Parihaspura is situated on a Karewa plateau at a distance of 28 km from Srinagar on the Srinagar-Baramulla highway. The site of Parihaspura was chosen by king Lalitaditya for founding his capital, embellishing Parihaspura with a group of temples, chaityas and monasteries. The plateau is studded with heaps of ruins, which, after identification were first put to systematic exposition by Daya Ram Sahni in 1914-15. During the course of this exposition, Sahni salvaged a good number of monolithic sculptures and also traced out the plans of the structures. Amongst all the structures exposed, the most important were a stupa, a monastery and a chaitya.
The basement of the stupa consists of a double platform providing passage, one above the other for circumambulation around the stupa. The upper platform is 3.65 m high and the lower is 2.65m. These platforms are grim and stark in character and built with cyclopean blocks of stones. The only decorated elements apparently visible are simple bands over the stones and the mouldings. The base of the stupa is square in plan and measures 74.50 x 74.50 m including projections on each side.
The stairways which are on the cardinal points are placed in the middle of the projections. Much of these steps have completely withered away but the side walls are fairly intact. The front of each of these flank walls is occupied by a square panel containing a figure of an Atlantes seated cross-legged and ornamented with garlands and jewellery. The upper stairs are almost missing and even the flank walls have not survived in many places. The drum of the stupa must have been ornamented with niches containing standing and seated figures of Buddha and Bodhisattvas. The Buddha figures found during the clearance of fallen parts of the stupa in 1988-89, indicated a late Gupta tradition of Sarnath. It appeared that the entire structure was surrounded by an enclosure wall which, according to Sahni, must have been from north to south 400 ft (120 m) and east to west 300 ft (90m).
By the side of the stupa, the other structure built during Lalitaditya’s time is a square structure which has been termed a Buddhist monastery. Much of the details of the structure have disappeared and in many places, it is difficult to reconstruct even its plan. On the basis of the traces available at the site, it appeared to be a quadrangle with an open courtyard in the middle surrounded by cells on all sides. The cells were preceded by verandahs supported by columns. However, none of the columns have survived and the number of cells which are 26 in number, only the foundations remain. The basement of this monastery is 3.05 m high and it faces east. The central cell on the east is somewhat larger than the others. The inner courtyard was probably paved with stone slabs, the traces of which however could not be found in our excavations. But Daya Ram Sahni claims to have seen such slabs when he exposed the structures in 1914-15. The rain and used water were carried away by two stone-built drains which pass through the cells. A stone trough cut into a single block of stone is embedded in the courtyard, which, it appears, was intended for the storage of water. For bringing water to the monastery, probably, a covered aqueduct was used through cell no.17.
The third structure built at Parihaspura is a chaitya temple. It is a square chamber on a raised plinth and measures 8.23 x 8.23 m. It is surrounded by a circumambulatory passage and supported at the corners by a set of four stone columns. Today, only the bases of these columns have survived and from the remnants of the architectural members and the position of the pillar bases, it appeared that the roof of the chaitya was of pyramidical type. The plinth of the chaitya is built with massive stones and many of the fine architectural fragments of the plinth have also disappeared leaving behind a disjointed structure. It appears that the whole chaitya was conceived on a huge plinth with massive pillars and a pyramidal roof.
Opposite to the Buddhist remains on the south-western side of the extension of the same Karewa, ruins of two massive temples were also noticed during one of the explorations. This site of the temples is known by the name of Yakhmanpuraa due to the existence of the village of the same name. The ruins of both temples are scattered on the east and northern sides of the Karewa extension. In the eastern ruins, one can see regular traces of peristyle and a huge carved stone block depicting Kirtimukhas and lotus petals. From the surface of the ruins, one can visualise that the temple sanctum must have been on the east and also, probably, facing east. This ruined structure can be identified with the Parihaskeshava temple of Rajatarangini referred to by Kalhana.
Besides, the temples of Mahavaraha and Govardhandhara were also built at Parihaspura but the remains of these two could not be located in in situ position.
Lalitadiya’s minister Mitrasarman also erected a huge Shivalinga. This Shivalinga was identified with the Shivalinga measuring 1.37 m with a diameter of 0.91 m found to the southwest of Parihaskeshava temple and near a modern water reservoir1.
1 R.C Agrawal, Kashmir and its Monumental Glory (New Delhi: Aryan Books International, 1998), 121-126.