Ardhapur.....

 

Journey has to be started from the birthplace and Ardhapur is my native place and home town. Ardhapur is a village in Nanded District in Maharashtra State in India. The once unknown place is now known for rich crop “Bananas”. Here I grown up as a shy kid in a joint family .At the moment as life passed nobody from my family stay in Ardhapur. Though I am not much fascinated by simple and little rusty looks of this village but do have pleasant nostalgic feelings. There is nothing great in this village except few simple noticeable ancient things such as Khaperkheda Shiva and Keshavraj Vishnu temple. The name Ardhapur probably originated from Sanskrit word Aradhyapur. There is one stone inscription at Ardhapur which is lying in a neglected state near Shiva temple states that some dynasty of the Rashtrakutas was also ruling over Degloor..?? The keshavraj temple popularly known as Keshavraj Math is a abode of one of another appearance of lord Vishnu. Ardhapur may not be right weekend tourist spot but a small town surrounded by optimum green banana fields. It’s at all times a nice drive from Nanded to Ardhapur. The road is quite wide and pleasantly surrounded by green fields. Such all lesser known trivial things on this planet has always drawn my irresistible attention and interest.  As these are probably inhabited by some great people but now known for nothing. Sometimes little known things may have hidden meaning and treasures. It’s an attempt to show the beauty in these ignored places with a hope to find its roots.

Let’s first see this inscription on the stone. Who wrote it? I heard these are Modi scripts? Can anybody focus and let me know the fact.

To focus.. let’s see this more closely. Any clues....??

Well this is lying abandoned near this ancient Hemadpanthi Shiva temple. This was a unique structure in its old time formed by hemadpanthi construction style which included the large stones and lime. Now you can imagine this just from inside. Lord Shiva must have watched all this happening haplessly....as nobody from archaeological department turned to this spot.

Now come to the most beautiful idol of lord Vishnu, popularly known as Lord Keshavraj here.

Look at the deity carefully...watch the style of fingers. This is amazing. The idol is made from the Pashan ...the black stone. Who made it? Those all anonymous the great sculpturers....the nameless creative people were not less than poet. Making idol of this quality is not less than writing a beautiful poem on stone. See the marvel.....

And these scattered remains outside the keshavraj temple.

 I feel there must be a connection between the stone inscriptions...Lord Keshavraj and these scattered remains. Was there something big ancient temple in Ardhapur which somehow just became extinct? But why and how......the mystery must be resolved. Our Archaeological department owes the responsibility not only to preserve these remains but also throw light on this.