PLACES

BAHULE

Bahule (Patan T; 17° 15' N; 74° 00' E; RS Karad 14 m., NE; p. 1,852) lying at a distance of three miles from Nisare on the Karad-Ciplun road and situated close under the north slope of the Mala-Tambve spur three miles south of Mandrul and ten miles east-south-east of Patan contains a curious little Hemadpanti temple. The temple is still in good repair. It stands in the middle of a paved court (78' X 64') sunk four feet in the ground and surrounded by a dense growth of fine old pimpal trees. The temple faces east and consists of an image-chamber with stone walls set in. mortar (14' 4" X 18' 8") and surmounted by a shikhar op spire twenty-nine feet high from the ground. This spire was built about two centuries ago by Parashuram Narayan Angal, a rich banker of Nigadi who built a temple at Patesvar near Satara and at many other places in the district. The walls are 2' 8" thick and the inner space about eight feet square. In the centre is a ling of Bahulesvar Mahadev in a case or shalunkha fronting north and over a spring the water of which drains through a channel shaped like a cow's head into a stone basin formed on the north side in the court pavement. In the north-west and south-east corners are two small basins sunk in the floor and there are two niches one in the south and one in the north wall. The entrance to the image-chamber is through a vestibule (7' 4" X 18' 10") by a quadrangular doorway two feet broad by 4' 9" high. The vestibule has two solid niches in the north and south walls. The hall or mandap which is really the only ancient part of the temple is fourteen feet long, east to west and 18' 10" broad, north to south. It is, as usual, open on all four sides, supported by twelve pillars in four rows of four each 4' 6" apart, north to south. The four west pillars are embedded in the modern vestibule wall; of the rest, the four middle, form a square in the centre of which is a small stone bull or Nandi, and the remaining four are partly embedded in a stone bench 2' 8" wide, the end of which lies vertically under the eaves, which are broad and turned up at the end. The roof 7' 8" high from within was originally flat but has been put on a slope with brick and cemented by a modern hand. Behind the bench rises a back about four feet high from the ground. The pillars are all of one pattern. The shafts are of a single block cut in rectangular, octagonal and cylindrical concentric divisions but without any carving or ornament. The stone used throughout the mandap is in large blocks or slabs and at the roof is joined to the pillars by brackets branching in four directions. Each compartment has a ceiling in the lozenge pattern, formed by placing slabs diagonally to each other without mortar. About nine feet east of the temple is a bathing tank (15' 11" X 19') fed from a spring in the south-east corner of the court and joined with it by a drain. The water of the tank is reached by steps. The officiating temple priests were some Brahmans inhabiting the neighbouring village of Garavde. The temple is connected with Bahule half a mile off by a causeway. The Garavde village lying close by the temple enjoys an excellent supply of spring water which is brought to the village through pipes. Few villages in the district have such a pure and incorruptible supply of water. Fairs in honour of Bahulesvar are held on the Mahashivratra or Great Night of Shiv in February-March and the Mondays of Shravan or July-August and attended by about three to five thousand people. The ling is said to have been set up by a cowherd to whom the God appeared and showed the spring of milk.

TOP