Culture Embeded In Stone: Maheshpur

Archaeological explorations # 1

Stories of civilizations 

have always their roots 

in fertile plains of some river !!

                                Rihand River (also referred to as Rend, Rer, Rehar, Renu or Renuka) (Hindi: रिहन्द नदी) is a tributary of the Son River and flows through the Indian states of Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh.

The Rihand rises from Matiranga hills, in the region south west of the Mainpat plateau, which is about 2,100 meters above mean sea level. The river flows north roughly through the central part of Surguja district for 160 kilometres (99 mi). The Rihand and its tributaries form a fertile plain in the central part of the district stretching from around Ambikapur to Lakhanpur and Pratappur. Thereafter, it flows north into Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh via Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh, where it is called Rhed and finally joins the Son.

 It's principal tributaries in Surguja district are the Mahan, the Morana (Morni), the Geur, the Gagar, the Gobri, the Piparkachar, the Ramdia and the Galphulla. Many seasonal and perennial rivers join the Rihand reservoir such as the Kanchan, the Mayar and the Azir of Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh.

Rihand river as in Northern Province of India with a dam on it and terminating into Son river there in.

Rihand river as in northern parts of Chhattisgarh state of India, where it originates from.

^{Rivers have made the best bed for sprouting of human civilizations, ever since in history:}

The Rihand and it's tributaries form a fertile plain  in the central district stretching  around Ambikapur to Lakhanpur and Pratappur. It's principal tributaries are the Mahan ,the Morana(Morni) ,the Geur ,the Gagar ,the Gobri ,the Piparkachar , the Ramdia and Galphulla .

 The valley of this river must have been a place of seers, farmers, tradesmen of the great repute and satisfaction with peace ending for the longer period. So indicates the mythology in the name of the river, which says Renu name refers the seer Yamdagni's wife and Purushottam's (a legend of Hindu mythological history) mother Renuka Devi.

Excavations: Just at the bank of this river, 8 kilometers from Udaipur on Kedma road is the place 'Maheshpur' where ruined temples and numerous (about 200) images have been found including a stone inscription ( शिलालेख ) of 18 sentences.
Villagers called this place as 'Nishan Pakhna Teela' (means Heaps of Stony Symbols) as stony images were self visible on the open ground even without excavations .

The time period: These are the 8th century temple ruins. Shiva temples, ruins/images are so much in number that this place bears it's name 'Maheshpur' meaning the place of Shiva'.

stony structures entangled in roots of giant trees suggest that they must have remained deserted for a very long period of time for one or more reasons in their history of existence

Shiva worshiping structures are so much in number suggesting that this was a region of Gond empire. Gond were the tribal caste of Dravids.

Other idols and structures: Narsingh, Ganga, Kuber, Saraswati are the other deities whose idols were found at this site.

Laxmangarh is another near by place where fort ruins, beautiful rock arts, 6th century idols of Lotus, Laxmi were found in excavations.

Cultural phylogeny:

# the place must have been a center of 'Shaiv' culture ( worshiper of lord 'Shiva').
# the place must have been dominated by the 'Gond' (Gondwana) people (Gond as tribal caste of 'Dravids') of 'Dravidian' (sourtherner) culture (as Shiva temples, idols and symbols are found so much in abundance), as Gond empires were all in the central part of India of then history.
# 'Maheshpur' seems to be a city of temples basically Shaiv (Shiva) worshiping populace.
# 'Maheshpur' (meaning a fort of lord Mahesh or Shiva) name itself suggest the place and it's importance as Shaiv symbols/idols are so predominantly found.

*The Gondi (Gōndi) or Gond people are people in central India, spread over the states of Madhya Pradesh, eastern Maharashtra (Vidarbha), Chhattisgarh, northern Andhra Pradesh, and Western Orissa. With over four million people, they are the largest tribe in Central India.

Gond or Rajgond are same tribes. The term Raj Gond was widely used in 1940s, but has now become almost obsolete, probably because of the political eclipse of the Gond Rajas.
The Gondi language is related to Telugu and other Dravidian languages. About half of Gonds speak Gondi languages, while the rest speak Indo-Aryan languages including Hindi.

*But images of Vaishnav (worshiper of Vishnu deity) and Jain idols (of jain Teerthankar Rishabh Dev Aadinathतीर्थंकर आदिनाथ ) suggests that the preceding yeras population of the place , where culture flourished  and a lot people must have come to this place for trade and commerce purposes, living together amiably indicating a democratic governance at that time with equal right of life, opportunity and individual observance of faith.


Visible effect of 'Kalchuri' period: 
That shows the southerner effect on ..sculpture (मूर्तिकला).
Kalchuris (in Chhattisgarh, based basically in Ratanpur), they were secular in administration but they them self were Shaiv (Shiva) worshipers; but Vaishnav (Vishnu worshiper), Jainis, Buddhists were given protection in their kingdom to live, do trade and commerce and worship their own god.

Present state of 'Maheshpur' excavations:
Many images are broken in many pieces, so that, after cleaning-restoration, cosolidation and preservation work is still on. The place is surrounded by the dense forest. More deeper studies are yet to be done by technical experts of archaeologists. 

This place (Maheshpur) must be a mine of gem,

when we concern our self with the importance of Archaeological findings,

in understanding our days gone by 

on this planet earth !!