Devrani and Jethani Temples, Tala

01Two queens’ temples

The names mean the younger and the elder sister-in-law, and the village says two queens of a king of the Sharabhapuriya line built them. The Devrani temple, of reddish sandstone, keeps its sanctum, a fine carved doorway and the plinth of its hall; the larger Jethani is a heap of fallen stone round a sanctum, with great guardian figures and elephants. Both face the river. Archaeologists date them to the 5th–6th century, when Dakshina Kosala was ruled from Sharabhapura and then Sirpur.

02The Rudra of Tala

During excavations in front of the Devrani temple, a standing image about seven feet high and some five tonnes in weight came out of the earth. Its every part is a creature: a chameleon for the nose, fish for the moustache, peacocks at the ears, a tortoise for the belly, crabs and lions elsewhere, and faces carved on the chest and thighs. Most scholars read it as Rudra-Shiva, Pashupati, lord of all creatures. It is kept on site in a locked room protected by the ASI.

The life of this place