Bhojpur Temple

Bhojpur Temple

Introduction:

The Bhojeshwar Temple is an incomplete Hindu temple in Bhojpur village of Madhya Pradesh, India. Dedicated to Shiva, it houses a 7.5 feet (2.3 m) high lingam in its sanctum.
The temple's construction is believed to have started in the 11th century, during the reign of the Paramara king Bhoja. The construction was abandoned for unknown reasons, with the architectural plans engraved on the surrounding rocks. The unfinished materials abandoned at the site, the architectural drawings carved on the rocks, and the mason's marks have helped scholars understand the temple construction techniques of 11th-century India. The temple has been designated as a Monument of National Importance by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

History:

The Bhojpur temple is believed to have been constructed by the 11th-century Paramara king Bhoja. Tradition also attributes to him the establishment of Bhojpur and the construction of now-breached dams in the area.Because the temple was never completed, it lacks a dedicatory inscription. However, the name of the area ("Bhojpur") corroborates its association with Bhoja.
This belief is further supported by the site's sculptures, which can be dated to the 11th century with certainty. A Jain temple in Bhojpur, which shares the same sets of mason's marks with the Shiva temple, has an inscription explicitly dated to 1035 CE. Besides several literary works, historical evidence confirms that Bhoja's reign included the year 1035 CE: the Modasa copper plates (1010-11 CE) were issued by Bhoja; and the Chintamani-Sarnika (1055 CE) was composed by his court poet Dasabala. Moreover, the area around the temple once featured three dams and a reservoir. The construction of such a large Shiva temple, dams and reservoir could have only been undertaken by a powerful ruler. All this evidence appears to confirm the traditional belief that the temple was commissioned by Bhoja. Archaeology professor Kirit Mankodi dates the temple to the later part of Bhoja's reign, around mid-11th century.
The Udaipur Prashasti inscription of the later Paramara rulers states that Bhoja "covered the earth with temples" dedicated to the various aspects of Shiva, including Kedareshvara, Rameshwara, Somanatha, Kala, and Rudra. Tradition also attributes the construction of a Saraswati temple to him (see Bhoj Shala). The Jain writer Merutunga, in his Prabandha-Chintamani, states that Bhoja constructed 104 temples in his capital city of Dhara alone. However, the Bhojpur temple is the only surviving shrine that can be attributed to Bhoja with some certainty.
According to a legend in Merutunga's Prabandha-Chintamani, when Bhoja visited Srimala, he told the poet Magha about the "Bhojasvāmin" temple that he was about to build, and then left for Malwa (the region in which Bhojpur is located).However, Magha (c. 7th century) was not a contemporary of Bhoja, and therefore, the legend is anachronistic^.
The temple originally stood on the banks of a reservoir 18.5 long and 7.5 miles wide.This reservoir was formed through construction of 3 earth-and-stone dams during Bhoja's reign. The first dam, built on Betwa River, trapped the river waters in a depression surrounded by hills. A second dam was constructed in a gap between the hills, near present-day Mendua village. A third dam, located in present-day Bhopal, diverted more water from the smaller Kaliasot river into the Betwa dam reservoir. This man-made reservoir existed until 15th century, when Hoshang Shah emptied the lake by breaching two of the dams.

How To Reach:
Its about 30KM Far From Bhopal. One Can Reach Here by Booking a Cab from Bhopal.