page_title: Tigawa
section_title: Kankali Devi temple: Vaishnavism tradition
hierarchical_section_title: Tigawa / Description / Kankali Devi temple: Vaishnavism tradition
caption_attribution_description: English: The Kankali Temple at Tigowa, Madhya Pradesh dates from 400-425 CE. It is an early example of freestanding stone structural Hindu temple architecture. The temple also includes reliefs with Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Shaivism themes. Above is the narrative of man-boar avatar of Vishnu named Varaha rescuing earth goddess named Bhudevi, set in niches framed by pilasters with pot and foliage capitals. Over the figure of rescue hero Varaha, the ruined relief narrates the myth of churning the milky cosmic ocean with the tug-of-rope by the gods and demons. Derivative work on 5th century relief ruins from the Tigawa Kankali Devi Vishnu temple, Madhya Pradesh, 1875 photo.jpg
context_page_description: Tigawa is a village in Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and an archaeological site with a complex of about 36 Hindu temple ruins. Of these, the small but important and ancient Kankali Devi Temple is in good condition, and is usually dated to about 400-425 CE. Unless another building is mentioned, references to "the temple" below refer to this.
  Also referred to as Tigowa or Tigwan, the site is about 4 kilometres north of Bahuriband between Katni and Jabalpur. The Hindu temple ruins were badly damaged during a colonial era railway project when a contractor demolished and excavated the ruins as building material for the railway project.
  Of the monuments, the Kankali Devi Temple is most notable and is a Gupta period temple. It is one of the oldest surviving Hindu temples, illustrating the formative stages of Hindu temple architecture and the essential elements found in the north Indian style through the modern era. It has a sanctum and an open portico supported on four pillars. The sides of the portico were filled in with walls containing panels at a later period.
context_section_description: The Kankali Devi temple has a square sanctum with a 12.5 feet (3.8 m) side outside and 8 feet (2.4 m) side inside. The sanctum does not open exactly to the east, but deviates by about 13 degrees, which Cunningham speculated may be intentional and related to "one nakshatra" (lunar house, Hindu calendar).
  The temple has an open portico supported on four pillars that projects 7 feet (2.1 m) in front of the sanctum. Both the pillared porch and the sanctum are on a raised plinth, its roof made from horizontal slabs of stone. The pillars of the mandapa are massive, shaped into three symmetric cross sections: a long square sectioned part close to the ground, above it an octagonal and sixteen-edged. Above these is a circular part capped with pot and foliage capitals. On top of the pillars are sculptures of two crouching lions with a tree separating them. The pillars are identical in all respects except the tree: one pillar has a mango tree, another a palm, while the other two trees unclear. The portico was partially walled later, according to Percy Brown.
  The temple door jambs are intricately carved, in vertical bands that are concentric around the entrance. On top left of the entrance wall is river goddess Ganga holding a water vessel and riding her crocodile vahana, while the top right has river goddess Yamuna also holding a water vessel while riding her tortoise vahana. Goddess Ganga is plucking a fruit from custard-apple tree, while Yamuna is plucking one from a mango tree.
  The Kankali Devi Temple has reliefs showing Vishnu and generally considered to have been dedicated to Vishnu of Vaishnavism. An image of Narasimha, the man-lion avatar of Vishnu, is placed inside the sanctum. The portico has an image of the Sheshashai Vishnu (Narayana). Another shows Varaha, the man-boar avatar of Vishnu.
  In front of the temple is a seated Vishnu image in yoga asana position with serpent hood above the head, similar to seated Tirthankaras and the Buddha. The temple also reverentially displays Shaktism and Shaivism themes, including a Chamunda (Kankali Devi) panel which gives the temple its name. On the wall opposite to Kankali Devi is Kali Devi (fierce form of Durga). Cunningham proposed that these Shaiva and Vaishnava reliefs were probably added around the 8th-century.
  The Kankali Devi temple is similar to the Gupta period Temple #17 at Sanchi, with both illustrating the basic elements of Hindu sacred architecture. The temple style is also similar to the Hindu cave temples of Udayagiri and the Eran temple, both of which can be dated to be from the Gupta era because of the inscriptions found there.
  A 7th or 8th-century CE Sanskrit inscription mentions the visit of a Umadeva of Kanyakubja, son of Samanya Bhatta, who had come to worship at the temple of Sitabhadra. There are also two inscriptions in Sankha Lipi.
caption: A Vishnu relief from the temple narrating the man-boar Varaha legend and the Samudra manthan mythology.
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