The Backpack Girl #4- Travelling To Pandava Temples Amidst the Mountains

Hey, friends! Today I'm going to share my another travel story with you. Today I'll take you on a trip to the Pandava temples with me which are a group of temples in the northern part of India.

The Pandava temples, as are locally known, are situated on a small hill and in between two rivulets called Birhma and Kiramchi. They are located at around 12 km north of the Udhampur - Lander road. These temples consist of five temples and two smaller shrines and are constructed in such a way that they all face towards East except the Temple 3.

These temples have beautiful architecture and consist of what is called a garbhagriha along with an elongated antarala which has a sukanasika decorated with kitasikhara and kalasa motif. It is clear that the design of these temples have been modified after they were initially built as there are pillared madapas in front of some of these temples.

It is actually Temple 3 that marks the beginning of architectural activity at Kiramchi as it is the oldest structure there which consists of a square sanctum on top of which lies a pyramidal roof. Temple 2 follows the construction of this temple as it appears to have been planned more elaborately and is also higher in elevation. Though it doesn’t have one right now, it is presumed that this temple had a pyramidal shaped roof too.

Then come the two small shrines on the premises that are now survived only with plinths. Temple 4 seems to mark the beginning of the actual developed architecture as it flaunts niches for parsvadevatas and door designs of antarala. What is interesting about this particular temple is that it stands on a brick structure that preceded it which dates back to post Gupta period. This was actually an accidental discovery.

Then comes the Temple number 5. The pillars in this temple have sculptures of river goddesses in it. Finally comes the turn of Temple 1 which is the most architecturally developed and elaborately designed and ornamented temple on the site. There are large mouldings, niches for ashtadikpalas and saptamatrikas in addition to parsvadevtas in the temple.

Over the years, during routine conservation and maintenance work, a lot of ancient artefacts have been found on the site which include ancient copper coins, earthen pots, querns, terracotta figurines, iron arrowheads, semi-precious stones and so on.

Here I clicked a close view of the carvings so that you can see how much effort The Pandavas put in to make this temple in one night.