01The king and the year
An inscription over the inner doorway records that the temple was built in Shaka 982, 1060 CE, in the reign of the Shilahara king Mamvaniraja of the north Konkan. The temple is in the bhumija style, its shikhara made of rows of miniature spires. The upper part of the tower has fallen and the building stands roofless at the top. Steps lead down into a sanctum below the level of the mandapa, where the linga sits in a pit; a spring rises nearby. The walls carry Shiva in many forms, Durga, the Matrikas and dancers. The Waldhuni river runs beside it.
02Still in worship
Unlike many Shilahara temples of the Konkan coast that were pulled down in the centuries after, Ambreshwar survived in worship. On Mahashivaratri lakhs come from Thane and Mumbai and the fair spreads across the town. It is a protected monument and among the best-preserved examples of the bhumija style in Maharashtra. Henry Cousens of the Archaeological Survey drew and described it in his Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan, published in 1931, and his account is still the reference for its plan and sculpture.
The life of this place
- 1060 CE (Shaka 982)Built under the Shilahara king Mamvaniraja, as its inscription records.
Ambernath station on Mumbai’s Central line is about 2 km away. Go on a weekday morning to see the carving without crowds.
