Pandukeshwar, Architectural Knowledge, and an Idea of India

Great Temples, Little Kingdoms

Shifting from the production to consumption, we know neither the names of individuals who maintained and visited temples in and around Pandukeshwar nor what rituals were performed there in the ninth and tenth centuries. However, the construction of front halls (maṇḍapas) and an increase in the number of metal statues of various deities indicate greater pilgrim traffic, a diversification of rituals, and more wealth in the hands of these institutions.

Archaeologists have found only five documents from this moment in the history of the Central Himalayas.[62] Four of these records are written in Sanskrit on rectangular copperplates and are preserved at Pandukeshwar. The fifth one, written in Sanskrit and engraved on a stone slab, is kept at Bageshwar. Taken together, the documents provide important, if partial, insights into new patterns of patronage and ritual that complement findings recoverable from the foregoing study of the archaeological evidence. These records establish that the cult of Viṣṇu—especially one centered close to the glacial source of the Alakananda-Ganga—received support from three short-lived hill dynasties rather than from the Pāśupatas who had been especially influential in the Central Himalayas for several centuries. These three dynasties ruled from the ceremonial capital of Kārttikeyapura, possibly in the Katyur Valley. Tribhuvanapāla, the scion of one royal house, installed an image of Vaikunṭha Viṣṇu in a temple in the valley in 1002 CE.[63] Another hill dynasty included King Lalitasuradeva and his consort Sāmādevī. When Sāmādevi built a Nārāyaṇa temple at Gorrunasāri, her husband gifted the revenues of various villages to it and to the Nārāyaṇa temple at Garuḍagrāma (Pandukeshwar?).[64] A third lineage, which initially reigned from Kārttikeyapura and later from Subhikṣapura, included Padmaṭadeva and his son and successor, Subhikṣarājadeva. Father and son lent their support to the Badrinath temple.[65]

Earlier rulers, such as Princess Īśvarā of Lakhamandal who had enjoyed some authority over the Central Himalayas, had more interest in erecting Śiva temples than in making provisions for their long-term ritual and physical maintenance. In contrast, the copperplate inscriptions of later Himalayan leaders, including Lalitasuradeva, Padmaṭadeva, and Subhikṣarājadeva, indicate a personal interest in such activities as “providing perfumes, flowers, incense, lights, ointments, offerings of eatables, sacrifices, oblations of rice, &c., dancing, singing, music, charities, &c., for the repair of what may be damaged or broken, as well as for the execution of new work, and for the maintenance of servants and attendants.”[66] In other words, these rulers were interested in properly establishing Viṣṇu as a glorious sentient being with various requirements and expectations in this region.

The rulers of the little hill kingdoms of the medieval period also tried to selectively foster new networks between tīrthas. In one edict, Lalitasuradeva specifically directed the brahmacāris of Garuḍagrāma, the beneficiaries of his largesse, to aid brahmacarīs living at Badrinath. Such a royal intervention stands in contrast with the direction and nature of earlier networks such as those that existed between Jageshwar and other places in its vicinity and likely were maintained by the relatively unceremonious movements of ascetics and masons.[67]

The four copperplates preserved at Pandukeshwar are also all indicators of the transformative political developments that had occurred by the time of their composition. For although these metal documents record only the names of three or four prior generations of the donor’s family, they demonstrate a secondary phase of state formation. In this phase, previously measured and owned lands in well-established settlements were transferred to authorities either in the same or a different district. Judging from the functionaries listed on the copperplate inscriptions, this was also a period by which several courts—complete with hierarchies of aides, ministers, military commanders, poets, scribes, and guild foremen—had been established.

Finally, the foregoing discussion makes it possible to compare the rise of “little kingdoms” and pilgrimage circuits in the Central Himalayas with those in the Western Himalayas from the tenth until the thirteenth centuries. In this regard, the history of the erstwhile princely state of Chamba in the Western Himalayas makes for an especially illuminating comparison. In the mid-tenth century, a minor chieftain named Sāhilla Varman moved the ceremonial capital of the old and periodically conquered principality of Brahmapura to Caṃpakapuri (Chamba). From this new capital, Sāhilla Varman and his descendants enacted measures to maintain their authority and their territory’s sovereignty. Gathering revenues from traders using mountain passes and from agriculturalists working in fertile river valleys, they supported new Nāgara temples dedicated to Lakṣmī and Nārāyaṇa more enthusiastically than old shrines honoring Śiva and Śaktī. They also created roads and waterworks that connected them with their loyalists. Furthermore, Chamba’s fledging rulers increased their stature by initiating matrimonial alliances with the kings of Kashmir, their more powerful neighbors, and by undertaking journeys to renowned tīrthas such as Kurukshetra in the northern Indian plains. They recruited Brahmins from the plains to serve as their educators, genealogists, and ritual specialists, and they liberally awarded parcels of land to them. They also formed small courts, with officers whose grandiloquent titles conformed to the titles of the courtiers of the great empires of medieval India.[68] After their hold over the “little kingdom” was secure, Chamba’s kings periodically traveled to Haridwar to immerse the ashes of their deceased kin in the Ganga’s waters and make presents to needy Brahmins. From Haridwar, a few kings proceeded to Badrinath and Kedarnath with the objectives of washing away old sins, presenting jewels to the enshrined deities, and receiving divine grace.[69]

In subsequent centuries, residents of the area on the route to Badrinath and Kedarnath appear to have followed Pandukeshwar’s lead in redefining their settlements: molding landscape features, localizing events from the Mahābhārata, and habilitating distinctive architectural forms.[70] For example, modern pilgrims passing through Guptakashi, a hamlet on the way to Kedarnath, can bathe in Maṇikarnika, a stepped tank that shares its name with a celebrated set of stairs leading to the Ganga River (ghāṭ) at Kashi, the paragon of Śaiva tīrthas. At Guptakashi, they also can hear legends of the Pāṇḍavas’ escapades from Namboodri priests. Entry into a shrine resembling a Drāvida alpa vīmāna, which is set besides a latina Nāgara mūlaprāsāda, is also open to them (fig. 26). To give another example, in recent decades, two small Drāviḍa alpa vimānas have been erected at Rishikesh, besides the frequently repaired early medieval Bharata shrine (fig. 27). This cluster is sited just across the river from an imposing temple dedicated to Bhārata Mātā.

26. Nāgara and Drāviḍa temples, Guptakashi, Uttarakhand

27. Nāgara and Drāviḍa temples, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand