| Temples & Legends Of
Maharastra |
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| Temples Of India |
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BHIMASHANKAR |
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| The temple of
Bhimashankar is an unfinished restoration of an old shrine. It is not very big, not larger
than about forty-five feet by twenty. The garbhagriha
and the antarala form a separate block. Then there is a space open to the sky. And then a
portion of the older structure. Entering from the outermost openings, one first comes to a
small portico built of local trap. Its construction is arched but crude. Next to it,
nearer the Shiva-Iing is a mandap, rather one-third of a mandap.This also isan arched
structure,now only the squinches remaining. The dome
has either been removed to accommodate the new temple or has fallen down. There is the
open space -a space open to the sky as well as the sides. Here a nandi image is placed.
The portion till now described belongs to a period earlier than that of the garbhagriha.
In view of the nature of the arched construction it can be placed somewhere in the late
seventeenth century or the early eighteenth. If the story of the original temple having
been built by one Bhatirao, mentioned by the District Gazetteers is true, then two
renovations of this shrine have to be envisaged. The legend about this earlier temple, as
locally current is on the following lines. |
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