Pali Bilaspur
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Pali (पाली) is a small Village/hamlet in Masturi Tehsil in Bilaspur District of Chattisgarh State, India.
Contents
Location
It comes under Pali Panchayath. It is located 17 km towards East from District head quarters Bilaspur, 122 km from State capital Raipur. Pali Pin code is 495551 and postal head office is Masturi. Pali is surrounded by Belha Tehsil towards west , Bilaspur Tehsil towards west , Akaltara Tehsil towards East , Pamgarh Tehsil towards East. Akaltara , Bilaspur , Bilaspur , Naila Janjgir are the near by Cities to Pali. This Place is in the border of the Bilaspur District and Janjgir-champa District. Janjgir-champa District Akaltara is East towards this place .
Origin
Variants
- Pali Bilaspur (पाली) (AS, p.554)
History
Pali in Archaeological Survey of India Report
[p.217]: Twelve miles to the north-east of Ratanpur is the small village Pali ; here, at the extreme south-west end of the city, is a fine large tank with the remains of several temples on its banks. Of these, all but one are mere heaps of stones, and all except one appear to have been small—the one that is still standing is also partially ruined ; the mahamandapa has indeed its roof standing, but not entire : some of the stones have got broken, and on the exterior, the outer layers have entirely disappeared; the heaps of loose stones lie at the foot of the walls and render it impossible to secure a plan ; but though an accurate plan cannot be obtained, the temple clearly was a complete one in the style of the Khajuraha ones, or rather more exactly like the great temple at Sohagpur to be described further on ; there are projecting windows in the sides of the mahamandapa with sloping back-rests as there and at Khajuraha ; the roof of the mahamandapa is supported by pilasters disposed as in the Sohagpur temple and without the four central pillars which are to be seen in the Khajuraha temples ; the roof consequently is of greatly more imposing dimensions than those at Khajuraha, the clear span being 18 feet, which is tolerably large for a dome of overlapping courses as at Sohagpur; the mahamandapa here also has had extra pillars added in front, in line with the side pilasters of the sanctum entrance, to support an architrave which had failed ; these pillars are not of a kind with the others, and are quite out of place, hiding the exquisite carving behind, on the sides of the entrance of the sanctum.
The dome of the mahamandapa consists of courses of concentric fretted circles each smaller than the next lower course until at the top one small circle with a pendant closes the opening ; the circle rises from an octagon formed by cutting off the corners of the square diagonally by massive architraves from pilaster to pilaster ; each tier of the overlapping courses of the dome is richly fretted and coved, the whole arrangement forming a hemisphere of semi-circularly hollowed niches, each enshrining a small seated figure with folded hands ; the lowest course alone represents a series of figures in various attitudes, and “ miming into each other
[p.218]: in happy confusion below this is the octagon ornamented by the usual geometric patterns and lotus leaves. It does not appear that here, as is often the case elsewhere, any figures rose up from pilasters or corbelled projections to support and adorn the roof : the roof of the sanctum is circular, formed of overlapping courses ; so is the roof of the portico ; all others are flat. The pilasters are carved and ornamented, but the walls are quite plain ; on the walls, in three distinct places, is engraved in very deeply cut characters the name of Sriman Jajalla Deva; the inscription consists of a single line, from which I ascribe the construction of the temple to Jajalla Deva.
On the window seat at the south side is engraved three lines, evidently a pilgrim’s record of worship paid here ; the pilgrim was a jogi named Magara Dhwaj, the number 700 follows the name, but as there is no Samvat mentioned, I doubt if it be a date at all ; even if it be, it cannot be 700 of the Vikrama era, for Jajalla Deva from the fist of kings in the Central Provinces Gazetteer, page 89, which has fairly stood the test of inscriptions in the portion here applicable, gives a Jajalla Deva as reigning between 950 and 990 A.D., and the inscriptions discovered make him the father of Ratna Deva. The temple, therefore, dates to the latter half of the 10th century at most, and could not have been visited by the jogi in 700, but the date, if date it be, may be intended for one thousand and odd, the odd units figure having since got worn away.
Externally, the tower of the sanctum has 3 principal faces as usual ; the quadrants between the back and side faces are broken up into 5 rectangular projections, of which the centre one marking the corner is the principal; the mouldings are deep, bold and richly sculptured, and the two rows of statues running round are well executed and superior to the usual run of such sculptures in subject, design and in execution, there being no indecent figures; unfortunately, a thick coat of plaster and white-wash nearly fills up the hollows, and the delicately carved figures are only partially visible where time and weather, combined with the shock of falling blocks from the upper portions of the tower, have rubbed away the coating ; the figures are small, smaller than usual, in a reddish stone, well and carefully executed and probably once polished ; the sculptures inside appear also to have been polished.
Pali Stone Inscriptions Of Jajalladeva I
These inscriptions were discovered in 1904 by Dr. D R. Bhandarkar who published his transcripts of them in the Progress Report of the Archaeological Survey of Western India for 1903-4, p. 52. They are edited here from inked estampages taken under my direction.
The inscriptions which are four in number2 are incised on a wall, a door-way and a pilaster of the mandapa of an exquisitely carved Shiva temple at Pâli, 12 miles to the north-east of Ratanpur in the Bilaspur District of the Chhattisgarh Division in Madhya Pradesh.
The characters of all the inscriptions are of the Nâgarî alphabet. The form of the palatal /which closely resembles that in the Ratanpur stone inscription of Jâjalladeva 3 (dated K. 866) indicates that the inscriptions belong to the beginning of the 12th century A.C. The size of the letters in the first three inscriptions is about 1.4" and that in the fourth one is .5". The language is Sanskrit. Each inscription consists of a single line in prose. Except in the fourth inscription, even that lime is not free from gross mistakes of grammar and orthography.
The object of the inscriptions is to record an unspecified kirtî (meritorious work) of Jâjalladeva. This Jâjalladeva must, of course, be referred to the Kalachuri Dynasty of Ratanpur. There are two kings of this name known from inscriptions, of whom
1. This plate is of No 78.
2. Bhandarkar mentions five inscriptions of Jâjalladeva, but the fifth one, which according to his description was on a stone lying outside the temple cannot now be traced. It was, however, identical in wording with those edited here.
3. Above, No 77,
[p.418]: the first was ruling in K. 866 (1114-5 A C.) and the second in K. 919 (1167-68 A.C.).1 The palaeography of the inscriptions leaves no doubt that they must be referred to the reign of Jâjalladêva I.2
What was this work of Jâjalladêva I, which is recorded in so many places ? It could not have been the construction of the sanctum of the temple ; for there is an inscription in three parts incised over three recesses in the architrave of the door-way of the garbhagriha which records the construction of the structure by Vikramâditya, the son of the Mahàmandaleshvara Malladeva. As the names Malladèva and Vikramâditya occur in the dynastic lists of Bāṇa kings (बाण)3, Dr. Bhandarkar made the ingenious suggestion that this Vikramâditya may have been one of the Bāṇa kings (बाण)3. He could not definitely identify him at the time , because no such Vikramâditya, the son of Malladêva, was then known. From the Udayêndiram plates which had been published by Dr. Kielhom,4 two Vikramâdityas of the Bâna dynasty were known, but neither of them was a son of Malladëva. About the chronology of the Bâna kings also, there was considerable doubt. Dr. Kielhom at first referred the second Vikramâditya mentioned in the Udayêndiram plates to the middle of the 12th century A.C ,5 but later on he identified his friend Krishnarâja mentioned in the Udayêndiram plates with Krishna II of the Rashtrakûta dynasty and thus referred Vikramâditya II of the Udayêndiram plates to the end of the 9th century A C.6 The discovery the of Guḍimallam plates7 has placed the genealogy of the Early Bâna kings on a Sound basis. As Dr. Hultzsch has shown, there were three Vikramàdityas8 in the Bâna dynasty, of whom the first, called also Jajameru, was the son of Malladeva. He is identical with Bâna-Vidyâdhara mentioned in the Udayêndiram plates. As his son Vijayâditya-Prabhumèru was ruling in Saka 8209 we can place Vikramâditya (I) in the last quarter of the 9th century A.C. The Pali inscription shows that he was ruling in Dakshina Kosala or Chhattisgarh before the advent of the Kalachuris10.
Jajalladeva I was not thus the builder of the sanctum. He did not also probably erect the mandapa of the temple, but may have repaired it. As Mr. Cousens has already noticed,11 the mandapa has been partly rebuilt, the additional walls a cross the corners to support the roof making it look as if it were originally octagonal in shape. And it is noteworthy that it is on one of these walls, the rebuilt door-way and an additional pilaster inserted to support a broken beam12 that the following inscriptions are engraved.
As a period of more than two hundred years separates the Bâna king Vikramâditya I from Jajalladeva I, it is not unlikely that the temple had fallen into disrepair during the time of the latter. Jajalladeva I seems, therefore, to have only repaired the mandapa of the temple where the inscriptions are found.
1. Below, Nos. 97 — 99
2. In the Amôdâ plates of Jâjalladêva II, the palatal ś has the left limb fully developed as in modem Nâgarî.
3. P. R A SWC for 1903-4, p. 52
4. Ep Ind, Vol III, pp. 74 ff.
5. Ibid Vol III, p 75
6. Ibid Vol III, Appendix II, p 21
7. Ibid Vol XVII, pp 1 ff.
8. The last one of these is identical with the second Viktamàditya mentioned in the Udayêndiram plates.
9. Ep Ind, Nol XI, p 227, see also ibid Vol XVII, p 3
10. For a detailed discussion of this question, see my article 'An Ancient Dynasty of Mahâkôsala' in P I H C (1939), PP 319ff
11. P R. A S. W. I. for 1903-4, p. 28.
12. For a photograph of these pilasters, see the plate facing p. 323 in P I H C, (1939).
- Bana (Jat clan) = Bana King Vikramaditya I son of Malladeva constructed the sanctum of the temple at Pali in Bilaspur District of Chhattisgarh. Pali Stone Inscriptions Of Jajalladeva I shows that he was ruling in Dakshina Kosala or Chhattisgarh before the advent of the Kalachuris. [1]
- Gudimallam is a village near Tirupati, located in Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh state of India. It is situated about 15 kilometers southeast of Tirupati city.[2][3] It is especially famous for the Gudimallam Lingam in the Parasurameswara Swamy Temple."Archaeological Survey of India - Alphabetical List of Monuments in Andhra Pradesh". Government of India.
पाली
पाली (AS, p.554): जिला बिलासपुर मध्य प्रदेश में रतनपुर के निकट एक ग्राम जहां मध्य प्रदेश का एक अति प्राचीन शिव मंदिर स्थित है. इसका निर्माण वाणवंशीय राजा विक्रमादित्य ने 870-895 ई. में करवाया था. कलचुरी नरेश जाजल्ल देव (1095-1120) ने इस मंदिर का जीर्णोद्धार करवाया था. इस तथ्य का 'जाजल्लदेवस्यकीर्तिरियम्' वाक्य द्वारा किया गया है. मंदिर की शिल्पकारी सूक्ष्म तथा सुंदर है और आबू के जैन मंदिरों की कला की याद दिलाती है.[4]
External links
References
- ↑ Corpus Inscriptionium Indicarium Vol IV Part 2 Inscriptions of the Kalachuri-Chedi Era, Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi, 1955, p.417-419
- ↑ IK Sarma (1994). Parasuramesvara Temple at Gudimallam: A probe into its origins. Datsons. pp. 2–18. ISBN 9788171920150.
- ↑ P Arundhati (2002). Annapurna: A Bunch of Flowers of Indian Culture. Concept. pp. 40–42. ISBN 9788170228974.
- ↑ Aitihasik Sthanavali by Vijayendra Kumar Mathur, p.554