Tag: martand

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On the steps of a temple, 1914

On the steps of a temple

Photograph from article ‘Behind the shutters of a Kashmir Zenana’ by Marion Whiting for Harper’s Magazine, Volume 129, 1914.

Village Martand (Mattan) figures mostly in this travelogue and as suggested by the title of the writing, focuses on women.

Among other things, she gives us description of Muslim New year being celebrated by the villagers at ruins of Martand temple:

That evening the new moon rose as advertised, and the New-Year celebrations began. But we were not prepared for what was to follow. Dinner was over, and we were lazily sitting in our comfortable camp-chairs warming ourselves in front of a huge bonfire. Presently the sound of singing came up from the village below, and soon it grew louder and louder. Then, emerging from the darkness into the light of our camp-fire, appeared what proved to be the entire population of Martand. First came a crowd of men and boys, and directly behind them women, singing, as they walked, a low, monotonous sort of chant. Close to the ruins of the temple they stopped, just near enough for us to make out in the firelight the outlines of their long, white scarfs and loose-hanging smocks. The singer arranged themselves into rows facing each other, each woman placing her hands on the shoulders of the woman next to her. Meanwhile the men had squatted on the ground in a circle around the performers, their knees up under their chins, their shawls wrapped tightly around them in a fashion peculiar to the Kashmiri. All the while the women were singing the same chant, over and over again, swaying back and forth in rhythm with the music. First one row would take the air, and then the other would respond in a sort of cadence, with always the same theme repeated again and again. The scene, so unexpected, was wonderful, the firelight illuminating the figures, the tall columns of the old temple rising behind, and the black night enveloping everything beyond. Our Kashmiri factotum was called upon to explain what it all meant.
“They come to the old temple to sing to Mohammed. they tell the story of his life. They tell his wanderings and his preachings, and then they tell long stories of what the Koran say must do. How the women must obey their husbands, how fathers must teach their sons, and how they all must worship the great God Allah!”
“Do they often come to the temple to sing?” we asked.
“Only at the New-Year,”he answered.
“And do the men never join in the ceremony?”
“no. Only the women; they do the singing.”
“But this was originally a Hindu temple,” we persisted. “Why do Mohammedans come here?”
“It is the custom,” he answered, vaguely, shrugging his shoulders.

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An interesting photograph by Howard Sochurek in from 1951 for Life Magazine. We can see a group of people dancing in front of Martand Temple.

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Bhawan, 1877

Bhawan [Mattan] by V. C. Prinsep. 1877.
From ‘Imperial India; an artist’s journals’ (1879)

“The modern Martand, or Bawan, is over the edge of the plateau at another source of the Jhelum, which, having escaped the eye of the garden-making Jehanghire, has been turned by the pious Hindoo through two sacred tanks, and is now a holy shrine. The tanks are full of fish, a kind of tench, I should think, which it is the duty of the pilgrim to keep well fed with baked Indian corn. It is delightful to see the shoals of these dark green fish in the brilliant azure of the water. I made a sketch of the place from one corner, where squats each day an aged and very holy man, before whom the pilgrims come in flocks to prostrate themselves till their foreheads touch the ground. Unlike most holy men, this one is clean, and is moreover a very superior person, for seeing me surrounded and inconvenienced by fakirs, he sent his own servant to clear them away. I painted him into my sketch as an acknowledgement, and when I had finished made my lowest salaam. The old gentleman, being probably absorbed in a contemplation of the Deity, did not respond; or are piety and good manners incompatible?”

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Punditji on Jew Question, 1896


In 1911, at the age of seventeen, much before he became a skeptic, much before he become famous for investigating Helen Duncan – the last ‘witch’ of England, C. E. Bechhofer visited Kashmir as part of his great adventure in the East, or as he admits, as part of cure devised by his father “to knock the nonsense” out of him, rid him of poetry, Marxian socialism, women’s suffrage and other such ideas.
At ruins of Martand, in the faded pages of a visitor’s book he discover traces of a terrific controversy of many years ago. In his book, ‘A wanderer’s log; being some memories of travel in India, the Far East, Russia, the Mediterranean & elsewhere’ (1922) , he writes:

A certain old gentleman, Colonel Coburn, who, besides his other activities, started a timber firm and a visitors’ agency, claimed in ten scratchy pages of hysterical Christianity that the Kashmiri Hindus (most of them now forcibly converted to Mohammedanism) were originally Jews who had fled from Palestine after the Crucifixion, and that they had built this temple after the style of that in Jerusalem. Thus he explains to his ‘dearly beloved brothers and brethren in Christ’ the faithlessness and treachery of the modern Kashmiri.
“If,” concludes the old gentleman, “you should find a wounded viper lying on the road, do all you can to care and restore it to life, for he will be grateful to you for it and repay you the debt of gratitude he owes you for what you have done for him, but if you find a Kashmiri in the same condition, get off your horse and kill him outright, for if you do him a good turn and save him, he is sure to be ungrateful and do all the damage he can in return! But all the fingers of one’s hands are not the same length, as a native saying her is, and there are many noble exceptions to the above rules, and a good Kashmiri servant, like a good Scotch or Irish tenant out of their own countries, is about the best one can find.”

Martand temple . Burke.  1870.
It is an idea, a theory that in a comic twist, sons of Kashmiri Pandits have now come to believe – We are Jews. Ironically, the answer to the theory was given in the same visitor’s book by an anonymous Kashmiri Pandit with a wicked sense of humour. 

On the next page I found this comment from “A Kashmiri Pundit”: I have read with interest the funny remarks of Col. Coburn about these ruins and the origin of the Kashmiri Pundits. After reading those remarks I am disposed to reverse Darwin’s theory and hold that people who live to a great age are likely to pass down into the same animal to whom Darwin has traced the genealogy of mankind.”

In the book the story ends there. But, there is more. The account of Bechhofer’s visit to Martand and Bhawan was earlier published in a magazine called The New Age – A Weekly Review of Politics, Literature and Art (Volume 13, Number 13. July 24, 1913). In it Bechhofer wrote that the comments were made around fifteen years ago (should make that around 1896) and Colonel Coburn’s establishment had since been taken over by an American (and “must be avoided”). And about that comment by Pandit he added: 

A Kashmiri Pundit, forsooth! It reeks of the Bengali lawyer. And I much prefer the statement of an English traveller, a little later: “Very interesting ruins, but saw no Jew at all”
And then, yes, and then there is this: “A very impressive place, interesting owing to my dear heathen forefathers and relatives believing in the sanctity of this spot, which I do not. – P.M. Rudra, Srinagar, 1898.”

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Unrelated post:
Ganga Yamuna in Kashmir
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Vinayak Joo Razdan
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Vessels Redux

Above: Martand shot by Brian Brake in around 1957.

Below: A photograph of an old terracotta Kashmiri vessel brought to Jammu along with other things. Shared around two years ago by Man Mohan Munshi ji.

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Ganga Yamuna in Kashmir

Ganga Bank, Rishikesh. 2009

Yamuna Bank. Delhi.2012.


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Below some pages from ‘Vaishava Art and Iconography of Kashmir’ (1996) by Bansi Lal Malla

Ganga in niche on left, Avantisvamin temple, quadrangle porch, outer chamber, northern wall, Avantipur (Pulwama), Mid 9th cent. A.D., Bluish grey limestone.

 Yamuna in niche on right, Avantisvamin temple, quadrangle porch, outer chamber, southern wall, Avantipur (Pulwama), Mid 9th cent. A.D., Bluish grey limestone.

 Yamuna, Baramulla, 8th cent. A.D., Grey schist. S.P.S. Museum, Srinagar.

Ganga on left, antarala, main shrine, Martanda (Anantnag). First half of 8th cent. A.D., Sun temple, Martanda.

Yamuna, Dhumatbhal (Anantnag). 11th cent. A.D., Present location (?)


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Vitasta at Zero Bridge. 2010.

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Ruins of Martand

Guest post by Man Mohan Munshi Ji. He shares some recent photographs of Martand and writes: 

The famous sun temple of Martand built by Laltaditya Mukhpida of the Karkota dynasty during the 8th century on an arid Karewa (Vudar) between Mattan and Achibal. It is believed that Laltaditya build a township of Martanda Desa for which he brought water by the Martand Canal from the Lidar river. The location of the temple/township was selected as it provided a beautiful view of the sunset behind the snowy peaks of Pir Panjal Range. But the view of sunset from the temple is now blocked by hefty overgrown Chinars of the Ranbir Pur Village immediately west of the temple.

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1870

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Previously:

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Martand as described by Sir Alexander Cunningham

 I  mentioned writings of Alexander Cunningham in a previous post about Pandav lar’rey (House of Pandas, as Martand temple was common known among Pandits).

British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham (1814-93), as a young British Army Engineer officer was stationed in Kashmir after the first Sikh War of 1845-1846. In November 1847, he measured and studied most of the ancient structures that existed in Kashmir. Because of his pioneering work he came to be known as the father of Indian Archaeology.

I recently came across some more extracts from his work ‘An Essay on the Arian Order of Architecture, as exhibited in the Temples of Kashmir (1848) ‘ while reading ‘Letters from India and Kashmir’ by J. Duguid, 1870. Here are the extracts describing Martand temple and its illustrations from the book:

From Shadipore by water, passing through Srinuggur, a three days’ journey brings you to Islamabad, near which are the ruins of Marttand. A series of steppes, called karayas, are a feature in the conformation of the valley, which is believed by competent judges to have once been a lake, and these table-lands its surrounding shores. The slow results of time, or a sudden convulsion of nature, forced a passage for the waters through the Baramula pass, and thus rapidly, or gradually, drained it of all but the eternal springs, sources of its existing lakes and rivers. In after periods of those remote ages when Kashmir flourished, these places became favourite sites for the erection of temples, the most celebrated of which, both in extent and splendour, was that of Marttand, dedicated to the sun. Instead of my incomplete description I now insert that of General (then Captain) Cunningham in his work on ” The Arian Order of Architecture”  :-

” The temple consists of one lofty central edifice with a small detached wing on each side of the entrance, the whole standing in a large quadrangle surrounded by a colonnade of fluted pillars, with intervening trefoil-headed recesses. The central building is 63 feet in length, by 36 feet in width at the eastern end, and only 27 feet at the western or entrance end.

” It contains three distinct chambers, of which the outermost one, named Arddha Mandapa, or the half-temple, answering to the front porch of the classical fanes, is 18 feet square. The middle one, called Antarala, or mid-temple, corresponding to the pronaos of the Greek, is 18 feet by 4 1/2 ; and the innermost one, named Oorbha Griho, or ” womb of the edifice,” the naos of the Greeks, and the cella of the Romans, is 18 feet by 3 1/2.

” The first and middle chambers are decorated, bat the inner is perfectly plain and closed on three sides. The walls are 9 feet thick, and its entrance-chamber only 4 1/2 feet thick, being respectively one-half and one-fourth of the interior width of the building.

” On each side of the porch, flush with the entrance wall to the westward, and with the outer walls, the northward and southward, is a detached building or wing, 18 feet long by 13 1/2 broad, with a passage 4 1/2 feet wide, between it and the wall of the entrance chamber.

” The width of the passage between these wings being exactly one-third of that of the wing itself, the roof which covered the two would have been an exact square, the form required as the basis of the pyramidal roof of the Kashmerian architecture.

” Within, the chamber had a doorway at each side, covered by a pediment with a trefoil-headed niche, containing a bust of the Hindu triad.

” This representation was itself only another symbol of the Sun, who was Brahma, or the Creator, at morn, Vishnu, or the Preserver, at noon, Siva, or the Destroyer, at even.

” The chamber was lighted during the day by semicircular openings over the closed doorways on the three sides, but in the evening, as the entrance was to the westward, the image of the
glorious sun was illumined by his own setting beams.

” The temple is enclosed by a pillared quadrangle 220 feet in length by 142 feet in breadth, containing 84 fluted columns. This number the Chourasi (84) of the Hindus is especially emblematic of the sun, as it is the multiple of the twelve mansions of the ecliptic (typified by 12 spokes in his chariot -wheel) through which he is carried by his seven steeds in one year ; or it is the product of his seven rays multiplied by the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The 84 pillars are therefore most probably intended for that number of solar rays. Thus, even the colonnade is made typical of the deity to whom the temple is consecrated.

” It overlooks the finest view in Kashmir, and perhaps in the known world. Beneath it lies the Paradise of the East, with its sacred streams and cedarn glens, its brown orchards and green fields, surrounded on all sides by vast snowy mountains, whose lofty peaks seem to smile upon the beautiful valley below. The vast extent of the scene makes it sublime, for this magnificent view of Kashmir is no pretty peep into a half-mile glen ; but the full display of a valley 60 miles in breadth, and upwards of 100 miles in length, the whole of which lies beneath the ken of the wonderful Marttand.”

A stream of water passed through the quadrangle, and is supposed to have been filled on ceremonial occasions. From General Cunningham’s description, Mr. Sulmann, an artist who has given much attention to the study of Indian architecture, produced the accompanying drawing, which may very closely represent the temple in its former glory.

Martand, as it must have been

From Marttand a short walk leads to the sacred springs and grove of Barwun on the plain at the base of the karaya. Seated near the tank a group of Hindoos surrounded a calf, which a priest, grasping the tail, poured water over, and prayed. He was consecrating it, to become a sacred bull in after-life. This operation completed, the calf walked off, and the priest with the devotees knelt beside the water. Before them was a tin platter of roasted maize, and continuing to drone in a loud voice not unlike a presbyterian preacher, they threw handfuls of the corn into the water, at which the fish rose on all sides. But when the prayer was ended and the remainder of the corn was thrown in at once, a hill of fish rushed at it, many supported above the water by the shoal of their companions below.

” Angler, wouldst thou be guiltless ? then forbear, For these are sacred fishes that swim here.”

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Read complete An Essay on the Arian Order of Architecture, as exhibited in the Temples of Kashmir (1848) here:

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Martand, House of Pandavs, Pandav Lar’rey

In 1889, Walter R. Lawrence, the British Land settlement officer in Kashmir, writing in Valley of Kashmir (1895), for the chapter Archaeology, quotes these line written by Sir Alexander Cunningham:

“The ruins of the Hindu temple of Martand, or, as is commonly called, the Pandu-Koru, or the house of Pandus and Korus – the cyclopes of the East – are situated on the highest part of a karewas*, where is commences to rise to its juncture with the mountains, about 3 miles east of Islamabad. Occupying, undoubtedly, the finest position in Kashmir, this noble ruin is the most striking in size and situation of all the existing remains of Kashmir grandeur.”

 Pandavs, of course, still get credit for all kind of ancient structures strewn across India.

Sir Alexander Cunningham (1814-93), British archaeologist and army engineer, better known as the father of Indian Archaeology, as a young officer, was stationed in Kashmir after the first Sikh War of 1845-1846. In November 1847, he measured and studied most of the ancient that existed in Kashmir. On the subject of Martand, Pandavs and Ptolemy – the celebrated Greek geographer of the second century AD who lived in Egypt, Cunningham wrote:  [The ancient buildings of Kashmir]

 ” are entirely composed of a blue limestone, which is capable of taking the highest polish, a property to which I mainly attribute the present beautiful state of  preservation of most of the Kashmirian buildings; not one of these temples has a name, excepting that of Martand, which is called in the corrupt Kashmirian pronunciation, Matan, but they are all known by the general name of Pandavanki lari or ” Pandus-house,” a title to which they have no claim whatever, unless indeed the statement of Ptolemy can be considered of sufficient authority upon such a subject. He says ” circa autem Bidaspum Pandovorum regio ” — the Kingdom of the Pandus is upon the Betasta or (Behat), that is, it corresponded with Kashmir. This passage would seem to prove that the Pandavas still inhabited Kashmir so late as the second century of our era. Granting the correctness of this point there may be some truth in the universal attribution of the Kashmirian temples to the race of Pandus, for some of these buildings date as high as the end of the fifth century, and there are others that must undoubtedly be much more ancient, perhaps even as old as the beginning of the Christian era. One of them dates from 220 B. C.** “

The origin of the Sun temple of Martand is a bit blurry, but King Lalitaditya (A.D. 693 to 729) is believed to have built it. Cunningham mentions that the Rajatarangini credits King Lalitaditya as the builder of Martand temples. But, he further mentions:

“From the same authority we gather — though the interpretation of the verses is considerably disputed — that the temple itself was built by Ranaditya, and the side chapels, or at least one of them, by his queen, Amritaprakha. The date ‘ of Ranaditya’s reign is involved in some obscurity, but it may safely be conjectured that he died in the first half of the fifth century after Christ.”

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* karewas: Kashmiri word for plateau like geographic formations found mostly to west of the river Jhelum and believed to have been created by draining of the great ancient lake that was once supposed to be Kashmir.

** Francis Younghousband in his book Kashmir (1911) mentions the temple believed to be dating back to 220 B.C. is Jyesthesvara Temple built atop a hill by Gopaditya (253 A.D. to 328). This is the site of present day Shiv temple atop Shankaracharya hill. The temple is first supposed to have been built by Jalauka, the son of great Emperor Ashoka, in around 200 B.C.

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About the old Image of Martand Temple near Bhawan:
The Photograph was taken by John Burke in 1868 for Henry Hardy Cole’s Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir. This and one more photograph was later was used in  many other later publications. I found it in the book: Archaeological Survey India: Kashmir 1870.

John Burke (1843-1900) was an Irishman who came to India as an apothecary (pharmacist) with the Royal Engineers, but in 1861 became an  assistant of an already established photographer William Baker, a retired Sergeant who had a studio at Peshawar. Between the years 1864 and 1868, the duo was one of the first to photograph Kashmir. Together they started the famous Baker and Burke Studio (1867-72). In 1873 Burke parted ways with Baker and started his own studios J.Burke & Co. in Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Lahore. The studio in Lahore opened in 1885 and was in business till 1903. Burke was also one of the official photographer to the army during the Second Afghan War of 1879 – 1880.

Here’s a slide show of old photographs of Martand temple taken from Archaeological Survey India: Kashmir 1870.

Some of these may have been taken by Samuel Bourne, a prolific British photographer who worked in India from 1863 until 1870. He first photographed Kashmir in 1863.

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You can take a look at the book “Archaeological Survey India: Kashmir 1870” here at the digital archive of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts

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