AN ANCIENT "SHIVA TEMPLE" AT MAHADEVAPURA

AN ANCIENT "SHIVA TEMPLE" AT MAHADEVAPURA

Near goraj, waghodiya, vadodara, gujrat


© Narendra D Yadnik

09421655695



Above Photo is captured on first visit


        Everyone know, state of GUJARAT have very ancient history. Once a day, I and my friend Ravi Joshi decided to search a peaceful place to enjoy our Sunday, and we ridden two wheeler along the road of Pavagadh.

        In between, we decided not to follow regular Pavagadh road as already we traveled along it many times. So we selected road of Goraj, a small village in Waghodia tahasil. We went on, and we reached to “Muni Seva Ashram” which is a well known hospital for Cancer treatment. We had a fresh Adrak Tea there in one of the tea stall and we just discussed that in periphery, there should be an old temple. People may know or we have to search in villages. I searched on Google map, but it was disappointing. We left the place and came to home with a plan to come again in that area for searching of an old temple.  

         I was restless thinking of old temple and started internet. I searched immensely about old temples in only Waghodiya Tahsil, and what I got was interesting. A Google book opened and it was showing a page containing a paragraph. The paragraph was describing about an Excavation of an ancient Shiva temple at Mahadevapura near Goraj Village. I was delighted and I searched more about it. After some efforts of exploring internet, I saw some images of temple on tab of Google map. I explored it and I came to know that it was the same place explained in the book on Google map. At that moment we both discussed and decided to visit that temple on next Sunday. Below is the photo of that Paragraph which is unfortunately Unavailable on Internet now.

        “The temple construction has been dated to the KSHATRAP period (1st to 4th century CE). It was dedicated to “Lord Shiva” and was subsequently rebuilt too.”

         Also mentioning the Name of Book and Author where there is a description about excavation of Shiva Temple.

Book Name -  The Archaeology of Sacred spaces : The temple in western India, 

                        2nd century BCE – 8th century CE ↓

        Author – 1) Susan Verma Mishra

                         2) Himanshu Prabha Roy 



           Finally we reached at Mahadevapura using Google map by asking villagers about temple. We didn’t find any problem to reach. When we reached there, it was an awesome view same as the photo I mentioned at top of the post. That scene made us to believe that “Yes, it is an ancient temple!!!” ↓


Above Photo captured on second visit after rain




         There is no real “Shiva Linga” which is usually structured Ovular in shape. Possibly, it might have attacked by strangers at that time and they might have destroyed it. Now it is replaced by Shiva linga which is in irregular shape. Whatever it may be, it was worshiped well by devotees with flowers and Bilva patra. ↓



            There is a sculpture of Huge “Nandi” in front of temple. It also seems very old. More two “Nandis” are there on platform of temple. ↓

Side view and Front view of Huge Nandi ↑

I and Ravi ↑

         There are total 3 Nandi, among three, two are situated on platform of temple. You can see that all the sculptures of “Nandis” are looking very old. ↑


           Though the structure of the temple (aÉpÉïaÉ×Wû) doesn’t look old due to white coloration, the platform is proving its ancientness. Actually villagers destroy ancientness of temple by re-framing it or by coloring it. This is very non sense task by them. If any ancient temple is restructured totally, how you people can describe it as ancient temple. Its original theme should be maintained. ↓


            This temple comes under the control of “Archaeological survey of India”. Hope, they will take care of it very well and will save it from get manipulated by strangers. ↓





Exactly Front view ↑


Backside of temple with broken platform ↑



Layers of Platform built with old bricks. Still they are intact. ↑

            It is also observed that, something has been written in mysterious language which is again got hided due to white coloration. There is a scope to find its meaning. ↓



         This is a sample of brick used for building this temple. It is very big may be 4 times big that today’s normal Brick.   The dimension of brick in the form of  L*B*H  is 42*26*4.5 Centimetres. ↑


Steps at the entrance ↑









Binding between the bricks is well maintained today also. ↑




Front side of the temple at the base. We can feel the old age of temple here. ↑


Back-side of temple. Here also we can feel the ancientness of temple. ↑


You can see the Reference of description of the temple. It is accessible on Google book ↑


n  Dr Narendra Yadnik

9421655695





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