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PLACES
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KUMBHARI
Situated on the right bank of the Godavari, about six miles to the north-west of Kopargaon, Kumbhari village covers an area of 4.8 square miles and has a total population of 1,960 souls as per the Census of 1971. The village has a primary school. The Godavari forms the main source of water-supply to the village population.
The village has an old temple dedicated to Mahadeva. The temple is in the style of the Kokamthan temple and is quite beautiful but a little larger with twenty-one feet diameter. The outside of the temple is plain but massive. Except at the porches, the only ornaments are niches which once held images. The spire is gone but the cornices remain and show that it was of a modified Dravidian style. The interior of the temple is as rich as that of the Kokamthan temple. A curious ornament is a concave quarter sphere crossed by two inter-setting ribs. The wreathed snake plant also appears on the west porch. Other ornaments are the sun and a very long and narrow lozenge or lance head. The general ground plan is the same as that of the Kokamthan temple and here also two-pillared porches have domes in miniature of the pillarless hall dome. But here the transept containing a linga fills the west corner of the hall, and is uniform with the rest of the building and part of the original design. On a throne or asan in the chief shrine is an ornamental figure which is worshipped as Lakshmi. A pipe or mori in the east wall of the shrine is used to admit sun-light. It is at a higher level than the top of the linga and was probably made to drown the god with water in seasons of drought.
A small fair is held in the village in honour of god Mahadeva on Magha Vadya 14, i.e., Mahashivaratri (January-February). About 500 people mostly from the local population assemble at the time of the fair.
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