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A little over 120 kilometres from the state capital, past Kanpur City, is the Jagannath temple at Behta Bujurg. The temple – with a parabolic dome similar to those found in the temples of West Bengal and Odisha – is steeped in mystique and has baffled scholars over the centuries.
The temple presents many contradictions ranging from its architecture to its principal deity to its date of construction.Besides, the popularity of the temple has grown over the years because of a popular belief among the local population and devotees that it predicts monsoon with some precision every year.
According to temple priest KP Shukla, a stone slab in the ceiling of the temple’s sanctum sanctorum gets dampened a week before rain. If it doesn’t start dripping, he says, the rain that year will be moderate while formation of water droplets on the ceiling predicts a good monsoon. The local farmers, this writer spoke to, said that they sow the kharif crop relying on the temple’s rain prediction.
Right at spot, yet out of place
Situated barely five kilometres from the temple of Bhitargaon, the oldest surviving brick temple in India, at Kanpur’s Ghatampur tehsil, the temple of Behta Bujurg was first mentioned by British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham, the founder of ASI, in 1876-77, when he visited the region. When writing about the Bhitargaon Dewal, which is believed to be dated 5th century AD, Cunningham called the temple at Behta of a “much later date”.
It is situated in a region that is abundant with ancient temples. In his ‘Report of Tours in the Gangetic Provinces from Badaon to Bihar’ (1875-76 & 1877-78), Cunningham wrote, “The people of Bhitargaon say there was once a brick temple at every (kos) along the bank of the Arind river.” He found quite a few in the region himself. And yet, the temple of Behta is out of place in many ways.
While the main, and the biggest temple in the region, the Bhitargaon Dewal is dedicated to Vishnu, the one at Paraoli is of Shiva. A larger temple at the nearby Rar village is dedicated to Chandrika Devi. Another group of ancient brick temples at Nibiya Khera, 14 kilometres from Behta, are dedicated to Lord Shiva. Believed to have been constructed around 9th–10th century during Gujara – Prathira rule, Nibiya Khera group of structures are one of the earliest temples built in ‘Panchayatana style’ of architecture.
The temple at Behta stands out from the rest of the shrines in the area in terms of dedication.
A medieval temple dedicated to Lord Jagannath in Uttar Pradesh is unheard of. The temple at Behta has a Rath Yatra and a huge festival every year that coincides with the Rath Yatra in Puri. The sleepy village with a population of barely a few hundreds is suddenly filled with devotees coming in from various parts of the state that time of the year.
A case for contradictions
Unlike the brick temples that the area is famous for, this temple is made of stone. This also led historians to con-clude that the Behta temple was constructed at a much later date than the Bhitargaon Dewal. British archaeologist and art historian Albert Henry Longhurst, who visited the area in 1909, noted that the temple at Behta had an ancient brick and stone temple hiding behind the “uninteresting exterior”.
“One sometimes finds that modern built temples are partly constructed of ancient building material or contain sculptures or inscriptions taken from some ancient ruins of temple in the district and with this object in view I had inquiries made and found that there was a modern temple of some importance at the village of Behta about two miles from Bhitargaon. On inspecting it, I found that although uninteresting enough exteriorly, the interior of the sanctum showed that a very ancient brick and stone temple once stood here, the old stonework being beautifully and richly carved,” he wrote in the ASI’s Annual Report for 1908-1909.
The temple at Behta has an ancient pillar and door jamb lying about the temple compound. Over a hundred years ago, Longhurst found them in the same condition. “I found lying on the ground in the compound the broken remains of a large well carved representation of Siva andhis consort Parvati seated on the bull Nandi and in one of the cells built on either side of the temple doorway I found a particularly well carved representation of Vishnu (Padmanabha) reclining upon the folds of the serpent Sesha illustrating the birth of Brahma. It is a fine piece of work carved out of a solid block of sandstone. It is not used as an object of worship but is lying on the ground neglected. There is a similar cell opposite containing two well carved images one representing Lakshmana. and the other Ganesa,” he wrote in 1909.
The findings led him to believe that the temple at Behta had remains from an-other temple or temples in the area.
“It is obvious that all these sculptures and portions of ancient building material could not have belonged to the original temple that once stood here and that some of it must have been removed from some other ruined shrine in the neighbourhood and brought to Behta at the time when the temple was so exteriorly repaired. The nearest and as far as I am aware the only ruined temple near Behta is that of Bhitargaon which is only two miles away and I feel sure that some of the ancient material represents portions of the missing stone door jambs and lintels of that edifice,” he wrote.
The theory was strongly refuted by historian Mohammad Zaheer in his 1980 book, ‘The temple of Bhitargaon’.
He wrote, “The temple at Behta is a very late monument for it has a cusped arch and fluted columns common in the later Mughal period and a large quantity of stone has been used in its construction. By the time this temple was erected or subsequently rebuilt, the use of stone had become widespread, and there is no reason to assume that the stone members as well as the images discovered in and around this shrine originally belonged to Bhitargaon.”
In its sanctum sanctorum, the temple at Behta has a pillar with motifs that makeit look similar to Gupta-era columns. This pillar is distinct and very different from the other columns inside the temple. The inner chamber has the avatars of Vishnu flanking the main deities – Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra. There are other chambers in the temple that house a white and stone idol of the Sun god and Sheshaayi Vishnu. There is an unmistakable peacock motif and Chakra on the outer wall of the temple.
Because of numerous contradictions, there is no uniformity among historians on the temple’s antiquity. There is some reason to believe that the temple could have been given a faux exterior – the depth of the wall between the sanctum and the temple’s exterior is 14 feet – to hide it from attackers during the Muslim invasion. And in the course of centuries, the details of the original temple at the spot were lost to the local population. But nothing can be said for a fact.
Puri clone
The temple has a Rath Yatra and a huge festival every year that coincides with the Rath Yatra in Puri. The sleepy village with a population of barely a few hundreds is suddenly filled with devotees coming in from various parts of the state that time of the year According to temple priest KP Shukla, a stone slab in the ceiling of the temple’s sanctum sanctorum predicts rain. It gets dampened a week before the onset of monsoon and water begins to drip. The local farmers sow the kharif crop relying on the temple’s rain prediction.
The temple presents many contradictions ranging from its architecture to its principal deity to its date of construction.Besides, the popularity of the temple has grown over the years because of a popular belief among the local population and devotees that it predicts monsoon with some precision every year.
According to temple priest KP Shukla, a stone slab in the ceiling of the temple’s sanctum sanctorum gets dampened a week before rain. If it doesn’t start dripping, he says, the rain that year will be moderate while formation of water droplets on the ceiling predicts a good monsoon. The local farmers, this writer spoke to, said that they sow the kharif crop relying on the temple’s rain prediction.
Right at spot, yet out of place
Situated barely five kilometres from the temple of Bhitargaon, the oldest surviving brick temple in India, at Kanpur’s Ghatampur tehsil, the temple of Behta Bujurg was first mentioned by British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham, the founder of ASI, in 1876-77, when he visited the region. When writing about the Bhitargaon Dewal, which is believed to be dated 5th century AD, Cunningham called the temple at Behta of a “much later date”.
It is situated in a region that is abundant with ancient temples. In his ‘Report of Tours in the Gangetic Provinces from Badaon to Bihar’ (1875-76 & 1877-78), Cunningham wrote, “The people of Bhitargaon say there was once a brick temple at every (kos) along the bank of the Arind river.” He found quite a few in the region himself. And yet, the temple of Behta is out of place in many ways.
While the main, and the biggest temple in the region, the Bhitargaon Dewal is dedicated to Vishnu, the one at Paraoli is of Shiva. A larger temple at the nearby Rar village is dedicated to Chandrika Devi. Another group of ancient brick temples at Nibiya Khera, 14 kilometres from Behta, are dedicated to Lord Shiva. Believed to have been constructed around 9th–10th century during Gujara – Prathira rule, Nibiya Khera group of structures are one of the earliest temples built in ‘Panchayatana style’ of architecture.
The temple at Behta stands out from the rest of the shrines in the area in terms of dedication.
A medieval temple dedicated to Lord Jagannath in Uttar Pradesh is unheard of. The temple at Behta has a Rath Yatra and a huge festival every year that coincides with the Rath Yatra in Puri. The sleepy village with a population of barely a few hundreds is suddenly filled with devotees coming in from various parts of the state that time of the year.
A case for contradictions
Unlike the brick temples that the area is famous for, this temple is made of stone. This also led historians to con-clude that the Behta temple was constructed at a much later date than the Bhitargaon Dewal. British archaeologist and art historian Albert Henry Longhurst, who visited the area in 1909, noted that the temple at Behta had an ancient brick and stone temple hiding behind the “uninteresting exterior”.
“One sometimes finds that modern built temples are partly constructed of ancient building material or contain sculptures or inscriptions taken from some ancient ruins of temple in the district and with this object in view I had inquiries made and found that there was a modern temple of some importance at the village of Behta about two miles from Bhitargaon. On inspecting it, I found that although uninteresting enough exteriorly, the interior of the sanctum showed that a very ancient brick and stone temple once stood here, the old stonework being beautifully and richly carved,” he wrote in the ASI’s Annual Report for 1908-1909.
The temple at Behta has an ancient pillar and door jamb lying about the temple compound. Over a hundred years ago, Longhurst found them in the same condition. “I found lying on the ground in the compound the broken remains of a large well carved representation of Siva andhis consort Parvati seated on the bull Nandi and in one of the cells built on either side of the temple doorway I found a particularly well carved representation of Vishnu (Padmanabha) reclining upon the folds of the serpent Sesha illustrating the birth of Brahma. It is a fine piece of work carved out of a solid block of sandstone. It is not used as an object of worship but is lying on the ground neglected. There is a similar cell opposite containing two well carved images one representing Lakshmana. and the other Ganesa,” he wrote in 1909.
The findings led him to believe that the temple at Behta had remains from an-other temple or temples in the area.
“It is obvious that all these sculptures and portions of ancient building material could not have belonged to the original temple that once stood here and that some of it must have been removed from some other ruined shrine in the neighbourhood and brought to Behta at the time when the temple was so exteriorly repaired. The nearest and as far as I am aware the only ruined temple near Behta is that of Bhitargaon which is only two miles away and I feel sure that some of the ancient material represents portions of the missing stone door jambs and lintels of that edifice,” he wrote.
The theory was strongly refuted by historian Mohammad Zaheer in his 1980 book, ‘The temple of Bhitargaon’.
He wrote, “The temple at Behta is a very late monument for it has a cusped arch and fluted columns common in the later Mughal period and a large quantity of stone has been used in its construction. By the time this temple was erected or subsequently rebuilt, the use of stone had become widespread, and there is no reason to assume that the stone members as well as the images discovered in and around this shrine originally belonged to Bhitargaon.”
In its sanctum sanctorum, the temple at Behta has a pillar with motifs that makeit look similar to Gupta-era columns. This pillar is distinct and very different from the other columns inside the temple. The inner chamber has the avatars of Vishnu flanking the main deities – Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra. There are other chambers in the temple that house a white and stone idol of the Sun god and Sheshaayi Vishnu. There is an unmistakable peacock motif and Chakra on the outer wall of the temple.
Because of numerous contradictions, there is no uniformity among historians on the temple’s antiquity. There is some reason to believe that the temple could have been given a faux exterior – the depth of the wall between the sanctum and the temple’s exterior is 14 feet – to hide it from attackers during the Muslim invasion. And in the course of centuries, the details of the original temple at the spot were lost to the local population. But nothing can be said for a fact.
Puri clone
The temple has a Rath Yatra and a huge festival every year that coincides with the Rath Yatra in Puri. The sleepy village with a population of barely a few hundreds is suddenly filled with devotees coming in from various parts of the state that time of the year According to temple priest KP Shukla, a stone slab in the ceiling of the temple’s sanctum sanctorum predicts rain. It gets dampened a week before the onset of monsoon and water begins to drip. The local farmers sow the kharif crop relying on the temple’s rain prediction.
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