MUNDESVARI

There can also be no doubt that Mundesvari is not a distorted form of Mandalesvara as held by Prof. R. D. Banerjee. According to the commonly accepted story, which was also mentioned by Buchanan and Martin, Munda, the brother of Chanda, had established the goddess Mundesvari. Dr. Panigrahi rightly finds nothing, unusual in the name, as there are names of deities like Varun- esvara, Indresvara, etc. The real history of the shrine was apparently forgotten and the people came fondly to believe that Munda established the Goddess.

Mundesvari or Parvati originally was installed as one of the three images in three sub-chambers of the sanctuary with the mukhalingam as the centre as indicated in Martin's plan in his Eastern India.  But Mundesvari image, somehow, came to be preserved while the images of Kartikeya and Ganesa, the two other images in the niches, have been lost. It may be mentioned here that a large image of Ganesa is found half buried in the ruins of a small temple in the way leading to the top of the hill and might have been one of the Parsva-devatas originally enshrined in one of the side chambers of the Mundesvari temple.

Dr. Panigrahi's view seems to be correct and there is nothing strange about it. With the passage of time the Goddess Mundesvari, originally a Parsva-devata in the Shaiva shrine of Vinitesvara, became the presiding deity of the temple, although she continues in the same position in the cella. The transposition appears to have taken place particularly during the time of the Cheros, a powerful aboriginal tribe who ruled over a portion of Shahabad for a long time.

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