The 12th-century old Janardhanagudi temple in Kerala’s Wayanad which is in a dilapidated state can now finally look for a facelift with the Government recently declaring it a national monument.
An artist’s delight, the temple’s huge stone pillars have nearly 300 intricate and elaborate carvings, sculpture of a fishing man, a primitive war scene featuring tuskers, a stone edict in old Kannada script, figures of Jain deities and sculptures of the ‘Dashavathara’. The temple was supposed to get the national tag after the nearby Vishnu temple (Vishnugudi), located just 700 meters away from it, got the same.
A senior official from the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) said that the ancient Janardhana and Vishnu temples at Punchavayal, near Panamaram, in Wayanad remain neglected in spite of an announcement by the then Union Minister V Narayanasamy Centre in 2009 that the two Jain temples would be declared national monuments.
These temples have been built according to the temple architecture of the Jain community, each with a ‘Garbhagudi’ (sanctum sanctorum), a ‘Navarangam’ (a place for sub deities), a ‘Kalasa Mandapam’ and a ‘Gopuram,’
However, while the ASI declared the Vishnugudi temple a national monument in September 2015, the nearby temple (Vishnugudi) has now finally come under the ASI umbrella.
The style of the sculptures and a stone edict on a wall of the Janardhana temple in old Kannada script show these temples may have been built during the reign of the Hoysala or the Vijayanagara dynasties in the Deccan plateau from the 12th to the 14th centuries, as per reports.
The temple stands as an example of craftsmanship of the sculptors then and it also houses stone edict with inscriptions in Tamil making mention of the donation of land to the temple and conduct of festivals throughout the year.
A detailed study of the temple could throw more light on the socio-economic and cultural aspects of the medieval Andhra before the Gajapatis of Odisha shot into limelight, say the reports.
The huge stone pillars were brought from Karnataka, said MR Raghava Varier, historian who studied the sculptures. The ‘Jaladhara’ inscriptions on a copper plate in a Jain temple at nearby Varadoor confirm it, Dr Varier said.