two new gadhegals from chirner, taluka uran, district ... · the gadhegal (fig. 1) faces the lake...
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Two New Gadhegals from Chirner, Taluka Uran, District Raigad, Maharashtra
Kurush F. Dalal1 and Harshada Wirkud1 1. Centre for Archaeology, Centre for Extra‐Mural Studies, 2nd Floor, Health
Centre Building, University of Mumbai (Kalina Campus), Vidyanagri, Santacruz E, Mumbai – 400098, India (Email: [email protected])
Received: 03 August 2015; Accepted: 24 August 2015; Revised: 17 September 2015 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 3 (2015): 295‐299
Abstract: This article deals with the recent discovery of two Gadhegals at the village of Chirner, Taluka Uran, Dist. Raigad, Maharashtra and the very interesting secondary usage of one of them. There have been a spate of recent articles on these stone steles and the renewed interest has yielded some very interesting data.
Keywords: Chirner, Bhairava Temple, Peshwa Temple, Mahaganapati Temple, Ass Curse Stones, Gadhegals, Land Grant Charter
Introduction Chirner (18°52’06.92” N; 73°03’09.01” E) is a large village located not far from the bustling city of Uran in the Raigad district of Maharashtra. It is quite famous due to the Forest Satyagraha of 1930 as also for its Mahaganapati Temple. The village also boasts of a temple built during the Peshwa/Maratha Period and numerous other shrines strewn around like echoes of a more ancient past.
Amongst the many indicators of the past are two gadhegals. The first (and perhaps latter) is located between the Peshwa/Maratha Period Temple and the Temple Tank. The second is located in a small temple of Bhairava situated adjacent to the Peshwa/Maratha one. The second gadhegal has been transmogrified into an icon of Parvati and has been installed alongside the idol of Bhairava. These gadhegals provide a definitive glimpse of the antiquity of the area along with an expositive light on the thought process of the people. They also speak volumes about the ‘continuity of sanctity’ even after the original purpose has been forgotten/lost in time.
What is a Gadhegal? Gadhegals are dressed flat rectangular stele worked only on one face. They are essentially land grant charters. The worked area can be generally divided into three distinct zones/panels. The top (first) panel, which may or may not be capped by a
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kalasha, always bears the sun (circle) and moon (crescent) symbols (denoting perpetuity) commonly seen upon hero‐stones, sati‐stones and boundary markers. The central panel most often bears a shallowly incised inscription. The lowermost (third) panel has a sculptural depiction of a human figure (in most instances clearly female whilst indistinct in others perhaps due to weathering or indifferent carving) being forced into sexual congress with a donkey. This depiction as verified within many of the inscriptions is the punishment for violation of the edict(s) within the charter.
It is from this third panel that the name of this type of stone marker is derived (gadhe=donkey and gal=stone). According to Prof. AP Jamkhedkar the etymology of the term is gadhe (donkey) and gaal (swear word/term of abuse), i.e. Donkey‐curse, VV Mirashi (1977) also uses the same term.
Numerous gadhegals have been reported from Maharashtra (Dhere 1990: 111‐34; Wirkud 2013; Mokashi 2014; Dalal et. al. 2015) and Goa (Tulpule 1963) with a single addition from Gujarat (van der Geer 2008: 256).
Gadhegals are assigned to a period beginning with the reign of the Shilahara dynasty (Tulpule 1963; Mirashi 1977: 167‐68, Plate LXXIII and 127‐30, 3 LV) and ending with the Adilshahi (Nazim 1935: 9‐11), 1012 AD to 1651 AD.
The Gadhegals of Chirner The Gadhegals of Chirner were brought to the notice of the authors by Shri Siddharth Soshte of Chirner village. He had come across various online references to gadhegals being recorded by the first author and he contacted the same via Facebook with details of the locations of the Gadhegals at his village, i.e. Chirner.
The authors visited Chirner on the 20th of February 2015. The first Gadhegal was located between the Bhairava Temple and the Peshwa period Temple, the second was found enshrined within the Bhairava temple. Both the temples abut the large (manmade?) lake at Chirner. Both images face east. The Mahaganapati temple, for which Chirner is well known, lies across the road from the Bhairava shrine. This is the central chowk of the village.
The Gadhegal (Fig. 1) faces the lake and has its back to the Bhairava Temple and has its side to the Peshwa Temple. It is rectangular in shape. It is most probably in situ. It has been recently been embedded in cement when the periphery of the lake was paved. It is presently under semi‐worship by the local women who bathe the stone daily and after washing it place flowers and haldi‐kumkum (turmeric and vermillion) at its apex. It is a bit different from the most commonly seen types. The top panel consists of a chandra‐kalasha‐surya image (l‐r) in one line, the kalasha is very crude and looks like a small ovate. The second panel instead of being inset is actually in relief. On it are incised roughly 12 to 13 lines in the nagari script. The inscription has been very shallowly cut and is quite badly weathered. Only a few alphabets are clearly visible. A few trails of cement slurry are also seen upon it. These are perhaps traces of the recent
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cementing activity. The third panel consists of the visual representation of a woman being sexually violated by a donkey. In this case the image is inset and in medium relief. The woman is depicted on her haunches with her hands stretched downwards. Her hair is tied in a bun and her body does not have any other visible ornamentation. The donkey on the other hand has a clear double collar and has a very artfully decorated tail which appears to be braided. The donkeys four legs are folded on the woman’s back, his hind legs are resting on a small projection behind the woman’s knees, its muzzle is resting on the back of her neck. About 20cm of the bottom of the pillar is visible under the image and is very roughly dressed as are the sides and back of the stele.
Figure 1: Gadhegal 1 at Chirner Figure 2: Gadhegal 2 at Chirner
The second Gadhegal (Fig. 2) is seen inside the Bhairava shrine (next to a vermillion covered fragment of a Hero Stone). To the left of the image of Bhairava (viewer’s left) is seen a tall stone stele with a rounded apex. The stele is liberally covered in vermillion paste. It is presently worshipped as Parvati the consort of Bhairava. The kalasha at its apex has two glass eyes embedded in it and the surya‐chandra (note the reversal here) below have been heavily slathered in vermillion to represent the deity’s breasts. The inscription is completely smothered by vermillion. The panel differentiation if any is not visible. The customary image seen at the bottom of the stele is in medium relief. There are no visible traces of it being inset in any way. It appears to independently rise
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from the surface of the stele. The woman is portrayed on her knees, face upturned towards the donkey, left arm bent at the elbow to support the head and right arm outstretched along her back. The donkey has an elongated muzzle, a thick collar is depicted around its neck, its forelegs appear folded on her back, and the hind legs are seen just above her calves. The donkey’s tail is almost invisible due to the vermillion.
Conclusion Gadhegals or Ass‐curse stones are known from various parts of Maharashtra (Wirkud 2013, Khandekar 2013, Mokashi 2014, Dalal 2015). They are essentially land grant charters. They stand out because of the image of a woman being sexually assaulted by a donkey which is seen upon them. They are important historical markers of land use, polity, socio‐economic phenomena, and socio‐religious organisation.
The relative importance of the site as a probable trade node during the Early Medieval period (11th – 14th c AD) appears quite obvious when one takes into consideration the presence of these two Gadhegals together with the nearby Gadhegals of Ranwad (Mirashi 1977: 173‐75; Pl LXXV) and Chanje (Mirashi 1977: 130‐32; Pl LVII). All these Gadhegals point towards an important trading nexus along the West Coast of India, between Mumbai and Alibaug. The relatively inland position of Chirner also makes it a very convenient trade node for the convergence of goods to and from the ports of Mumbai and Alibaug, not to mention the nearby port of Chanje.
Another very interesting fact seen here (perhaps for the first time) is the appropriation of a land grant stele for a goddess and its subsequent transmogrification. This points very clearly to the necessity of association through the continuity of sanctity of the object resulting in its subsequent veneration once the original purpose had been forgotten.
Acknowledgements The authors are very grateful to Shri Siddharth Soshte for bringing these Gadhegals to our notice. We are also very grateful to the villagers we met at the chowk, who helped us in quickly locating the steles, and for the oral history and traditions they narrated to us. We are also thankful to Ms. Rhea Mitra‐Dalal for helping us photograph the steles. Lastly, we’d like to thank Ms. Mugdha Karnik, Director, Centre for Extra‐Mural Studies, University of Mumbai for her help and encouragement.
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