live. But lower down these banks, which are sometimes twenty and thirty feet high, have a very interesting and varied life at the water’s edge, where you find laundrymen and laundrywomen at intervals all the way along, and bathers, sometimes composed of groups of men, others of groups of women, and again men and women together. As a rule this bathing takes place at the foot of some of the wide stone steps that lead up from the water to the upper level of the bank, and frequently in the vicinity of a temple or mosque. There are also a number of small bath-houses, without roofs, and divided into very tiny little cabinets that are hardly large enough for a single person. These are indulged in by the more fortunate, or the better-to- do classes, who constitute but a very small percentage of the total bathing population.
This bathing, too, is a very interesting process to witness, especially the dressing, for, while the men are rather indifferent as to how much or how little clothing they may have on, the women are exceedingly modest and rarely, if ever, is there the least exposure of any portion of the body besides the arms, and head and feet. They go into the river with one dress on and when they have bathed they have not only washed their bodies but the garments they have been wearing, and when they come out they have on the bank, or steps, another garment which they put on, and so skillful are they in making this change that it is almost impossible to tell how it is done. One moment they are clad in the wet, clinging clothes which they have worn in the river, and the next by a rapid sleight- of-hand transformation they are dressed in dry garments of most pleasing hue.”
~ ‘Our summer in the vale of Kashmir’ (1915) by Frederick Ward Denys
“Further on is building much like a young castle right before The Bund and with stone steps leading up from the water to the inside of the building. It is a quaint house, no one seems to know the purpose for which it was originally built, the most popular belief being a school. “
Photograph of the Meruvardhanaswami temple at Pandrethan near Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, taken in 1868 by John Burke. Pandrethan, now mostly in ruins, is one of Kashmir’s historic capitals, said by Kalhana in his poetical account of Kashmiri history called Rajatarangini to have been founded by king Pravarsena in the 6th century AD. Its name thus derives from Puranadishthana or ‘old town’. The small stone Shiva temple in the picture dates from the mid-10th century, reputedly erected by a minister named Meru. It was set in a spring-fed tank and its plinth is now submerged. This general view of the temple is reproduced in Henry Hardy Cole’s Archaeological Survey of India report, ‘Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir,’ (1869), in which he wrote, ‘The small village of Pandrethan is situated on the Jhelum, about a mile and a half to the south-east of Srinagar…The Temple is close to the village, and stands in the centre of a tank of water…At the time of my visit, the water was about two feet over the floor of the Temple, and I had to obtain a small boat to enable me and my surveyors to take measurements. The stone ceiling is elaborately carved in bas-relief figures, and it is one of the most perfect pieces of ancient carving that exists in Kashmir…The pyramidal roof is divided into two portions by an ornamental band. The corner pilasters are surmounted by carved capitals, and the pediments of the porches appear to have terminated with a melon-shaped ornament. The ceiling is formed of nine blocks of stone; four resting over the angles of the cornice, reduce the opening to a square, and an upper course of four stones still further reduces the opening, which is covered by a single block decorated with a large lotus.’
The above image and description is easily available at British Library. What I am actually sharing is something inside the temple. The design that could be seen on the ceiling.
The design on the ceiling was first copied by Alexander Cunningham in around 1848 after a tip-off by Lord John Elphinstone. When Cunningham visited the temple, there was evidence that one time the ornamentation, the designs and the figures of the temple must have been profusely plastered over to cover its naked idol beauty.
Inside, he found figures on the walls plastered as also the ornamentation on ceiling. He gives it as the reason why George Trebeck didn’t notice any figures or any designs on the ceiling when he became the first European to enter the temple in around 1822.
Alexander Cunningham had the plaster removed and the figures on the ceiling appeared.
Cunningham’s copy of the design Essay on the Avian Order of Architecture by Alexander Cunningham Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal (1848)
“The ceiling is formed of nine blocks, four of which rest over the angles of the cornice, and reduce the opening to a square, which is just one half of the size of the other. The same process is again repeated with an upper course of four stones, by which the opening is still further narrowed to a square of 4 feet ; and lastly, this opening is covered by a single stone decorated with a large expanded lotus, surrounded by a beaded circle. The smaller angles are occupied by naked human figures, something similar to those of the Payach ceiling, but without wings. These figures besides have only one leg and one arm outstretched, which affords more variety than the other treatment at Payach. Each of the larger angles is filled with two figures holding out a garland, which falls in a graceful loop between them. The whole rests upon a cornice supported by brackets, which were so much decayed that I found it impossible to trace their decorations or even their exact shape. The spaces between the brackets were also much injured ; but they appeared to have been filled with some kind of ornamental drapery hanging in curved folds.”
The winged figures noticed by him on the ceiling of Payach:
A much more detailed (lesser know) copy of Pandrethan ceiling prepared by one R.T. Burney was presented by W.G. Cowie in his 1865 paper ‘Notes on some of the Temples of Kashmir, especially those not described by General A. Cunninghan’ (Journal of The Asiatiic Society of Bengal Volume 35, Part 1. 1866)
W.G. Cowie states: “General Cunningham’s drawing of the ceiling of the temple is not quite complete. From the accompanying very accurate sketch made by Mr. R. T. Burney of the Civil Service, (Plate XVIII.), it will be seen that the angles of the square in which the beaded circle is, are occupied by naked human figures, as well as the angles of the other squares. These innermost figures have both arms outstretched, like those at Payach seeming to hold up the circle. They have drapery about their shoulders, resembling light scarfs. The brackets supporting the cornice were once ornamented, and show marks of great violence having been used to destroy the carving. Each appears to have represented a human head ; for on several of them there still remains on both sides what looks like plaited hair. The pediment pilasters project 5 inches beyond those supporting the trefoiled arches. The corner pilasters of the building are 1 foot 10 1/2 inches thick. I found what I took for mortar in all parts of the building.
