The Sun temple, Martand, is commonly called the house of the Pandus. It is situated on the highest part of the lofty plateau called Karewa, overlooking the village of Mattan at its foot. It is located 8 km north of the district headquarters, Anantnag. Immediately behind the temple, which stands on the highest part of the plateau overlooking the beautiful plain below, rises up a mountain. This monumental Martanda temple was built by king Lalitaditya Muktapida of the Karkota dynasty.
The temple was constructed with neatly dressed stone slabs, arranged in horizontal courses with fine joints. Iron dowels and clamps were used in binding the stones. The principle of corbelling adhered to the topmost opening of the trefoil arch which was covered by a T’-shaped slab.
There is a controversy regarding the date of construction of this temple. It is usually called “the house of the Pandus” by the Brahmins and by the people, “Martanda”, or the Sun, to which the temple was dedicated. Cunningham attributed the central edifice to king Ranaditya and to his predecessor and the colonnade to Lalitaditya Muktapida. The two annexes on the north and south of the mandapa were built by Ranaditya and his queen Amritaprabha. According to him these three structures were built between AD 370 and 500. According to Stein, the Martanda temple was built along with its enclosure walls by Lalitaditya Muktapida. Stein’s view has been accepted practically by all scholars.
Kalhana refers to the Martanda in connection with the death of king Kalasa (AD 1063-89) of the 1st Lohara dynasty. This dissolute king, notorious for his wicked ways, once destroyed the copper image of Surya called Tamrasvamin. In his last being ill and filled with remorse for his past deeds, he went to the temple of Martanda where he offered a gold image of the ‘God’ for the prolongation of his life. It is also mentioned by Kalhana in connection with the robbery of temple treasures and divine image during the period of greedy Harsha (AD 1089-1101), son of Kalasa. The last notice of the Martanda temple made by him refers to his own time, during the reign of Jayasimha (AD 1128-55), when the place became the scene of a fierce battle between the royal troops under Sarjapala and the forces of Trilloka.
The image of Martanda continued to be under religious worship till about the end of the fourteenth century AD, when it was destroyed by Sultan Sikander, locally known as But-shikan (AD 1389-1413). Jonaraja, specifically, mentions the Martanda temple amongst the images broken by Sultan’s commander Suha Bhat, a convert. It seems that from this time the temple ceased to be a living temple forever.
The locality of the Martanda is also mentioned during the reign of Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin (AD 1420-70) whose irrigation works, in Martanda-Pattana, are narrated by Jonaraja. The place is also mentioned in the 4th chronicle (Chaturth Rajatarangini) by Pragyabhatta and Sinka in connection with the battle which was fought between the army of the Sultan and the troops of Said Khan of Kashgar. Sinka’s last reference to Martanda is in connection with the bounties lavished by Akbar during his first visit to the valley. Akbar visited Martanda and made gifts of cows, adorned with pearls and gold, to the Brahmins.
Previous work
According to Moorcroft, the two small wings flanking the main building (mandapa) were formerly connected with the centre by a colonnade. Cunningham presumed that the whole of the quadrangle was originally filled with water and a raised pathway made of slabs was negotiated with the temple. According to James Fergusson, the roof of the temple was made of wood. He did not support the idea of Cunningham that the quadrangle was originally filled with water.
R.C. Kak, the famous archaeologist of Kashmir and later on the Prime Minister of the state carried out the exposition of the enclosure. Among the antiquities, he mentioned only the large earthen jars which are now seen and maintained on the premises. Among the architectural features which were unearthed are two bases, ‘one within the other, on the east side of the temple’. This led him to presume that the inner bases, of an earlier temple, might have been built by Ranaditya.
Architecture
The main temple is built within a stone-paved courtyard surrounded by a peristyle of 79 cells. The cells are crowned by a gable on the top of a trefoil arch and separated from their neighbours by the engaged columns. The central shrine is raised on a high plinth. The plan of the temple consisted of an ardhamandapa (an open porch) reached by a broad flight of steps, a spacious full-fledged mandapa, an intermediate chamber called antarala and at last garbhagriha. The mandapa has two double-chambered side wings flanking the mandapa. The small shrines near the corners of the basement in the courtyard are later additions.
The temple is built on a high raised platform approached by a flight of steps, flanked by a sloping member on either side. The inner platform has three major projections. Its façade is relieved with a row of pilasters at regular intervals. The lowest portions of the wide space between the pilasters have been designed into oblong panels. Above these panels are found in high-relief miniature shrines with triangular roofs, of which the lower tier has survived at places. The recessed spaces between the pair of pilasters of the miniature shrines are fashioned into trefoil niches containing the image of a deity.
In the second phase, the platform projects forward. It has a moulded base and top.
The flight of steps provides access to the square mandapa through a spacious and lofty opening simulating a torana with a trefoil arch resting on two jambs or masonry pilasters. The sides of the jambs or pilasters are carved with a frieze of ganas. The northern and southern walls of the mandapa each provide a doorway leading to the platform outside in front of the two double-chambered wings. The opening from the mandapa to garbhagriha is in a form of a trefoil arch with its height equal to that of the front one.
The ceiling of the antarala is made in the form of a trefoil. The two side walls are boldly relieved, each with a miniature shrine having a double-tiered triangular roof. Within the trefoil niches, inside the antarala, on both sides of the opening, the figures of Ganga and Yamuna are carved in bold relief.
The extant walls of the oblong sanctum are plain except for the uppermost portion of the available course from where the beginning of the ceiling starts. Externally, the sanctum is tri-ratha on the plan. Vertically, it is divided into mouldings. The wide recess is boldly relieved with kinnaras, lions, elephants, pilasters and human figures.
Outwardly the Martanda gateway resembles the temple itself in the disposition of its parts and in the decoration of its pediments and pilasters. It is open to east and west and was divided into two distinct portions forming an inner and outer portico. Each flank of the gateway is profusely decorated internally and externally. Most of the pedimented niches contained single-standing figures of gods.
The spacious courtyard around the temple is paved with stones. With the passage of time, many stone slabs were removed by the people. In front of the staircase leading to the mandapa of the temple, a square tank was built which used to be fed through a water channel from a canal on the hillside behind the peristyle of the temple. The excess water was taken off through a stone drain made on the southwestern side of the temple.
There are several subsidiary shrines built around the temple. Two are on the eastern side and four are on the western side. Much of the architectural details have disappeared except the plinths, of which also several courses are missing.
The interesting feature noticed during the conservation of the monument is the occurrence of the massive storage jars embedded in the courtyard of the temple. These storage jars were used for storing grains. Some of the jars had an earthen lid. The bases of these jars were conical1.
1 R.C Agrawal, Kashmir and its Monumental Glory (New Delhi: Aryan Books International, 1998), 136-145.