Built by King Avantivarman (855 - 883 AD) before becoming the King. It has been reclaimed by the removal of an enormous mass of silt and debris which during a thousand years of neglect (for the temple had already silted up when it suffered from the iconoclasts) had accumulated to a height of about 15 feet and buried the whole structure except the upper part of the walls of the gateway and a shapeless heap of stones in the centre. This Vaishnava temple is constructed on two-tiered base in the centre of the paved courtyard enclosed by the colonnaded peristyle. The entrance loacted in the middle of the west wall is approached by the flight of steps. The walsl of the entrance are ornamented with sculptured reliefs both internally and externally. The pilasters of the stairs of the main shrine are also ornamented with sculptured reliefs. the courtyard has subsidiary shrines at the four corners. The famous Vaikuntha Vishnu is said to be found in this temple.
A large assortment of antiquities has been unearthed during the excavation of this temple. The most valuable are a series of sculptures which have been placed in the Srinagar Museum. The large jars arranged in a row on the lawn above the excavations were, doubtless, used for the storage of grain and foodstuffs. Among those that have been brought to the Museum is onewhich bears an inscription mentioning the name of Avantivarman. This record is of interest as being the only independent evidence of the correct identification of the site.
Kalhana states that the Avantisvami temple was occasionally subjected to sacrilegious treatment even in Hindu times. The tyrannical Kalasa (A.D. 1081-1089) confiscated the villages which formed its endowments. Its military possibilities do not seem to have escaped the notice of the ancients, for " its courtyard served as a fortification when, shortly after the accession of King Jayasimha (A.D. 1128), Bhasa, a commander of the royal troops, was besieged at Avantipur by the rebel Damaras of the Holada (Vular) district." In the fourteenth century Sikandar But-shikan completed the destruction which had already begun in the troublous times which followed the reign of Avantivarman.
A large assortment of antiquities has been unearthed during the excavation of this temple. The most valuable are a series of sculptures which have been placed in the Srinagar Museum. The large jars arranged in a row on the lawn above the excavations were, doubtless, used for the storage of grain and foodstuffs. Among those that have been brought to the Museum is onewhich bears an inscription mentioning the name of Avantivarman. This record is of interest as being the only independent evidence of the correct identification of the site.
Kalhana states that the Avantisvami temple was occasionally subjected to sacrilegious treatment even in Hindu times. The tyrannical Kalasa (A.D. 1081-1089) confiscated the villages which formed its endowments. Its military possibilities do not seem to have escaped the notice of the ancients, for " its courtyard served as a fortification when, shortly after the accession of King Jayasimha (A.D. 1128), Bhasa, a commander of the royal troops, was besieged at Avantipur by the rebel Damaras of the Holada (Vular) district." In the fourteenth century Sikandar But-shikan completed the destruction which had already begun in the troublous times which followed the reign of Avantivarman.
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