Story of Uma Maheshwar Temple Kirtipur.
Friends these days I am working on a thesis related to Uma Maheshwar Temple situated at Kirtipur a south western town near Kathmandu. Every day I study and work on different aspect of this temple. In this process of writing, rewriting, reading and rereading, I realized we know less about it. This is tiny spec of the study about this temple that I want to share to you. Here is an amazing story of this beautiful temple that I found in the process of my study.
Uma-Maheswor temple situated near the Malla-period palace on the top of the Kirtipur hill, is also known as Bhavani Shankar. Local Newars call it the Kwa:cho Dega:. Main deities in this temple are standing Lord Siva and Parvati. The temple lies at 1418 m in elevation and offers a great panoramic view of Kathmandu valley and Himalayan range in the north. Ganesh Himal (7606m), Langtang (7234m), Gauri Shankar (7134m) and Cho Oyu (8201m) Sisapangma and (8,013m) are the major peaks easily seen from the temple.
According to Hari Ram Joshi the temple was constructed by the Pradhans of Dathu Tajhya Tole Mangal Bazar of Patan and gives the supporting document as the copper plate inscription attached to the temple along with that the copper inscription also tells about Raurta Vishvanath Babu who established the God Bhavani Shankar and offered rich endowments to the temple in April 1666 A.D or 775 N.S. In The Temples of Nepal, foreign scholar Dr Ronald M. Berneir has written that this temple was built in the year 1673. According to him, it was four storied. But he has not given any sources. A the southern part of this temple, there is a historical Kwatha home, and hence the name of the place Kwa:chwa. This home is still run by Pradhans, a sub-caste of Newars, who had once obtained powerful positions in the palace. According to Raj Bhog Vamshawali, this historical Kwatha home was build around 1690. On the day of Vijaya Dashami, the greatest festival of the Hindus a special festival, Paya: is celebrated at the temple.
Great earthquake of 1993 damaged the temple therefore temple was roofed with zinc plates. It was damaged again by heavy storm of 1947 so the major building and its main wooden support totally collapsed. Later on 1982 local constructed the present form that we see today. The temple was constructed during the regime of King Siddhi Narasingh Malla probably in 1655 A.D, devoting to the divine couple, Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati. The temple stands over four successive plinths. The fourth plinth supports the entire weight of the temple and has twenty big pillars supporting the verandah.
In the entrance of temple on either side of the lower plinth two huge elephants stand guarding the temple along with Bhimsen and Kubera with spikes on them, which were erected on 1662 AD Nepal era / sambat (N.S.) 782, just seven years after installation of the main image. It was culture and system of Nepali architect to install the icons of Bhimsen and Kubera with spikes on them as guardians in a Shiva temple. The lower section of the lintels has figures of Astabhairav (8 form of Bhairav) and at the bottom of the figure are tiny erotic images carved beautifully in the strut. A Trishula is placed representing Goddess Taleju at ground level on southern side.
It is said that the bell presently in the temple was originally of Ghantaghar (the famous Clock tower in Kathmandu). This was one of the smallest among the four quarter striking bells of the tower. The great quake of 1934 did not spare the tower. To preserve the bell, the then watchman of Kirtipur, Jagat Bahadur Pradhan (Sipai Bajya), hung it in the temple as the gift or offering of Shree 3 Prime Minister Juddha Shamsher. Rumor goes that the original bell of this temple was taken by one king of Bhaktapur in eighteenth century. It is also said that the king sent his men to steal the bell as he found the sound of bell very pleasing, as those thieves could not reach their home before dawn therefore left it in the field of hay. Then the king of Patan took it and hung it in the temple of Taleju. Present bell at temple is encrypted with the name “Gillett & Johnston Founders, Corydon” made on 1895 A.D.
Most of the assets we see today are reconstructed ones as many assets of temples had been stolen and sold like it happened with countless temples in Nepal in recent years, very few cases of stolen items have been returned. On 2014 there was a rumor that a 12th century stone sculpture of Uma- Maheshwor which was stolen from Wotol, Dhulikhel in 1982 would be returned to Nepal. It is said that the sculpture was sold to several art dealers and museums before ending up on a lonely pedestal in the Museum of Berlin. The erotic wooden sculpture displayed in the temple attracts visitor’s eye. Still today people believe that couples without children if worship if worship the deity of this temple would be blessed with kids.
Suvas Chandra Kandel ( Suvas Agam )
Masters in English Researcher at Tribhuvan University.
www.suvaschandrakandel.com.np