Bateshwar Ganeshas

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Bateshwar today needs no introduction. Thanks to the mammoth restoration work, and one of the significant temple restorations in the country, the story of Bateshwar reconstruction actually is pretty well known by now. This remote place off-Gwalior and off-Morena in Madhya Pradesh has been a huge laboratory chiseling and perfecting the north Indian Nagara style temples. Bateshwar temples are credited to the time of Gurjara-Pratiharas who have been bulwarks against the Mohammdan invasion till Kannauj fell to Mohammad Ghauri in 11th century. Ravages of time, intensified by its history and geography the temples were nothing but huge heaps of rubble when the Archaeological Survey of India started the restoration work, well documented by archaeologist K.K.Muhammad. 

The temple complex today has over 40 temples restored, and among them many do not have murtis in the garbhagriha, and only one temple in the whole complex is under worship apart from the Hanuman murti in the complex. The temples have been rebuilt brick by brick, and majority of the temples inside are Shiva temples, and there are handful of Vishnu and Shakti temples too. Bateshwar is still not in the tourist circuit, but has become a favourite site of photographers.

 Gwalior-Morena was the the last travel I did before the Covid lockdown shut us down indoors. I was also part of a photography tour group, and as I was shooting our team leader turned to me and said shoot all the Ganeshas here. I don't know why he told me that, but it was a challenge for me. I was anyway feeling lost in the whole complex, didn't know what to shoot, how to get my light right as it was already 10 o'clock when we started shooting. I also missed having a temple architecture or an iconography expert with us. I used the time I had at hand and tried shooting as many Ganeshas as I could find and also others temples, and murtis in various temples around. Lockdown has really been depressing, and I have been slow to work on the photographs shot during the January-March period travels. I thought at least on Ganesh Chaturthi day I should present this photo album of Ganeshas from Bateshwar. Also, why Ganeshas at Bateshwar become interesting is that, whether other icons of a Shiva temple or some of the icons of Vishnu and Shakti temples are missing, the ASI team seem to have had a great luck in locating, almost all the Ganeshas for all the Shiva temples reconstructed. That is why, this album may be interesting. There may be repetitions, as I there have been really large number of photographs, and I had also not followed a linear approach in exploring the site. 































Comments

Vandana Mahajani said…
Seriously, never seen so many Ganesh images. Beautiful place. Must visit sometime soon
August 22, 2020 at 9:31 AM
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