Skip to main content

Jalsangvi: When carvings spoke and wrote

Jalsangvi: When carvings spoke and wrote

Overview: Northern Karnataka offers plenty to heritage lovers. I discovered this place while I was exploring the northernmost district of Karnataka. Around 50 kms from Bidar city is the small town of Jalsangvi, a popular town during the days of Kalyani Chalukyas in the 10th century.
The main attraction of the place is the Kalmeshwara temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva, right at the centre of the village.
The temple is built in Dravidian style, typical of Kalyani Chalukyas. The shikhara of the temple is missing, probably couldn't stand the test of times. But the eye catching feature of the temple is the carvings of the Shilabalikes, and the images of Vishnu and Shiva. One striking image, hard to be missed, is the carving of a lady, inscribing words in a stone tablet, in old Kannada, with praise for the Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI. This inscription dates back to 1110 AD. This kind of an image is a unique feature seen in very few monuments in the country. One more such image can be seen at a temple in Beed, Maharashtra.

Jalasangvi

Jalasangvi
Jalasangvi


Jalasangvi


Jalasangvi


How to Reach: The village lies just 2kms off Bidar-Humnabad highway, around 50kms from Bidar and around 10kms before reaching Humnabad. Frequent buses ply between Bidar and Humnabad, and the bus stop is at Jalsangvi cross. Nearest railhead is Bidar, and the nearest airport is Hyderabad.

Labels:

Comments

  1. Anju Shukla9 January 2018 at 14:51

    Equity benchmarks hit fresh record high again in opening on Tuesday, with the Sensex trading above 34,400 level. The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 78.32 points at 34,431.11 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 12.30 points at 10,635.90. About 1,003 shares advanced against 358 declining shares on the BSE.Free Commodity Tips

    ReplyDelete

Post a comment

Popular posts from this blog

The forgotten story of a migration: Nacharamma of South India

This is a story of Nacharamma (fictionised by me to some extent), which is not documented in any inscriptions or ancient texts, but has been told by the ancestors of the community, and also been researched by some historians like M Keshavaiah, Dr Pranarthiharan and a few others.

Overview: Around the early 17th century, the Pilgrims set to sail across the Atlantic to become the first settlers of America. Much before this, a small but no less interesting migration took place in the Southern India of a community called the 'Sankethis'.
It was the summer of 1420 CE, in a place called Sengottai, in Tamil Nadu, along the foothills of the Western Ghats bordering Kerala. The place was flourishing with knowledge of the Vedas where Agraharams were set up. One of the prominent communities of learned people was the Sankethi Iyer community, also known as Sangeethi, derived from the name of the place- Sengottai or Shankotta. Another theory says that they were  The group followed Adi Shankara…
6 comments
Read more

Clock Towers of Bangalore

Overview: In the middle of the 18th century, when home clocks and watches were not so common, there was the practice of having huge clocks on top of iconic buildings or religious places having visibility from all the corners. Clock towers were in fashion all across the globe in the 18th to 20th centuries, and some of them had bells as well, which used to ring at every hour. Bangalore too, has had its share of clock towers, though the city has never been known for its clock towers. The iconic Clock tower once stood at the Russell Market in Shivajinagar, which no longer stands today as it was brought down sometime during the middle of the 20th century.
A few standing clock towers can be seen at the City Market, Baldwin Boys school, Jayachamarajendra Polytechnic, Central College, Police training grounds, St John's Church, Corporation office and the newly constructed towers at South End circle and Omkar Hills. Most of these clocks have been provided by HMT.
21 comments
Read more

Know your neighbourhood-3: Madivala, Agara, Koramangala, Bellandur

Overview: Now famous for high rises, branded showrooms and startups, the villages of Madivala, Agara, Koramangala and Domlur are the villages which have seen an ancient past.

Madivala village was a flourishing agrahara under the Cholas and Hoysalas. There is an ancient Chola era temple, which was later expanded by the Hoysalas behind the road opposite to the Silk Board. This Someshwara temple is of high historical importance, with Tamil inscriptions all along the outer walls of the temple. The most important being the 1247 CE inscription which talks about the grants of some lands near the big tank of Vengalur (2nd inscription of the city name after the one in Begur). This inscription is by an official Pemmataiyar of Veppur (Begur) for the deity Sembeshwaram (Someshwara) at Tamaraikkirai (Tavarekere).

Agara is situated at the junction of the ORR and Sarjapura Road, and is in existance since the Gangas. A 870 CE Ganga inscription mentions about the fixing of sluices to 2 tanks (Agara Lake…
3 comments
Read more