Courtesy: Nirdesh Singh
http://www.ghumakkar.com/morena-magic-the-temples-of-bateshwar-padawali-and-mitawali/
This is another Bateshwar near the vicinity of the Bateshwar Dhaam in UP but the temple is more ancient than the present Bateshwar although Bateshwar dhaam near the banks of Yamuna is also ancient.
During winter months Morena provides you with a sweet and crunchy association – the box of gajjak you bought here in Delhi has Morena manufacturing markings. Otherwise the mention of Morena brings up images of baghis or outlaws patrolling the badlands of Chambal ravines. During train travels you turn apprehensive as the train crosses Dholpur and the mud ravines make their appearance. You can almost see the dust cloud rise and hear the thump of hoofs as the turbaned dacoits firing in the air run next to your train. That was just Hindi cinema embellishment – the baghis never rode horses in Chambal ravines; and which was realistically portrayed in the film ‘Paan Singh Tomar’ where the titular hero belonged to the neighbouring Chambal district of Bhind. But then walking dacoits just do not generate enough terror on the big screen.
And then Morena springs the third association – unknown and full of surprises. A friend has just stumbled upon the most incredible circuit of obscure temples, 25 km deep inside Morena; of course by walking in the glorious tradition of baghis of yore. The opportunity to see the temples soon presents itself and you grab it; of course a city slicker like you will need a four wheel ride.
With Gwalior as your base, you start north on NH3 towards Morena. About 25 kms ahead turn right at Noorabad. Noorabad was a small medieval outpost that grew prosperous during the times of Jahangir and is probably named after his wife Noorjehan. The village boasts of a pretty bridge over the Sankh River decorated with octagonal chattris and minarets, just metres away from the national highway. This was the medieval highway that took the armies from Delhi and Agra to Gwalior, Chanderi, Burhanpur and beyond to Deccan. It is amazing that the road has maintained the same alignment all these centuries.
In Noorabad drive around the fort like walls of a palace or a sarai. The sarai was possibly built by a general of Aurangzeb. Only the walls seem to have survived. Inside there is a thriving compound. You doubt the inhabitants are descendents of Jahangir. Just outside the village is the Tomb of Ganna Begum built in 1775. The begum was the wife of Wazir of Noorabad. The Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah Rangila fell for her beauty. From Noorabad drive east for 15 kms on a fairly good road to reach the first Morena marvel of Bateshwar Group of Temples.
Bateshwar Temples are a group of about 200 temples spread over twenty five acres and built across sloping hills near the village of Padavali. The temples dedicated to Shiv and Vishnu were built in 8th to 10th century AD possibly during the dynasty of Kannauj based Gurjar-Pratihars (6th to 11th century AD). The Pratihars considered themselves Suryavanshis who were descendents of Lakshman.
At the gate a paved trail takes you to the complex. As you walk up the trail to the ruined Gopur Dwar you see the swarm of gleaming temples looking ethereal in the morning sun. Though you have seen the photos but the physical sight leaves you pleasantly surprised and buoyant.
The temples spread out from the western hill slope on the left to the right. You have not seen so many temples packed together. Aihole in Karnataka has about 125 temples but they are spread out geographically in groups. Here it is a veritable bumper to bumper traffic jam of temples. It is as if on-the spot temple making contest was conducted over a weekend and every artisan worth his chisel participated. Just like at Aihole there are the earlier period temples with flat roofs while the later temples have curvilinear shikhars. Most of the temples have sanctum sanctorums with shivlings. Outside walls have some relief.
Closer look reveal that the temples carvings have little defacement or disfigurement. It is a wonder how they remained unscathed when they lay almost bang in the middle of way taken by marching armies for centuries. It is possible that owing to the hill and the vegetation the temples just disappeared from common sight during the medieval period. Also, the temples are built in a seemingly bowl shaped valley surrounded by hills. Early photos do show trees emerging through the structures. And then an earthquake might have brought the whole complex down. So you see lot of breakage but largely no intentional vandalism or plunder which you have seen at other places.
Some temples look pristine while others lie in ruins. It is only when you detect numbers written on different architectural members of the temples that you realise they have been restored. The tell-tale signs are all around – thousands of temple stone members strewn around. There are pillars, friezes and amalakas, all awaiting their turn to transform back into temples.
Bateshwar’s rebirth is the story of labour of love of K. K Muhammad. He was the ASI man, then serving as Superintending Archaeologist, ASI Delhi Circle, who took Obama around Humayun Tomb in November 2010. Muhammad, a Keralite and an expert of Upanishads, first saw the site when he was posted in the Bhopal circle. The place was just a huge mound of stone. Starting in 2005, ASI started putting the jigsaw pieces together and the site started taking shape. But there was a minor problem, yes you guessed right, of dacoits. The site was used by the dacoits as a hideout and once Muhammad had a run-in with Nirbhay Singh Gurjar, the dreaded dacoit. After several rounds of negotiation, the dacoit whose ancestors built the temples was convinced of Muhammad’s intentions that the temples needed to be restored and shown to the world. He finally acquiesced and allowed ASI to carry on the restoration and in fact provided protection to the workers.
About 100 temples have been restored so far. Work continues on some bigger temples. Tip toeing around the ruins gives a fair idea of what has been achieved and the degree of difficulty encountered. You do feel proud of ASI. It is us people who are greater enemies of our heritage – whether it is the casual tourists littering and defacing walls or the mafia here bent on obliterating the hills.
Yes it is not the end of story – first it was time and elements, now it is the human greed that is threatening the temples. On the way you see tractor trolleys loaded with probably illegally mined stones from the surrounding hills. Hills shake and reverberate with the sounds of explosives. The new danger is the mining that is going around relentlessly. It is the same place where an IPS officer was run over and the collector shot at. According to Muhammad, several reminders to MP Chief Minister elicited no response forcing him, a government officer, to write to RSS Chief Sudershan. It was then that the government woke up and created a buffer zone of 750 metres around the site instead of the usual 200 metres. Of course we would never know if other obscure temple sites have already been wiped out before the government gets wise.
On your way out, visit the solitary Vishnu Temple on a hillock. There is no shikhar but the outer walls of sanctum sanctorum have amazing friezes.
Muhammad who retired as ASI Director North, considers Bateshwar as his pilgrimage that he undertakes every three months. Only time will tell whether the 1300 year old temple pilgrimage site in Chambal ravines will suffer another bout of devastation and need another reincarnation.
After looking at the temple complex from the hill one last time you leave for the next Morena marvel.
Few kilometres ahead, you see the outlines of towering bastions of a fortress. This is Garhi Padawali. The entrance is guarded by a pair of lion and lioness. On both sides bastions rise to intimidate you. A steep flight of steps take you to the entrance of a temple. You only see the mukhamandap but fail to see the mandap or the sanctum sanctorum. In their place you see broken stone members spread in the courtyard. Walls rise all around the temple. The temple probably dedicated to Lord Shiv is believed to be built during 8th to 10th century. During this time the nearby area was populated and came to be known as Padawali or ‘surrounded by hills’.
Now you focus all your attention on the mukhamandap. Apparently, this small structure built on a high platform is an extensive profusion of carvings. If Qutb Complex’s Iltutmish Tomb walls are covered in the Nashqi & Kufic carvings and motifs, and the Nizamuddin Family tombs in Chanderi have the most exquisite lattice work; the mandap here probably is the most ornate structure you have ever seen in a Hindu temple. Every inch of stone is densely carved in eye popping 3D detail.
Above the pillars, on the lintels and beams are carved scenes from Ramayan, Mahabharat and Purans. The trinity of Brahm, Vishnu and Shiv are depicted during their childhood, youth and old days. Even more carvings depict Krishna Leela, Samudra Manthan, wedding of Ganesh, Shiv dancing in Pret form, incarnations of Lord Vishnu and innumerable gods and goddesses. To top it all there are images like Khajuraho.
Standing and looking up at the carvings will make your jaws drop. The best way to admire this wonder is to lie down on your back and just feast your eyes on one of the most astounding sculptures in India.
Again the structure does not look vandalized so it is possible that the same earthquake that demolished the Bateshwar Temples, brought down this temple also. The eastern wall of the courtyard has two storied modern cells that have been screened off which house cannon balls and other possible military paraphernalia. On the southern corner there is deep well like baoli.
You can only imagine what the temple would have looked like if the remaining structures had survived. The irony is that most of the structural members are still present in the same premises. The hitch is that the Jat Ranas rulers of Gohad in 19th century had the superlative idea of building the fortress around the temple. And they used the pieces of the fallen temple in raising the walls. You can still see the sculptured members in the walls. So what Qutb-ud-din did to the temples by building the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque in the Qutb Complex in Delhi, the Gohad rulers did the same here. The same motifs as seen in Qutb Complex pillars are seen here. It is probably because all these temples were built in the same timeline and therefore share the designs. So even if someone like KK Muhammad wanted to restore the temple there is just no way.
With ‘what could have been’ on your mind, albeit briefly, you set out for the third marvel. Few kilometres away you see a solitary hill rise in the distance with a discernible stone structure on top.
Skirting the village of Mitaoli you stop at a parking lot about halfway to the top. A paved path and a few steps take you to the top of the hundred feet high hill with the temple. The top of the hill is flat with an additional small temple in a corner and a circular shaped temple on the edge of the hill. You have never seen a circular temple before. There are no familiar architectural elements like mandap, mukhya mandap or shikhar. The outer walls have regular reliefs of carvings.
You have read that the inspiration for Parliament House in Delhi might have come from this temple. It is when you step inside that you realise that it could be true. Unlike the Parliament House that has pillars on the outer verandah, the Mitaoli Temple has pillars around the outer circumambulatory path that opens into the central courtyard. There are sixty four mini temples or niches each housing a shivling. The central courtyard is ringed with the main shrine again circular in shape and housing a large shivling.
Later looking at google images of the Parliament House with its open inner central courtyard and domed structure in the centre, you can’t help but wonder if Herbert Baker did get some inspiration trawling Indian heritage sites before designing New Delhi with Lutyens. But then again – is it one-off design or is it the standard design of Tantric or Yogini Temples. In that case the sixty four niches would have originally housed statues of Yoginis. That is why the temple is also called Chaunsath Yogini Temple. Such Yogini temples can be seen in Ranipur Jharial & Hirapur in Orissa, Jabalpur and Khajuraho.
Neighbourhood kids have dropped in. The silence in the temple is broken by their running around. Since the temple walls and pillars are relatively unadorned, the kids provide perfect backdrop to this appreciably well-maintained supposedly 10th century temple.
Some additional research has revealed that these three temples were part of an extensive temple building exercise during the rule of Kachchhapaghatas. Kachchhapaghatas who ruled from Gwalior rose to prominence in central India during the last decade of tenth century and were believed to be vassals of Gurjar-Pratihars and later Chandellas. Along with these temples, they built temples at Kadwaha, Surawaya, Mahua, Terahi (all in Shivpuri district of MP). The pretty Saas-Bahu temple at Gwalior Fort is attributed to them too.
Back home, as you munch on a gajjak on a freezing evening, you discover more ancient temple ruins on the net. Morena and the Chambal ravines are calling you for another magical trip.
Getting There: The temples are a comfortable distance north east of Gwalior and all three temples can be covered in half a day. Other ancient temple sites in Morena are Kutwar – Mahabharat’s Kunti village and Sihonia village with Kakanmath Temple.