Siddheshwar Temple, Toke - A Bael leaf blooming on Pravara Sangam.

 

Panel on the wall

Siddheshwar Temple, Toke seems like a Bael leaf in stone, blooming on the confluence of Amrutwahini Pravara and Dakshinganga Godavari. There are many temples like Siddheshwar, Ghateshwar, Mukteshwar, Rameshwar and Sangameshwar which are situated on this confluence, known as Parvara Sangam. Siddheshwar is the most significant and beautiful temple from the temple group. 

This is situated in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra State in India. While going from Ahmednagar to Aurangabad, you can see this temple on the banks of the river on left hand side. Let me tell you that for visiting the world famous Ajanata and Ellora caves, you have to go to Aurangabad.

The area around the Siddheshwar Temple looks like this! This photo was taken in September 2019. The rainy season was in its last leg and the rivers were having lots of water in them. 

Area near the Temple

This Siddheshwar Temple complex is comparatively a new temple complex built in 18th century, the Peshawa period. There is a small fortress like wall around the temple. The main temple is Shiva Temple. 

Birds Eye view of the Shiv Temple 
 📷commons.wikimedia.org

Nandi, being the vehicle of Shiva, is always present in front of Shiva temple, facing the sanctum. You can see here, in Siddheshwar Temple, one of the most beautifully decorated Nandis. The carving of the bell strings, Ghungaroo strings, different designs of chains on them make the Nandi very lively. Even you can see the cloth which is draped on his back. 

Decorated Nandi

 Nandi is always facing the sanctum telling the devotees to focus on Parameshwara- god. 

After we admire the beautiful carvings on Nandi, we come across the half outer wall of the Shiv Temple. It has intricate carving on it. Ramayana and Mahabharata scenes as well various other beautiful images are carved on the four walls of this temple. 

On one of the panels, we can see a king coming with a procession to the temple. It is said that it is the procession Nanasaheb Peshawa coming to Siddheshwar Temple. 

Dwarpal and Beautiful carvings on the wall. 

Ram - Ravan Yudha

In this panel, we can see the scene of Ram- Ravan Yuddha. Ravan is with ten heads, twenty hands and Ram and Lakshman are fighting with him. Both of them are having bows ready to shoot arrows. See the difference in their sizes! Ravana being an asur, a demon, he is shown huge in size here and Ram and Lakshman being human beings, they are shown of normal sizes. We can see Hanuman sitting on the tree.

Hanuman And Dronagiri
📷Jayant Abhyankar

Here we can see Hanuman bringing Dronagiri Parvat with the medicines for Ram and Lakshman. I don't know what is the storage chest doing there! May be it's for storing weapons. We can't miss the design carved on the chest. 

Krishna /Mahabharat
📷Jayant Abhyankar 

Most probably, this scene is showing Krishna on the tree. He has taken clothes of Gopis with him and the Gopis are preying him to give back their clothes. 

Sukeshini- A beautiful lady with long hair
📷Jayant Abhyankar

A woman with long hair is trying to arrange her hair. The bird down there thinks that her hair are the stems of Lotus flowers and so the bird is holding her hair in it's mouth!! The lady is trying to take out the strands from the bird's mouth. See the jewelry designs, surely long earrings were in fashion at that time! 

Bhim and Hanuman

This is a scene from Mahabharat. When Bhim started thinking that he was the most powerful person on this earth and started boasting about it, Hanuman took the form of an old man and told Bhim to lift his tail. Bhim couldn't lift the tail and realized that this old man must be Hanuman. 

A lady tying Ghungaroo String

Sabhagruh- Meeting place in the Shiv Temple

When we go inside, the Sabhagruh is having a dome shaped roof. Though there are not many carvings on it, we can see the deities of all directions. You can see a tortoise at the entrance, which is integral part of Hindu temples. Tortoise is a symbol of detachment, perseverance, knowledge and many other things.

Siddheshwar Mahadev

When we come out of the Shiv Temple, we can see another temple with very interesting pattern. It is star shaped with five angles. It is a Devi temple and we can see figures of Devis like Matrukas carved on the outside walls of the temple. 

Star shaped devi Temple. 

 Different forms of Devi are carved on the exterior of the temple. 

Devi
📷Jayant Abhyankar

The Devi (goddess) is having four hands. Right back hand is having a weapon. We can see a huge fruit in her left back hand. Most probably it's name is Mahalung. In left front hand is a jar named as Kamandalu to keep water in it. I couldn't understand what is there in her right front hand. If you know, please write in the comment box. 

Devi
📷Jayant Abhyankar
 

This Devi is also having four hands. She is having weapons named Trishul and Sword in her right hand. In her back left hand, she is having a musical instrument called Damaru. I Couldn't figure out what she is having in her left front hand. It can be a leaf or it can only be a Varad Mudra posture of hand. 

Devi
📷Jayant Abhyankar

She is having Ankush, Damaru, Sword in her hands. The remaining fourth hand is in Varad mudra posture. She is having her vehicle, Nandi with her. So I think, she must be Maheshwari. 

Devi
📷Jayant Abhyankar

This goddess is having a pitcher, a lotus, a sword and a bowl in her hands. She is shown with tiger as her vehicle. But the design carved on the neck of the animal makes me think that it can be mane and so the animal can be a lion. 

Devi inside the temple. 

The third temple in this complex is Vishnu temple. Vishnu's vehicle Garuda is present in front of the temple. 

Garuda

Another view of the temple complex and Garud

Vishnu Mandir 

Beautiful arches of Vishnu Mandir. 

We have seen the photograph of Garuda in front of Vishnu mandir. On it's back side Hanuman is there, which can be seen in the above photograph. 

Beautifully carved arches in the temple complex.

Beautiful temple complex interior area. 

These temples and the carvings on them are very beautiful. They are important from the archaeological point of view as well as from historical point of view. There are very few temples from 18 the century which are having so many figures carved on them. 

There are ghats - steps going to river outside the temple. There is a big bell like the bell in the Menawali temple. But we couldn't see the ghat as well as the bell. 

I still keep on wondering, why the three temples are situated in cramped manner in a fortress like setting? Though the campus is big by today's standards, it is a bit cramped. Specially the beautiful star shaped Devi Mandir would have looked more beautiful, if it had some open space in the surroundings.

The second floor viewing gallery is very unusual for temples and offers beautiful view of the rivers, ghats and trees. You can see the gallery in one of the photos. 

The Dnyaneshwar Mandir, Mohiniraj Mandir, Devgad Datt Sansthan are very nearby, within approximately 15 kms from Siddheshwar Mandir, Toka. More people should visit these places and experience the architectural as well as spiritual wonders. Students of Iconography will surely find many carvings waiting for them to get interpreted. 

I had said in the starting that Siddheshwar Temple, Toke seems like a Bael leaf in stone, blooming on the confluence of Amrutwahini Pravara and Dakshinganga Godavari. Why Bael leaf? Like a bael leaf has three leaflets attached, here also there are three temples in one complex. Rather when we look at the beautiful carvings, it looks like a flower of three petals blooming from water!!

#Dronagiri #PeshaveEraTemple #EighteenthCenturyCarvings #TemplesOnConfluence #MaharashtraTempleArchitecture