PLACES

DHOTRA NAIK

Dhotra Naik (Chikhli T., p. 1303): Dhotra Naik is a village located 18 miles to the south of Chikhli, the tahsil headquarters. During the reign of the Bhosales of Nagpur, many Maratha [Varhadcha Itihas—Yadav Madhav Kale, 1924.] families from the village left the place, went to Nagpur and rose to prominence under the Bhosales.

The villlage has three old temples. The one about a quarter of a mile south of the village, in the fields, is the most important. It is a temple of Shiva and faces the east. It consists of a shrine and closed mandapa (canopy) and has but one entrance on the east. Upon the south and north sides of the mandapa where other temples would have two other entrances with their porches, there arc here two deep recesses off the mandapa like shallow shrines without door-ways. Four plain pillars support the ceiling of the mandapa. The pilasters are built in sections with the courses of the wall masonry and are not as in earlier work single shafts built into and against the wall; this is a sign of late work. The bracket capitals of the pillars have the cobra ornament upon them. In the shrine is a linga. The dedicatory blocks over the door-ways have been left plain, no image having been carved upon them. The exterior of the temple is fully moulded in ornamental bands, but there are no images whatever, not even the usual three niches round the walls of the shrine. There seems little doubt that these temples, more or less devoid of figure sculpture upon the exterior, represent the true Hemadpanti class if we believe that Hemadpant or Hemadri, minister to the Yadav kings of Devagiri, set a particular style and built a good deal himself. In this temple bands of chequered squares are used as ornament, i.e., the surface of the stone is marked out into niche squares and every alternate one is sunk. This was a favourite and often characteristic ornament in every early temples such as those of the Gupta period. This building is conserved by Government. On the west of the village is another old temple, but it is very much dilapidated. It consists of a shrine and mandapa with a porch and entrance on the east. The whole of the mandapa has fallen with the roofing of the porch. The exterior was severely plain. On the north-west of the village is another old ruined shrine with a closed mandapa, the outer casing of the walls having gone. The shrine is empty. The temple faces, the east. In a row over the shrine door-way are nine faces, the third from each end having carved tusks at the corners of the mouth; otherwise the faces are alike. These temples represent the true Hemadpanti class.

The view that the temple was built some time during the age of the Guptas is not correct. It is now presumed that the temple was constructed during the period of the Later Chalukyas [Varhadcha Itihas—Yadav Madhav Kale, 1924, p. 417.].

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