in bits and pieces
From around 1880s. [via: ebay]
From ‘Pictorial tour round India’ (1906) by John Murdoch (1819-1904).
from ‘Our summer in the vale of Kashmir’ (1915) by Frederick Ward Denys.
November, 2014
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| Upstream looking at the hills |
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| Downstream |
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Buniyar Temple, about two miles above Rampur, situated along the Baramula-Uri road on the bank of the Vitasta, is often described as the “best preserved” specimen of Kashmiri architecture. Although unlike most Kashmiri temples which are made of limestone, this one (beside the one at Wangat) is made of granite.
This is the story of the temple at Bhaniyar/Buniar/Bhavaniyar/Bunair/Boniar/Boniyar/Buniyar.
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| Burke’s Photograph [via British Museum] |
The ruins of this temple had earlier been noticed by Karl Alexander A. Hügel (1835) and G.T. Vigne (1837). Hügel mistakenly described it as a well preserved Buddhist temple, while Vigne called it a Hindu ruin on the road.
First proper detailed note of the temple came in 1865 when that summer W.G. Cowie visited the temple that had been recently excavated revealing 13 sq.ft. interior), walls supported on a basement of 4 ft.sq, a cloistered quadrangle measuring 145’x120′. The findings were given in ‘Notes on Some of the Temples of Kashmir’ (Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal > Volume XXXV, Issue II, 1867). Te local Pandits told him that the temple was built by one Bonadutt, hence the name of the place. The brother of this man had built a temple at Venapora beyond Sopor. About the granite used in the temple he wrote:
“The material of which the buildings are constructed, is a pale, coarse granite, of which there seems to be no quarry within reach on the left bank of the Jhelum. This circumstance is remarkable, considering the enormous size and weight of some of the stones employed. Mr. Drew, a geologist in the service of H, H. the Maharajah, thinks that the blocks of granite must have been carried down some of the valleys on the opposite side into the river bed, whence they were brought for the construction of the temple.”
Final clear description about the temple was given by R.C. Kak in Ancient Monuments in Kashmir (1933):
The gateway is a double-chambered structure faced on each open side by a trefoil arch surmounted by a steep pediment. The lintels of the closed arches are supported on pairs of columns which were originally fluted, though the weather has now left no trace of flutes. They have a double capital, the upper one being voluted on all four sides. The walls are externally surmounted by a cornice of kirti- mukhas, alternating with miniature trefoiled niches. Upon this rests the first course of the pyramidal roof.
The flights of steps-on the eastern and western sides respectively afford entrance to and exit from the entrance chamber. The one on the roadside is buried underground, but the inner stair has been excavated. It consists of seven steps flanked by sloping rails and upright side walls. Between this stair and the temple is a small stone platform which formed the lowermost course of the stepped base of a column (most probably a Garudadhvaja).
The priest in charge of the temple has now placed in it a small stele of very crude workmanship and late date, which he has painted with vermilion. Another similar stele, still standing in the position in which it was found, is seen in front of the temple stair.
The temple itself stands on a double base, which is in every respect similar to other structures of its kind in Kashmir. A lofty trefoil arch, standing upon advanced pilasters and enclosing a rectangular entrance originally surmounted by an ornamental trefoil and steep pediment, gives access to the sanctum. The jambs of the entrance are adorned with half-engaged columns. The interior is a square of 14 feet. The pedestal of the image is placed on a broad platform. The original image, which seems to have been of Vishnu, is now replaced by small Siva-lingas originally brought from the bed of the river Narbada. The walls are covered with a coat of modern whitewash. The string course from which the ceiling springs is still visible, but the ceiling itself which Bishop Cowie saw in 1865 and described as domical, has since either fallen down or been removed. It was, no doubt, similar to the ceilings of the larger temples at Wangath.
Externally the only decorations are the trefoils of the recesses, their pediments, and the cornice of kirtimukhas and miniature trefoils from which the roof sprang.
The quadrangle measures 145′ by 119 1/2′, and consists of fifty- three cells and the gateway. They are rectangular, 7′ long by 4′ broad. Each cell has a single trefoiled entrance enclosed in a high- pitched pediment resting on half-engaged columns. These ranges of cells are preceded by a noble colonnade which stands on a base similar to that of the temple. A transverse beam connects the capitals of the columns with the roof of the cells. Over these beams rises the entablature, only one course of which, namely the frieze of miniature trefoils, is extant.
In the centre of each range of cells, except, perhaps, the one in which the gateway stands, is an apartment of larger dimensions preceded by a pair of taller columns which are advanced about 4′ from the rest of the peristyle.
The top course of the cells is also decorated in the same way as the frieze above.
On the south side, projecting from the cornice of the upper base of the temple, is the spout of the channel which carried off the washings of the image. It seems to have been shaped originally into a makara, or crocodile’s head. Immediately below it is a huge water trough carved out of a single block of stone.
The rain-water in the courtyard is carried off by a drain which runs under the south-eastern corner of the peristyle.
In cell No. 11 of the north range, beginning the reckoning from the corner nearest the gateway, is the side entrance, which was then, as now, closed with a wooden door. The monotony of the external face of the western wall is partially relieved by rows of small square projections. In its two corners are two cells opening outwards.
Immediately outside the side-door mentioned above is a square structure built of plain blocks of stone. The middle portion of each of its four walls has fallen down, and the gaps have been filled in with small chips of stone built in mud. It is difficult to surmise what was its original purpose.
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| Photograph from ‘Our summer in the vale of Kashmir’ (1915) by Frederick Ward Denys. |
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| This is now worshipped as Shiv Ling |
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| A postcard from 1920s. |
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| Sketch of Colonnade from ‘Notes on some of the temples of Kashmir, W.G. Cowie, 1865 |
The walls of the colonnade now have crude murals of Hindu deities.
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| Ground Plan of Buniar Temple |
Inside the colonnade are now placed these interesting ancient sculptured stones (again crudely painted over). [Some of them are Hero stones or Sati Stones]
The above image is the only one I could clearly identify. This is Chamunda, yogini of death, destruction and decay.
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| The snake/crocodile |
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Remains of 1947 war.
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| Female and Male Markhor |
Remains of the era when this area for famous among hunters.
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| Varah at Baramulla |
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Baramulla bridge with Gosain Teng in background (with in Kaznag and Shamasabri ranges, an extension of the Pir Panjal Range). Illustration published in ‘Church Missionary Intelligencer’ (1854).
Gosain Teng, Baramulla. ‘Teng’ is the Kashmiri word for ‘Hillock’ and ‘Gosain’ is the Hindi/Sanskrit Goswami meaning ‘Ascetic’. Nowadays atop the hill is an army bunker. According to entry for the place in Hasan Shah’s (1832-1898) ‘Tarikh-e-Hassan’ there are supposed to be four springs atop the hill. Kunds named after Ram, Sita, Lakshman and Hanuman.
First one is from 1926 and in French. Shows a dispensary run by the nuns.
The second one is from London, not dated but probably again 1920s. Shows children praying.
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| Photograph fof Baramulla Bridge from Vignettes of Kashmir (1903) by E.G. Hull |
At Baramulla we saw the first of those extraordinary constructions which form so peculiar a feature of the river scene at Srinaggar a new form of bridge, in the variety of which structures this country seems so prolific.
It spans the river just above the town on a succession of six piers, and is composed entirely of undressed logs of pine and cedar timber. The whole tree trunk, in fact, lopped of its branches. The strongest and longest of them, laid side by side, are stretched across from pier to pier to form the roadway, and merely rest, without any further security, by two or three feet of their length at either end upon the tops of the opposite piers, which may be from twenty to twenty-five feet apart.
The piers are built up of similar logs arranged side by side in layers of a square shape, the logs of each successive layer crossing those of the other at right angles, and
lodging in notches cut in the logs below. The lowest layers are the broadest and diminish gradually as they ascend to the centre, above which they again expand successively up to the top, where the logs equal in length those at the bottom, thus giving the pier an hourglass sort of contraction. The piers rest on a foundation of stones embedded in the muddy bottom of the river, and are protected against its current by a cut-water pointing up the stream, and built of loose stones filled into a frame of logs. Above they are furnished with upright posts, which support the railing that runs on each side of the roadway span.
This kind of bridge is called Kaddal, which appears to be the Kashuri form of the- Hindi kathan “made of wood,” and is very strong and durable despite its
ricketty construction and very dilapidated appearance. There are six or eight of them on the river at Srinaggar, which bear the traffic of the two halves of the city, and
some of them are further weighted with a row of shops on each side the way ; most perilous looking abodes projecting in all degrees of obliquity above the main structure, and from its sides over the stream.
The timber being cedar is very durable, and accidents rarely occur, owing to the elasticity of the construction, and the outlet afforded to sudden floods through the many passages in the substance of the piers. I wit- nessed the behaviour of these bridges in the inundation of 1869, and though they were nearly swamped by the flood, none of them gave way, whilst many of the houses on the river’s bank the one I occupied amongst the first were completely destroyed.
~Kashmir and Kashghar. A narrative of the journey of the embassy to Kashghar in 1873-74 (1875)Author: Bellew, H. W. (Henry Walter), 1834-1892
