Ancient Sculptures on the Rock Face

The base of the rocky island consists of piles of gigantic granite blocks, many of which are covered with sculptures in high relief. Over the years since originally sculpted, due to constant exposure to weather and river action, especially during the floods and the monsoons, some of them have almost weathered away. Though they have been briefly described by several scholars including R L Mitra, Cunningham, S Sahai, Asher, R C P Singh and others, however upon reading the accounts, I could gather that a holistic description from both iconographical and historical perspectives probably still remains incomplete. As one ascends the hill island, atop which lies the imposing shrine of Ajgaibinath, one comes across several small temple like enclosures between sculpted rock-boulders constructed using different building materials, which are mostly seen as redesigned with concrete and even coated with modern paint, thereby often destroying the ancient character.

As I started exploring the sculptures on the rock boulder facing the river, above which a part of the modern temple has been constructed, the damage caused from a perennial discharge of waters from within the temple apart from that due to a compilation of garbage to the ancient sculptures, was quite noticeable. However, even despite the ongoing damage, the existing specimens still did retain much of their former charm which was felt more at the time when the golden rays of the sun seemed to be infusing radiance, as seen in the photograph taken just before sunset. On a cursory look, the multitude of sculptures represented various deities engaged in different emotions varying from hunting to love and worship, and whether all these were sculpted together or at different points of time and whether they were originally intended to together convey any particular episode in mythology was not clear from their abrupt placement and even repetition of images of the same deities at several places. They represent mostly Hindu deities, both Saiva and Vaishnava, and some also carry inscriptions.

To be continued....