muslim invaders

#ReclaimTemples•Blog•muslim invaders

Tag: muslim invaders

Reclaiming of the Hindu temple at Daulatabad Fort

Daulatabad is an ancient city, in the north-central Maharashtra state of India, It is believed that lord Shiva once stayed in this place, hence it is also traditionally known as Devagiri or Deogir. It is situated in a hilly upland area about 13 km from Aurangabad. Located on a pyramid shaped hilltop, Daulatabad fort is considered as one of the most spectacular forts in Maharashtra. It is considered as one of the most coveted and impregnable forts of India.

 

It was constructed by the Rashtrakuta kings who built the world famous Kailasa caves, the fort was ruled by the Yadavas between 1187 to 1318 AD. Then, Allaudin Khilji attacked Daulatabad. It was here in 1347, Hasan Gangu Bahamani established the Bahamaini kingdom, shifting soon after to Gulbarga and they ruled here over 150 years. The fort was held as a fine and valued fortress by successive dynasties in the Deccan until it was taken over by the Nizams of Hyderabad in 1724 A.D. and it remained under their control till independence. During independence, in the unused mosque inside this fort, called Jami Masjid, an idol of Bharat Mata was erected by Hindus and this place thus came to be called as Bharat Mata temple.

 

The main structures at Daulatabad are the Jami Masjid and Chand Minar. The fort’s central pink minaret, 110 feet Chand Minar played a defensive as well as religious role in Daualatabad Fort and it is the second tallest tower in India after the Qutub Minar.

 

Jami Masjid, the mosque located within the Daulatabad Fort, was built in 1318 by Khilji ruler of Delhi, Qutub-ud-din Mubarak. This mosque is adorned with 106 carved columns/ pillars that were looted from several Hindu and Jain temples that stood at and around this site. The interior of the mosque is a blend of Indic and Islamic style of architecture narrating the painful testimony to the brutal persecution of Indic spaces. Muslim invaders, emperors and their followers used this space in Daulatabad fort as Jama Masjid for close to  700 years. One can enter the mosque through domed chambers approached by a series of steps.

 

According to various sources available on international history sites – It seems correct to say that this mosque was converted from a Hindu temple under the sovereignty of the Hindu kingdom, which obviously points to after plunder and religious persecution . The same seems true for the entire fort. The evidences are crisp throughout the structure of the mosque. Also, Hindu motifs and elements of construction can be clearly seen in the bases and the tops of the numerous pillars, and the inside of the ceiling. Viewing the whole space through the pillars, one may feel that he/ she is in a Hindu or Jain temple.

 

Quoting from the book ‘Hindu Masjids’ by Prafull Goradia –

 

What however is of interest to us is the unusual shuddhi that the temple undervent inside the outer·wall of the fortress. This historical event took place in 1948 on the morrow of the police action by the Government of India during the takeover of the Nizam’s Hyderabad. There had been a great deal of local pressure for the restitution of the temple. Leaders like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as well as Shri Kanhaiyalal Munshi were also aware that it was a Jain mandir which had been forcibly converted into a masjid by Alauddin Khilji. ·However, to avoid giving a religious or a communal colour to the shuddhi or reconversion, the idol installed in the sanctum sanctorum was that of Bharat Mata. It is therefore now known as the Bharat Mata temple, although for 700 years it had been called Jami masjid. The mandir was built on a plan not dissimilar to Palitana in Gujarat and Dilwara at Mount Abu, Rajasthan. There is a large courtyard. There were the usual traditional 52 pillars as in Jain places of worship. At the western end was a hall, typical of an ancient temple. A flat roof was held aloft by 152 stone pillars.The author and his colleagues during their visit in 2001 were told on authority that the pillars were constructed according to the Himar Panti style of architecture,one of whose special characteristics was the interlocking of stones without the use of any cementing material.

 

The flat roof had been modified to the extent that a small dome had been raised above where the mimbar was, prior to the shuddhi in 1948. On several of the beams were engraved the Chalukia emblem called Kiritmukh Patti which only confirmed that the temple was built during Chalukia rule. An unusual sight was the terracota colour with which the 152 pillars were coloured upto a height of about 12 feet. Above that, was white colouring. We were told that this was done during the Nizam’s period. One can only presume that the intention might have been to distract attention from the Jain character of the edifice. Also, between the outermost wall and the third fort wall, there is a structure which is much smaller than the Bharat Mata temple but of a similar design. There is however no courtyard. Uncannily, an image of Mahavir Swami can still be seen on more than one of the pillars.

 

Jami Masjid in Daulatabad Fort

 

Pillars Adorning Jami Masjid
A colonnade of Jami Masjid, Depicting Columns from Hindu Architecture
Bharat Mata Moorti Installed in Masjid During Independence
Fort With the View of 110 Feet Tall Chand Minar Next to Jami Masjid

 

Illustration from 1636 Padshahnama of Shah Jahan Showing Mughals Capturing Devagiri. Illustration to Text of Abdul Hamid Lahori
The Hill of Devagiri, Once Capital of Yadava Dynasty As per Internet Sources
A Jain Relic Found In Daulatabad Fort
(This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
Attribution: Udaykumar PR)

 

Source – ‘Hindu Masjids’ by Prafull Goradia
Source – ‘Hindu Masjids’ by Prafull Goradia

 

It feels surreal to go through history of this fort in the mind, the capturing, destabilizing of a faith to make way for intolerant iconoclasm that took pride of simply subjugating the former, instead of assimilation and real mutual respect. It would be great to see this fort restored as the traditional Devagiri region, with archaeology going back to time as much as possible to resurrect the aura and sacredness of the place. Restoration of ancient Hindu/ Indic spaces is an elaborate process, it will take its time but it needs to be done.

 

 

 

 

RudraMahalaya, awaiting revival of worship

Article by Nayandeep

As they say truth needs a big cover for the lie to prosper. In the case of Hindu temples, the wanton destruction, conversion to mosques and cover of time as it passed was used to propagate the superiority of Islam over the infidels. What was unmatched in beauty of architecture and construction was destroyed, mutilated and converted into what the invaders wanted the history to remember.

But truth cannot be long hidden, history shows of the strange manners in which truth resurfaced. Minor repair works, accidental discoveries and excavations have resulted in a large no of temples being discovered beneath new structures which were constructed to destroy a glorious civilization. It might have succeeded in other places but in a country which never gave up fighting and where entire Vedas are memorised verbally, nothing could destroy it.

One such wonder of our time is Rudra Mahalaya of Sidhpur, Gujarat now known as Jami Masjid after its destruction and take over by the invading Muslim hordes. Rudra Mahalaya is a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Siva. It was constructed by Chalukyas, started in 943 AD by Mularaja and completed in 1140 AD by Jayasimha Siddharaja. It’s grandeur can be gouged from the fact that even Sultan Ahmad Shahs historians in the book Mirat e Sikandari wrote of the idols inside the Rudra Mahalaya which they said could put the idols of China and Khotan to shame. It clearly states that by the efforts of Sultan and his General Ulugh Khan, Rudra Mahalaya was rid of the idols.

Famous Historian Sita Ram Goel in his book “Hindu Temples what happened to them” has given an incident when Maharaja Jaswant Singh was appointed Governor of Gujarat in 1658, his historian Munhata Nai Nasi made a visit and in his words Sidhpur had lost the spiritual glory and importance during the centuries which followed after its destruction. According to him Sidhpur was founded by Siddharao, who named the place after himself and invited one thousand Brahmans well versed in Vedas to settle there and granted 700 villages around Siddhpur to them. The temple was destroyed by the Sultan Alauddin and many Brahmans were massacred, still some portion of it survived only to be attacked by the next invading horde.

BL Nagarach an expert archaeologist further states that during excavation he found “a standing idol of an Apsara”, “four armed Varuna” and a “two armed female deity holding a sword and a cut head”. Even a layman can tell that mosques do not have idols inside them, unless otherwise the mosque is a Hindu temple under siege. It is pertinent to note that the Archaeological Survey of India’s (ASI) report of the year 1979-80 published in 1983 stated finding Hindu and Jain pantheons stretching back to the 10th century. In one of his chapters Nai Nasi had included a poem by poet Lalla bhat praising the Rudra Mahalaya, Lalla Bhatt says “18000 statues studded with diamonds and 30000 flag staffs with carved stems and gold leaves and thousands of sculpted horses and elephants stand in attendance before the Rudra”

In a nation where even reclaiming the birth place of Lord Rama is still a far thought, there are thousands more temples of our ancestors looking at each of us and waiting for us to to build a collective resolve and come out of our complacency of centuries and simply reclaim what was always ours.

As the famous saying goes a closed room is only in dark as long as no one opens a window and let’s the sun in. We all collectively can open these windows and let in the “Sun” whom we worship. Let it purify centuries of neglect and shine on our great legacy. Time to revive our Heritage, our Civilisation and our Dharma.

#ReclaimTemples

Ancient Kalagi temples of Karnataka, now in ruins

Article by @para_praveen

Kalaburagi, Karnataka.

The 2nd century Kaleshwara temple becomes cynosure of all the eyes during the important VeeraShaiva festivals, particularly Mahashivaratri and thousands of devout hindus throng the temple to have the darshan of the ancient linga installed inside the once beautiful temple.But in the eyes of the Archeological Survery of India (ASI) or the State Archeology Department, this temple, considered to be one of the ancient Hindu temples is a non existent once.

The present; kalagi” known as “Kaluge” in an ancient inscriptions; is 40 kms away from Kalaburagi. It has a temple complex of Chalukyan period. Kalagi was popularly known then as the garden of temples. Kalagi in the seventh century was a well-developed rich city with a population of more than three lakhs –according to the historians. There are more than 30 monuments in and around the Kalagi village. So far eleven inscriptions are reported from this place. Most of the temples belonged to the Shaiva style; of them Bibbeshwara, Gonkeshwara, Jayalingeshwara, Kaaleshwara and Someshwara according to inscriptions found here and now called these temples in different names.

Kalagi is famous for the rare set of Shivalingas in India, which are housed in Kaleshwar temple. According to a legend, these lingas are arranged in four floors, one beneath the other. Presently devotees can see Kaleshwar linga installed on the ground floor. The other lingas beneath the ground are said to be ‘agochara’ invisible. These lingas were consecrated in Krithayuga. Someshwar linga in Trethayuga, Neelakanteshwara linga in Dwaparayuga and Kaleshwar linga in Kaliyuga.

An ancient Suryanarayana temple is on the verge of collapse due to lack of conservation. The temple is considered to be one of the rare shrines and the portion of the side walls of the Suryanarayana temple has already fallen down and roots of the tress that had grown wildly around the shrine can be seen. The ceiling as well as the wall that makes the rare elevation is in a dilapidated state owing to absence of maintenance. The inscriptions were carved between 1043 AD and 13 th Century according to research scholars. The inscriptions on Suryanarana temple and Kaleshwara temple in Kalagi is a standing testimony to the existence of famous kings namely Jayakarna son of the sixth vikramaditya, king Jagadekamalla of Kalyan chalukyas.

Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti peetham visited Kalagi in 1982 and made his stay here for eight days. It was a centre for political, educational, cultural and religious, also a capital city of Mahamandaleshwar of baana dynasty during 12 th century. There are numerous Shivalinga in all most all temples in Kalagi. Outside the temples, beautifully carved inscriptions of Brahma, Vishnu,Ishwar,Bhairav,Nataraj,Uma-Mahashwar, Mahisha-Mardini, Ganesh can be seen.

 

A Pushkarni (traditional stepwell with natural springs) is also seen nearby Narasimha and Ishwar temple on the bay of Kalagi stream. A few jain basatis are also in panic condition. These Monuments have enriched the culture of the country, but have not been noticed by many. The need is to catch the attention of research scholars, historians and archaeological experts. Now it is necessary that the Archaeology department and tourism department together have to prepare a plan for development of the forgotten cultural splendour and historic monuments of the Kalagi ruins.

Now it is upto HinduSamaj to get the act together for conservation of the Heritage. The structures are crumbling fast, it may have only a few years left unless the Hindu community renovates and revives worship at the temple site.

#ReclaimTemples