by Prof. A.V. Narasimha Murthy, former Head, Department of Ancient History & Archaeology, University of Mysore

A religious spectacle referred to as Panchalinga Darshana at Talkad has been receiving maximum attention from print and electronic media. The religious rituals have already been started and will continue for a week. The whole atmosphere is soaked in mythology and the devotees are pouring into Talkad to get the religious merit by worshipping the five Siva lingas in a particular order. In fact the historical aspects are equally glorious as supported by inscriptions.

The archaeological excavations conducted at Talkad have taken the antiquity of this place to the stone age (megalithic) period corresponding to pre-Christian era. Later it exhibited Satavahana or early historic culture datable to 2nd century AD. A very interesting find of this period was the equipment used for manufacturing counterfeit Roman gold coins, may be used for pendants, as evidenced by terracotta mould showing the reverse of the coin of Roman emperor Augustus or Tiberius. Subsequently the western Gangas migrated to this place. Actually the original home of the Gangas was Kolar and they migrated to Talkad around 4100 AD and made it as their capital and ruled till the end of the tenth century AD.

The Gangas of Talkad have contributed two Siva lingas for the ritual of Panchalinga Darshana. The first one is the Patalesvara temple. It is a small stone temple with a sanctum, vestibule and a mandapa, opening to the east. The sanctum has a small Siva linga which is reddish in colour. It is said that it changes its colour as the day advances.

The Maralesvara temple is slightly bigger with a sanctum and two mandapas. The large number of loose sculptures kept in the temple are evidences of Ganga art. The sanctum has a Siva linga. This temple was built around eleventh century AD.

Sometime later, the Gangas were defeated by the Cholas and Talkad became a part of the Chola kingdom. It became a prominent town during the rule of Chola Rajaraja and it was named as Rajarajapura. The Cholas built many Siva and Vishnu temples at Talkad. It became a provincial capital under the Cholas with a governor placed here. The Cholas renamed Malingi as Jananathapura and built Chola temples here also. The Cholas have contributed Arkesvara temple actually situated 3 miles away from Talkad at a place called Vijayapura. It has undergone many renovations and has lost its original Chola features. This is a temple for surya aspect of Siva and has to be visited by the devotees undertaking Panchalinga Darshana.

The next phase is the Hoysala rule. Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana invaded Talkad, defeated the cholas and drove them out of Karnataka for ever. This was a great political event and Vishnuvardhana assumed the title Talakadugonda (Conqueror of Talkad) and minted gold coins to commemorate this great event. Not satisfied by this, he built a Vishnu temple at Talkad itself and named it as Kirtinarayana. This temple was partly buried under the sands and the Archaeological Department partly exposed it. About a decade back, Archaeological Survey of India began complete conservation of this temple by dismantling every part of it and the work is in progress.

This is a Hoysala temple built of granite. Soapstone is used only for pillars. The temple has a sanctum, vestibule and a navaranga which has three entrances. The main image of Kirtinarayana is about ten feet in height. Actually it is an image of standing Vishnu holding conch, lotus, club and discus. The halo has ten incarnations carved minutely. Thus this temple stands as a witness to the heroism of Hoysala Vishnuvardhana. No visitor can afford to miss this temple.

After the decline of the Hoysalas, Vijayanagara empire came into existence with the main object of preserving and nurturing Indian tradition and culture. Talkad became a Vijayanagara capital and Minister Madhava built a dam in 1342 across Cauvery which helped agriculture in this area. Srirangaraya was appointed as the governor and Talkad also came under his administration. He and his wife Alamelamma have become famous by giving a curse to Raja Wadiyar. The place of this incident is the Vaidyesvara temple at Talkad.

This temple was built in the early Vijayanagara period by about 1360 AD under the direction of Minister Madhava who was a native of Talkad. It is a large granite temple consisting of a sanctum, vestibule and a square navaranga. It stands on a star shaped low platform. It has a dravidian tower. Another mandapa was added in 1633 AD. The outer walls have a large number of sculptures such as Mahishamardini, Lakshmi, Surya, Brahma, Virabhadra etc. The eastern entrance has two dvarapala sculptures which are over ten feet in height and are considered tallest sculptures of that category in Karnataka. There are two rare sculptures here. The first one represents Bedara Kannappa and the other is Shankaracharya being tormented by a crocodile. The consort of Vaidyesvara is goddess Manonmani and a separate shrine has been built for her.

With the decline of Vijayanagara empire, Talkad became a part of Mysore Wadiyar kingdom as evidenced by inscriptions of Chamaraja (1633), Devaraja (1663) and Chikka Devaraja (1679). It remained under the Wadiyars of Mysore till the formation of Karnataka and continues to be a religious town till date. Thus Talkad has a long unbroken history of over 2500 years.

Though situated outside the town of Talkad, Mallikarjuna temple at Mudukuthore, four kms away, forms a part of the Panchalinga Darshana ritual. It is to the north of Talkad on a hill called Somagiri. The hill temple has to be reached through steep steps. The temple has a mandapa. Siva here is referred to as Mallikarjuna. The temple has a small Dravidian tower.

The village goddess of Talkad is called Bandarasamma and a small temple houses this goddess. The annual fair or jatre attracts a large number of devotees from nearby villages. In addition to the temples mentioned above there are more than 25 temples which are in ruins. Out of these cluster of temples, only five were selected for the special honour and ritual of Panchalinga Darshana which takes place on a special day of significant Hindu astrological and astronomical phenomenon. It should be the month of Karthika with five Mondays and the fifth Monday should coincide with new moon day (amavasye) with Visakha, Jyesta or Anuradha Nakshatras and Kuhu yoga. It is a strange combination and this year it took place on 2nd December. Because of this, all roads led to Talkad. That is the strength of our tradition and culture where history and mythology merge harmoniously.

source:http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / December 08th, 2013