| There is now no
trace of the Narayana image in this temple. The mukhalingam referred to is to be taken as
theVinitesvara who was set up by Dandanayaka Gomibhata in 348-49 A.D. The Mundesvari
inscription referred to before is of great epigraphic importance and explains the
background.It may be mentioned that the stone slab containing the inscription had
originally broken into two pieces, which were discovered at different times. Ultimately, they were joined together and preserved in the Indian
Museum, Calcutta, Prof. R. D. Banerjee, who first edited the epigraphs, interpreted the
inscription to mean that Dandanayaka Gomibhata arranged the co-existence of the
Vinitesvara math in the temple shrine of Narayana during the reign of Mahasamanta
Mahapratihara Maharaja Udayasena, in the year 30 of an unspecified era.
Prof. Banerjee took the year 30 to be in the Harsha era
commencing from 606 A.D., and assigned the epigraph to 636 A.D., which he also took to be
the date of the temple. L.S.S. O’Malley, I.C.S., in the last District Gazetteer of,
Shahabad published in 1906 and repeated in the revised edition in 1924. Dr. R. D. |
