The Sun-Temple of Martand in Kashmir

The temple of Martand, the most magnificent and impressive of all the temples in Kashmir, is situated at a distance of five miles to the east of Anantnag town. Although the temple stands in ruins yet it still looks full of grandeur.

SITUATION

It is situated at the top of a high plateau and overlooks the plains of the Valley which wear the garment of verdure. These plains contain clusters of lakes, streams, springs and rivers and the whole Valley is surrounded by snow-capped mountains. In spring particularly, the perfumed air at Martand caresses one's face and seems to reach the heart and one feels a vague longing for an undefined happiness of divinity. It is a masterpiece of the site and beauty of Nature which gives the Sun-temple its unique and superb grandeur.

Cunningham feels that the erection of the Sun-temple was suggested by the "magnificent sunny prospect which its situation commands. It overlooks the finest view of Kashmir, perhaps in the known world. Beneath it lies the Paradise of East with its sacred streams and glens, its orchards and green fields, surrounded on all sides by vast snowy mountains whose lofty peaks seem to smile upon the beautiful Valley below. The vast extent of the scene makes it sublime, for this magnificent view of Kashmir is no petty peer on a half-mile glen, but the full display of a Valley 30 miles in breadth and 84 miles in length, the whole of which lies beneath the ken of the wonderful Martand".

DATE OF CONSTRUCTION

Much has been speculated on the date of its construction. Pandit Anand Koul, a great Kashmiri scholar, remarks in this connection: "The true date of the erection of this temple-the wonder of Kashmir-is a disputed point of chronology, but the period of its foundation took place probably between 370 A.D. and 500 A.D. The colonnade is recorded in the Rajatarangini as the work of the famous Lalitaditya who reigned in Kashmir from 724-760A.D. From the same authority we gather-though the interpretation of the verses is considerably disputed-that the temple itself was built by Ranaditya who reigned in 223 A.D. and side chapels or at least one of them, by his queen Amritprabha".

Cole, on the other hand, is of the opinion that "the large temple dedicated to the Sun, was probably of an earlier date, and may possibly have been erected by Samdhimati-Aryaraja (35 B.C.), who with the exception of the Buddhist Prince Meghavahana (12 A.D.) was the only rich predecessor of Ranaditya (223 A.D.) and a worshipper of the emblems of Shiva".

DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE

Martand temple consists of a courtyard with main temple in the middle and colonnaded peristyle, which is 220 feet long and 142 feet broad. It has eighty four fluted columns facing the courtyard. The peristyle is externally plain, except on the west side, which originally had a row of columns. Bates feels that the interior must have been imposing as the exterior.

The Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1848, Part II contains the best description of the temple. It mentions that the entrance of gateway, stands in the middle of the western side of the quandrangle and is of the same width as the temple itself. The proportion is in accordance with the ideas of Hindu architectural grandeur, for the rules laid down by them as quoted by Ram Raz, give different proportions from six-sevenths to ten elevenths of the width of the temple for each style of the gateway from the most simple to the magnificent. Outwardly, the Martand gateway resembles the temple itself in the disposition of its parts and in the decoration of its pediments and pilasters. It was open to west and east, and was divided into distinct portions forming an inner and outer portico, by a cross wall with a doorway in the centre, which was no doubt closed with a wooden door. On each flank of the gateway pediment was supported by massive fluted pillars, 17.5 feet in height, or 8 feet higher than those in the quadrangle. One of these is still standing to the south of the entrance; and the style of the architecture and the entablature which connected these pillars with the gateway must have been same as the architecture in the Avantiswami temple described above. I surmise that the front and the back pediments of the gateway were supported on similar large pillars but it is possible that the square foundations which observed in the front may have been only the remains of the wing-walls of a flight of steps. The roof was pyramidal; for a portion of the sloping mouldings of its pediment was still to be seen on one side.

The walls of the gateway are profusely decorated, internally and externally, the chief motif of decoration being rows of double pedimented niches alternating with rectangular of the inner chamber of the gateway which contains the tall figure of a three-headed Vishnu standing between two attendants. Immediately below is the long rectangular panel decorated with a row of dancing urchins striking a variety of attitudes. The temple proper is 63 feet in length and 30 feet in width at the eastern end and only 27 feet in width at the western entrance end. It contains three distinct chambers of which the outermost, named ardhamandapa or half temple, answering to the front porch of classical fanes is 18 feet and 10 inches square; the middle one called antaral or "middle temple", corresponding to the pronads of the Greeks, is 18 feet by 4.5 feet, and the innermost called garbhagriha, or womb of the edifice, the naos of the Greeks and the cells of the Romans, is 18 feet and 5 inches by 13 feet and 10 inches. The first is open and highly decorated in accordance with its name mandapa, meaning `literary ornamented'. The middle chamber is decorated in the same style; but the inner chamber is plain and is closed on three sides. The walls of the temple are 9 feet thick and of its entrance chamber only 4.5 feet thick, being respectively one half and one fourth of the interior width of the building".

It is said that a constant supply of fresh water was kept up through the canal from the river Lider which was conducted along the side of the mountain for the use of the village close by.

IMAGES OF THE TEMPLE

The Journal of Asiatic Society Bengal mentions: "Among the images carved on the walls of the antarals and the antechamber, we notice on the left wall of the former a well executed image of the river-goddess Ganga standing upon her vehicle, the crocodile, which is looking up towards her. A female attendant on her right and a chauri-bearer is on her left. She holds on her right an umbrella over her head. She holds her usual emblems, a water pot in the left hand and the stalk of a lotus flower in her right hand. She is crowned with a double conical tiara; on the opposite of the antarals is the river goddess Yamuna, with her vehicle, the tortoise. Above the niche on the north wall is a relief consisting of a pair of Gandharvas in flight with an umbrella over them. The statues on the western wall of the antechamber are undoubtedly representatives of Vishnu and what Ferguson mistook for hoods of snakes are in reality points of their coronets. Each of them is three-faced, like the Vishnu image found in the Avantiswami temple, the left face being that of a boar (varha) and the right one that of a man-lion (narsimha). Both are eight-armed and their lower hands are placed on the heads of the chauri-bearer, as in other images of Vishnu found in the Valley. Furthermore, they wear the garlands (vanmala) and we also notice the bust of the earth-goddess (prithvi) between the feet of the statue on the north wall. Most of the images have hands which are unfortunately broken and weather-worn, and the emblems they hold can no longer be identified. Nor can the fourteen-seated figures which occur on the walls of the antechamber below the cornice be identified with certainty. Twelve of them occur in the north and south walls, i.e., six on each and two on the east wall. The one on the right seems to represent Aruna, the charioteer of Surya, holding the reins of his seven horses. The pilasters of the great trefoil arch of the antechamber contain images which cannot yet be identified. The chapels of the north and south of the antechamber each contains two niches 5 feet 9 inches by 4 feet internally, which face to the east and west respectively, possibly an illusion to rising and setting sun".

FURTHER DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE

As is usually common in the temples of Kashmir, the roof appears to have been of the pyramidal type. Such was the magnificent mass of building dedicated to the Sun, a mass 75 feet in height, 33 feet in length and the same in width including the wings. Entrance was gained by a wide flight of steps which are now covered by ruins. On each of the other sides 11 as a closed doorway surmounted by a trefoiled arch and covered by a pediment which rose to a height of 60 feet. At the angles of the buildings on each side of the doorway were stout pilasters, which were divided into panels, each decorated with a miniature representation of the Aryan style of temple. These pilasters sustained the entablature, and gave a look of strength and solidity to the walls which was fully needed for the support of the vast massive roof. This lofty pyramid of stone was itself rendered lighter and more elegant in appearance by being broken into two portions separated by an ornamented band and by the addition of small niches with pointed roofs and trefoiled recesses, all of which were in strict keeping with the general character of the building.

The peristyle is the largest example of its kind in Kashmir. In the middle of its larger sides there are a pair of large fluted pillars, 13 feet in height and 10 square parallel pillars which, with the four pillars of the central porches, make up the number of 84, that was sacred to the Sun… Of these about one half, all more or less imperfect, now remain standing. Each pillar was 9.5 feet in height and 21.5 feet in diameter with an intercolumnation of 6 feet and 9.5 inches... The imposts (behind) were surmounted by human-headed birds facing each other, and a smaller bird, looking to the front, ornamented the horizontal mouldings of the pediments.

About one-third of the entablature still exists principally on the north-eastern side of the quandrangle.

The other walls of the quandrangle are ornamented by a succession of trefoil-headed panels similar in shape and size to the recessed opening of the interior.

Pandit Anand Koul remarks: "In the wall of the longer interior chamber is a window reaching the floor and about eight feet in height. The walls thus divided quarterly are filled with single figures in relief, two of Surya and two of Lakshmi, one each panel".

Some time back the courtyard of the temple was excavated and stones and debris were cleared. Shree R. C. Kak, the renowned archaeologist, relates that "removal of the accumulated debris of centuries from the base temple has also brought to light a very important fact, viz., that previous to the construction of the present temple there existed another temple of somewhat smaller dimensions at this site. When the new temple was built, the older temple base was not demolished but was enveloped by a new base with larger dimensions, as is borne out by the existence of both the bases, side by side, one within the other, on the east side of the temple. The older temple was probably the one built on this side by Ranaditya".

Dr. Goetz, however, says, "Martand stands not quite isolated. It was a smaller counterpart in the plains, the temple of Malot in the Salt Range. Malot raises the problems of the Martand temple even more acutely. For it was a facade of purely Roman-Cornitian half-pillars enclosing trefoiled archway crowned by a set of shikhara. If the first has already been proved characteristic for Lalitaditya's reign, the second was possible only in a time of the closest contact with Bihar and Bengal, i.e. when the king of Gauda had become Lalitaditya's vassal and prisoner".