हिंदीOn this day
Ruined

Avantiswami Temple

The Vishnu temple built by Avantivarman, founder of the Utpala dynasty, at his new town of Avantipura on the Jhelum. Its plinth, colonnade and carved gateway survive.

Built: 9th century, AvantivarmanWhere: Jammu and KashmirDeity: Bhagwan Vishnu33.92° N, 75.01° E
  1. c. 855 CE
  2. 1913 CE
Photo: Divya Gupta · CC BY-SA 3.0

01Two temples of a king

Kalhana tells that Avantivarman (r. 855–883) built the temple of Vishnu Avantisvamin while still a prince, and after taking the throne raised the temple of Shiva Avantishvara a little up the road. His reign was a time of peace and of public works; his engineer Suyya drained the marshes of the Jhelum and gave Kashmir new fields. Both temples follow the Martand plan: a shrine on a high plinth inside a walled court with a colonnade of cells.

02Buried and found

How the temples fell is not plainly recorded; Kashmir’s shrines suffered both from Sultan Sikandar’s campaign against temples and from earthquakes and floods. By the 19th century Avantisvamin lay buried under silt. Daya Ram Sahni of the Archaeological Survey excavated it in 1913, and the digging brought out the gateway reliefs of Vishnu with his consorts and of the king and queen in worship, which are among the finest Kashmiri carving to survive.

The life of this place

  1. c. 855 CEAvantivarman builds the Vishnu temple Avantisvamin (Rajatarangini V).
  2. 1913 CEDaya Ram Sahni excavates the buried temple for the ASI.
Visiting

On the Srinagar–Jammu highway at Avantipora, 30 km from Srinagar; ASI ticketed site.

Nearby

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The Age of Great Kingdoms

Payar Shiva Temple, Pulwama

A small complete Shiva temple of the old Kashmiri style in Payar village, built of a few huge blocks of stone, with a linga still in its sanctum. The Muslim families of the village have looked after it for generations.

Pandrethan Shiva Temple, SrinagarStanding
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Pandrethan Shiva Temple, Srinagar

A small, nearly complete Kashmiri stone temple standing in a spring-fed tank at Pandrethan, the site of Puranadhishthana, the old capital of Kashmir. It is one of the best-preserved temples of the valley.

Shankaracharya Temple, SrinagarStanding
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Shankaracharya Temple, Srinagar

A stone Shiva temple on the hill that rises about 300 metres above Srinagar and the Dal lake, linked by Kashmiri tradition with Adi Shankaracharya’s stay in the valley.

Srinagar (Pravarapura)Standing
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Srinagar (Pravarapura)

The city of Shri, Lakshmi, on the Vitasta. Kalhana’s Rajatarangini records its founding by Pravarasena II; it was the seat of Kashmir’s Hindu kings, then of sultans, Mughals, Afghans, Sikhs and the Dogras.