Famous Temples in India

Architecture

The Kankali Devi temple has a square sanctum with a 12.5 feet (3.8 m) side outside and 8 feet (2.4 m) side inside. The sanctum does not open exactly to the east, but deviates by about 13 degrees, which Cunningham speculated may be intentional and related to "one nakshatra" (lunar house, Hindu calendar). The temple has an open portico supported on four pillars that projects 7 feet (2.1 m) in front of the sanctum. Both the pillared porch and the sanctum are on a raised plinth, its roof made from horizontal slabs of stone. The pillars of the mandapa are massive, shaped into three symmetric cross sections, a long square sectioned part close to the ground, above it an octagonal and sixteen-edged. Above these is a circular part capped with pot and foliage capitals. On top of the pillars are sculptures of two crouching lions with a tree separating them. The pillars are identical in all respects except the tree: one pillar has a mango tree, another a palm, while the other two trees unclear. The temple door jambs are intricately carved, in vertical bands that are concentric around the entrance. On top left of the entrance wall is river goddess Ganga holding a water vessel and riding her crocodile vahana, while the top right has river goddess Yamuna also holding a water vessel while riding her tortoise vahana. Goddess Ganga is plucking a fruit from custard-apple tree, while Yamuna is plucking one from a mango tree.

The Kankali Devi Temple has reliefs showing Vishnu and generally considered to have been dedicated to Vishnu of Vaishnavism. An image of Narasimha, the man-lion avatar of Vishnu, is placed inside the sanctum. The portico has an image of the Sheshashai Vishnu (Narayana). Another shows Varaha, the man-boar avatar of Vishnu. In front of the temple is a seated Vishnu image in yoga asana position with serpent hood above the head, similar to seated Tirthankaras and the Buddha. The temple also reverentially displays Shaktism and Shaivism themes, including a Chamunda (Kankali Devi) panel which gives the temple its name. On the wall opposite to Kankali Devi is Kali Devi (fierce form of Durga). Cunningham proposed that these Shaiva and Vaishnava reliefs were probably added around the 8th-century. The Kankali Devi temple is similar to the Gupta period Temple at Sanchi, with both illustrating the basic elements of Hindu sacred architecture. The temple style is also similar to the Hindu cave temples of Udayagiri and the Eran temple, both of which can be dated to be from the Gupta era because of the inscriptions found there.

An eighth-century CE inscription mentions the visit of Umadeva of Kanyakubja, son of Samanya Bhatta, who had come to worship at the temple of Setabhadra. There are also two inscriptions in Sankha Lipi.

1. On a face of a pillar – Descriptive List of Inscriptions in The Central Provinces and Berar – undated, dated to eighth century CE on paleographic study – in Sanskrit language – the inscription mentions about the visit of UmaDeva of Kanyakubja (Kanauj), son of Samanya Bhatta, to pay his devotion at the temple of Setabhadra (probably Svetabhadra).
2. There are two more pilgrim records, one is highly floriated and other very indistinct.