Masroor Temples – India’s Marvelous Ancient Cave Temples

A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - Very little is known about when, how, and by whom the Masroor temples were constructed.

One thing we must say: they were created by masters, the craftsmen of the 7^th -8^th century with unbelievable skills. Sophisticated carvings and gorgeously ornamented sculptures richly decorate ancient cave temples and make them the only shrines of their kind in North of India.

Front view of the Masroor Temples. Credit: Wsphotography - CC BY-SA 4.0

Masroor Monolithic Rock-cut temples represent a very beautiful work of the ancient people of India. Dating back to the 8^th century, this heritage site is located about 40 km from Kangra on the Nagrota Suriyan Link road, in rural Himachal Pradesh.

The entire complex is composed of 15 sikhara temples and a rectangular pool of water. ‘Shikhara’ (Sikhara) is a Sanskrit word, which means "mountain peak" and refers to the rising tower in the Hindu temple architecture of North India.

Masroor Temples are constructed on top of a 2500 feet high hillock. All the temples are in continuity and built around a central shrine, which dominates the center and has three stone images of Ram, Laxman, and Sita - deities were decorated with colored.

It wasn’t easy to overcome the obvious limitations of the existing, very tough sandstone rocks and in fact, make it without the modern technology, we possess today.

There are many legends that associate Masroor Temples with Pandavs, who according to the Mahabharata, are the five acknowledged sons of Pandu (Sanskrit: yellowish, whitish, pale). Of all Pandavas, perhaps Arjuna ( "of stainless deeds") is the most famous.

Monolithic Rock Cut Masroor Temples. Credit: Kartik Gupta - CC BY-SA 3.0

According to the local tradition, the Pandavas spent a long period of time in this temple complex during their exile. One story tells about the existence of an incomplete staircase which is located inside the temple. The staircase was constructed by the Pandavas to reach heaven. They took an oath to finish the construction work by the same day morning. However, listening to the king of the Gods, Indra was not satisfied with their ambitious decision; he did not want to make the way to heaven easily accessible. So he disguised himself in the form of a crow and crowed loudly before the early dawn. As a result, the Pandavas, could not complete the staircase.

However, officially, the masterwork of the Masroor Temples is dated to 8^th/9^th century, based on the architecture and the existing sculptures.

Masroor Temples have beautiful carvings on the walls. Credit: Dhruvaeng - CC BY-SA 4.0

The complex stood long intact through the centuries but in 1905, a devastating earthquake seriously damaged pillars, which developed cracks and several sikharas, fell down. Fortunately, the main Sikhara still stands and is home to black-stone idols of Ram, Sita, and Laxman.

Interestingly, there have been also preserved the figures of Shiva in the doorway of the main shrine.

It strongly indicates that this temple was originally dedicated to Lord Shiva.

Written by – A. Sutherland  - AncientPages.com Senior Staff Writer

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