Bharmour Lakshana Devi Temple, Himachal Pradesh

Address

Bharmour, Bharmour Taluk,

Chamba District,

Himachal Pradesh 176315

Amman

Lakshana Devi

Introduction

Lakshana Devi Temple is dedicated to goddess Durga located in Bharmour Town in Bharmour Taluk in Chamba District in Himachal Pradesh, India. This temple is situated inside the Chaurasi Temple Complex and is considered as the oldest temple in the Chaurasi Temple Complex. The temple is considered as one the oldest surviving wooden temples in India. Bharmour is famously known as Machu Pichu of Himachal Pradesh. It is situated at an altitude of 2,100 metres in the Budhil valley. It is located between the Pir Panjal and Dhauladhar range with Ravi and Chenab rivers flowing on both sides. Bharmour is mostly inhabited by Gaddis and is popular as a base town for the Manimahesh Kailash pilgrimage.

Puranic Significance

The temple was built in 7 th century CE by King Meru Varman, the founder of Chamba State. An inscription of King Meru Varman can be seen engraved on the pedestal of bronze image of goddess Durga in its sanctum. The inscription records Meru Varman, three of his ancestors and the sculptor Gugga. Alexander Cunningham was the first archaeologist to visit the Lakshana Devi temple in 1839, who published his comparative analysis in Archaeological Survey of India report. Jean Vogel visited the Chamba state in the 1900s and wrote about the temple in his Antiquities of Chamba State in 1911. Bharmour was called as Bharmaur / Barmawar / Brahmor / Brahmpura during ancient times. King Meru Varman belonged to the ruling family of Ayodhya. He along with his son, Jaystambh invaded the upper mountainous region of Himalayas through the Ravi valley. He defeated the Ranas, local rulers of Bharmour region and settled in Bharmour. He made Bharmour as the capital of his newly founded Chamba state in 7 th century CE. The successive rulers ruled Chamba state from Bharmour till Sahil Varman. Sahil Varman conquered the lower Ravi valley and made Chamba as its new capital in 10th century CE.

Special Features

This Temple is considered as the oldest temple in the Chaurasi Temple Complex. The temple is facing towards north and shows Gupta era architecture. The temple is rectangular in plan and stands over a square wooden platform. The external wall of the temple was plastered with mud with current thickness of about 0.85 metres (2 ft 9 in).The entrance and the facade of the temple follows the late Gupta style, with three parallel panels surrounding the doorway flanked by river goddesses Ganga and Yamuna.

Each band is separated by a thin carving of a floral scroll carved on a convex wood surface. The outer wooden band consists of reliefs of single females standing in tribhanga posture and of amorous couples.The middle wooden band features Ganga standing on makara on left and Yamuna standing on tortoise on right, with their attendants. Above them are a series of Hindu deities, including Shiva with Nandi, Vishnu Vaikunthamurti, four armed Vishnu and Skanda. A goddess and god in this panel are not identifiable because their iconographic signs are too eroded.

The inner panel forms the door frame of the entrance. The inner panel is carved with natural motifs such as leaves and flowers, two peacocks with their beak joined, and a pair of amorous couples in a mithuna scene. There is a triangular pediment with carvings of Vishnu and Garuda above the temple entrance doorway. The triangular pediment includes niches containing amorous couples in a range of courtship and intimacy (kama and mithuna) scenes. The interior of the temple currently has a sandhara plan on architecture.

The temple has an ardha mandapa, a mukhya mandapa, a circumambulation path and a rectangular sanctum. The mukhya mandapa is supported by six square pillars. The roof is pitch gabled, topped with slates. The original roof extended up to the main entrance. A roof projection to act as a canopy was added by the Archaeological Survey of India to protect the Gupta era style wood carvings. The original plan of the temple might have been an open twin-tiered hansakara plan.

The snow and weather may have led the community to add structure to protect the temple, modifying it first into a nirandhara plan of Hindu temple architecture, and therefrom to the current sandhara plan.The sanctum enshrines a 7 th century brass idol of Durga, locally called Lakshana Devi. She is shown with four arms, holding a trishula in one hand, a sword in another and a bell in third. Her left front hand holds the tail of the shape shifting deceptive buffalo-demon (Mahishasura). Her right foot is on the head of the buffalo-demon, as she kills the evil demon.