Bateshwar – The Divine Jigsaw

What is the biggest jigsaw puzzle you’ve done?

I’ve done ones with 500 and 1000 pieces. Once, I finished a 5000 piece puzzle. I’ve also attempted a 40000 piece puzzle once. What if you had to put together a giant puzzle where each piece needs more than one person to lift it? Sometimes a forklift to do the work?

Well, that’s the task at hand for the men and women at work in the Bateshwar cluster of temples at Madhya Pradesh.

How to get there

How to get there? The Bateshwar temple cluster is about 35 km from Gwalior, in Morena.

There are buses that drop you off close to the site, but these are few and far between. So we went by cab. In hindsight, it is also safest to travel this way as we were in unfamiliar parts and this region had a history of being a safe haven for dacoits. We aren’t the kind that choose the ‘road less travelled’ when it comes to travel options, as we travel with a kid.

You can take an auto rickshaw if you do not mind the really bad roads or you could take a cab to avoid your spine getting hurt.

Bateshwar – The place

You can’t help but wonder what the sunrise and sunset at this temple complex must have been like in its halcyon days.

The colours of the dawn/dusk skies must’ve surely set fire to the imagination of the devotees that would’ve gathered to pay their respects to the many deities enshrined here.

Consider for a moment, the scores of shrines littering the landscape illuminated only by torches and lamps in the bygone days when there was no electricity. The sight must’ve been spellbinding on a full moon day when from vantage points, it’d look like a sea of pagodas, symmetrically arranged in architectural precision.

These magnificent sandstone odes, that even though ravaged by time and possibly human actions, still serve as a portal to transport the visitor to the temples’ heyday.

It does not take much to conjure up images of worship in this oasis of calm, surrounded by the jungle and ravines with wildlife on the prowl just beyond the boundaries where the flickering torches and lamps fight the shadows.

History

According to some sources, these temples are said to have been built by rulers from the Gurjara Pratihara dynasty. The temples were most likely destroyed during the 13th century although who or what laid waste to the temple complex remains unclear.

Over the years, various historians and archeologists have written about Bateshwar and its magnificence.

The Colossal task at hand:

From goddesses, to avatars, to scenes from epics, we were able to find a multitude of such sculptures all over the vast space.

Fragments of sculptures litter the landscape. Restoring hands try to figure out a way and put the perfect piece and recreate the magic that has been shattered.

One of the main big temples has been restored to a large extent and another restoration is in progress. The National Culture Fund and Infosys foundation have been contributing towards this tremendous project in Madhya Pradesh.

Getting around Bateshwar

• Once you reach the place, you can take a stroll around
• Bateshwar is quite far from the city and hence there are no good eateries nearby.
• Washrooms are also not available.

Best time to visit

An early morning visit is ideal as you would have the whole place to yourself. Since we went around 9 AM, there were just two others in the temple complex and we were able to spend a lot of time amidst all the calm.