PLACES

KHIDRAPUR

Khidrapur (Shirol T.; 16° 40' N; 74° 35' E; p. 1,409), lies oh the Krsna about twelve miles south-east of Shirol and eight miles to the south of Jaisingpur railway station on the Miraj-Kolhapur meter gauge line. The chief interest of the village is the temple of Kopesvar which lies in the centre of the village and is 103½' x 65' x 52' high to the top of the dome. The walls are made of black stone richly carved and the dome is covered with stucco. To the main building are attached two richly sculptured mandaps or vestibules. In the vestibule are two concentric squares the outer with twenty and the inner with twelve pillars all richly carved. In front of the temple is a round roofless structure called the Svarga Mandap (Heavenly Hall), on the plan of what would be a twenty-rayed star, only that the spaces for four of the rays are occupied by four entrances. On the outside on a low screen wall stand thirty-six short pillars, while inside is a circle of twelve columns. Further from the temple is a nagarkhana (drum-chamber). The outer walls of the shrine are broken at oblique angles as in the Nilanga Hemadpanti temple. By the south door of the temple is a Devgiri Yadav inscription of Sinhadev in Devnagari dated sak 1135 (A.D. 1213) granting the village of Khandalesvar in Miraj for, the worship of Kopesvar. Besides this, there is a Jain temple, which is much smaller, the vestibule being twenty-one feet square inside with a small antechamber and shrine, the outer wall of the shrine being in the star-shaped Hemadpanti plan. The building is of black stone and the pillars of the hall are richly carved. Land valued at a yearly assessment of Rs. 109-6-0 is granted rent-free to the priests of Kopesvar. Every year in Magh (January-February) a fair is held, attended by about 3,000 people.

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