While visiting the temple, I was really curious about the name Mohiniraj! Mohini is a female name and Raj is the suffix generally attached to male names. How come these two words came together? With this burning curiosity in my mind, I went to visit Mohiniraj Temple. Mohiniraj Temple is situated at Nevasa in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra state of India.
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| Mohiniraj Temple Nevasa |
Mention of this city can be found in the famous book Dnyaneshwari written by Saint Dnyaneshwar.
This book is a commentary on Bhagavadgeeta and is written in 13th century.This book is of utmost cultural and religious importance in Maharashtra as well as for all the Marathi speaking community in the world. It's written in Dnyaneshwari "tribhvanaikpavitra anadipanchakroshkshetra jeth jagache jeewansutra Shrimahalaya ase" which means that," surrounding area of this place, Shrimahalaya is the most sacred place in the world and is the lifeline of the world. Dnyaneshwari was written in Nevasa.
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| Mention Of Nevasa in Dnyaneshwari |
Ancient names of Nevasa were Nidhiniwas and ShriMahalaya. Mentions of this city in ancient literature led archaeologists to study the excavations in this area. The excavations were successful and they found many stone age tools in this area near Nevasa. Some research papers on these excavations are published and we can read them.
Though the story about the temple is quite ancient, the current Mohiniraj Temple is quite new. This was constructed in the year 1773, so this is only 250 years old temple!
It is said that, at the time of Samudra Manthan- churning of the ocean, nectar and alcohol came out with many more articles, as a result of churning. It had to be distributed in gods and demons. The form of Mohini, a very beautiful and enchanting lady, was taken to distribute all the nectar to gods which will make them immortal and alcohol to the demons. Mohini did her job perfectly! Gods received all the nectar and demons received only alcohol!
Here in this temple, the idol is in Ardhnarinateshwar form, i.e. in the form of Vishnu as well as Mohini. Left half of the idol is in Mohini form and right half is in Vishnu form. It is said that this is the only temple having idol in this form. Thus came the name Mohiniraj i.e. Mohini and Vishnu.
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| Mohiniraj |
Though Shiv and Parvati can be seen in many temples in the form of Ardhnarinateshwar, Vishnu and Mohini appearing as Ardhnarinateshwar is very rare.
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| Sanctum Sanctorum of the Mohiniraj Temple |
The smaller idol of Mohiniraj is the Puja idol and abhishek is performed on that idol. On the right side the third idol is Lakshmi, the goddess idol. Being an Ardhnarinateshwar while performing the rituals, the devotees offer Saree as well as Dhoti i.e. female as well as male dresses to the god.
The temple is beautifully built in the thirteenth century Hemadpanti Style of architecture. This style is named after Hemadpant, a prime minister of Yadavas. Though the newly restored part of the temple, may not be built in Hemandpanti style of architecture.
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| Entrance Of the temple. |
On both sides of the entrance we can see beautiful Dwarpals (- security guard) sculptures. These guards are having weapons in their hands but even a bird with them! The temple is carved with exquisite motifs. The interesting part is that there are many different styles of motifs on the facades of the temple.
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| Motifs on the facade |
There are lotus, Flower creepers, Elephants on the facade. On the upper part gallery we can see the leaves motif.
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| Main entrance |
The main entrance is having a thick metal door. We can see chain motif, creeper and a flower in the circle motif near the entrance. In this photograph you can have a closer look at the bird in Dwarpal's hand. Most probably it is Hamsa.
You have to climb 3 to 4 steps till this door. From the door it is another set of steps,the first step of which is really high.
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| Different carving motifs |
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| Another view of the exterior |
This is another view of the exterior. In this photograph, you can see the whitish round structure at the back side. It is roof of the sabhagruh - the meeting place, part of the temple. Usually this roof is also decorated, but here in Mohiniraj Temple there are no carvings on the exterior part of the roof of Sabhagruh, only a small Shikhara - Kalas part is present. So it seems that the original roof got destructed due to some known or unknown reasons and this is the restored roof, different from original Hemadpanti style of architecture.
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| Gallery view |
There is an interesting window type gallery on the upper part of Shikhar of Garbhagruh, the Sanctum. In ancient times, may be these window galleries had beautifully carved figurines in them.
As we enter the temple, the Sabhagruh or meeting place is of horizontal rectangle shape and the sanctum is on left side. This is very unusual. Usually as we enter the temple and cross the Sabhagruh, the Sanctum is in the front and facing us. So this made me think that the door on the right hand side, which is currently closed and a wall is built there, must be the main entrance in older times. If we enter from that entrance on west side, the sanctum will come in front of us. When inquired about this at frequent visitors and devotees of Mohiniraj Temple, came to know, that indeed before some six or seven decades, there was a door on west side!
As we enter the temple we come to a very beautifully carved Sabhgruh. Even the roof is well decorated with Ras krida ( dance) images and Krishna. The dancing ladies - Gopis and Krishna images are intricately carved with perfect proportions of human body.
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| The roof of the Sabhagruh |
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| Carvings! |
You can see the beautiful motifs of chain with bell, lotus flowers and leaves. Pillars are having some celestial figures who are holding the roof on their back. The shapes of the pillars has some interesting variations.
The Mohiniraj mandir is right in the middle of the city, surrounded by residential area and roads with heavy traffic. This photo with the car will tell you about the height of the temple! The temple is nearly 75 feet in height.
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| Mohiniraj Mandir |
The Mohiniraj Temple is a unique temple with Vishnu and Mohini in the same idol. We know about the Matrukas. Vaishnavi is one of them. She has all the weapons of Vishnu but she is a female figure. This half male and half female figure is really unique.
Mohiniraj surely denotes male female complimenting nature, unity and equality in the universe.
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