"This Anang Bhanj, it is said, was one of the two sons of Braja Kishor Bhanj, the younger brother of Biswambhar Bhanj, Rājā of Keonjhar, who was a contemporary of Rājā Gandhamardan Deva of Baud. His father, Braja Kishor Bhanj, quitted Keonjhar, owing to some misunderstanding between himself and his elder brother, the Rājā of Keonjhar, settling with his family at Kuturi; on his death in 452 (Shakābdā), i.e., 530-531 a. D., his widow with her two sons left the place and settled at Baud. " Raja Narayan Prasad Deo of Baudh informed me that the tarpaṇa of Rājā Grandhamardana is still performed by all chiefs of Baudh. The tarpana of a Brāhmaṇa cannot be performed by a non-Brāhmaṇa under ordinary circumstances. The performance of the tarpana by the chiefs of Baudh, the existence of the village of Gandhaṭapāti as Gandharaḍi and the mention of Gandhața as one of the ancestors of the Bhañja kings in certain Bhanja charters indicate that there is some truth in the local tradition of Baudh about Gandhamardana. The remains at Gandharaḍi clearly indicate that it was a place of considerable importance at one time. The most important of these remains are the twin temples of Siddhesvara and Nilamādhava, to be described below and the ruins of the city. To the north of the temples, near the bank of the Mahanadi lie the ruins of a large fort and to the east of the temples a series of low mounds indicating the existence at one time of a large village or town. The twin temples of Gandharadi. The chiefs of Baudh have built a bungalow outside the village of Gandharaḍi and at a small distance to the north of the bungalow are a pair of ancient temples. These temples were constructed on a stone platform on a high knoll overlooking some low ground which at one time was the bed of a branch of the Mahanadi. Standing on the knoll one gets a fine view of the old fort on the river bank as well as of the rains to the east. It appears that at one time a small river or a branch of the Mahanadi flowed between the village and the fort. 10 3 Res. J. The temples on the knoll are an exact pair, a fact to be rarely noticed in the case of medieval temples of Orissa. Originally the sides of the stone platform, on which the temples were erected, were profusely ornamented. Tho lower part of this platform is now buried underground but the upper shows that the decorative motifs are principally the same as those on the body of the Vimāna or Garbhagṛiha. There is plenty of space on the stone platform around the twin temples and foundations of smaller temples on it indicate that it was surrounded with four or more smaller shrines somewhat after the fashion of the great temple of Gondesvara at Sinnar in the Nasik district of the Bombay Presidency. The area on the top of the platform is covered with the debris of these smaller temples and therefore it is not possible to prepare accurate plans just at present. Slightly to the rear of the centre of the platform stand the twin temples, the southern one of which is dedicated to Siva called Siddheśvara and the northern, to Visnu called Nilamādhava. The most striking feature of these two temples is a linga on the top of the Siva temple and a large wheel on that of the Vaiṣṇava one. The presence of the wheel on Vaisnava temples is common. There is a large metal wheel on the top of the Sikhara of the Vimana of Jagannatha at Puri, but the placing of ar entire linga on the Sikhara of the Vimūna of a Saiva temple is unknown in Orissa. The linga is octagonal at the bottom and round on the top. It has been placed over the Amalaka in the place of the Chudamani. The next important feature of the twin temples is their striking resemblance to the temple of Parasurameśvara at Bhuvanesvara. 2 Unlike that of the Lingaraja and the smaller temples in the same compound, the Sikharas of the twin temples curve gradually from the height of the walls of the Vimana towards the Amalaka on the top. Moreover the Jagamohana 1 Fergusson and Burgess-A History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, Vol. II, London, 1910, pp. 144-45, fig. 843, Pl. XXV. 'Coomaraswamy-History of Indian and Indonesian Art, Pl. LXVI, Fig. 216. |