Heritage Heirlooms - The Jain Temple at Kudne

INDEX

The Buddhist caves at Rivona

The Petroglyphs of Usgalimal

The Caves at Arvalem

The Jain Temple at Kudne

The Caves at Lamgaon

The golden age in Goa's history is undoubtedly in the reign of the Kadamba Dynasty. They ruled Goa from the 11th to the 14th century AD and had very good trade ties with Gujarat. In this time, many gujarati traders came and settled here with their families bringing with them their religion, culture and traditions. The tolerant Hindu Kadamba Kings paved the way for the integration and propagation of the Jain communtiy in and around Ponda and Bicholim. 

It was during the rule of the Vijayanagar dynasty that grants were given to establish Jain bastis including their temples and shrines. Jain relics have been found in Bandoda, Ponda and in Kudne, Bicholim Taluka. This Jain temple is located near an area called the Gujir Vaado in Kudne. The name itself suggests the place was the Gujarati settlement area once upon a time.

It was in the year 1684 that the Mughal armies under Aurangzeb burnt down and plundered Bicholim leaving it in ruins.

Jain Temple at Kudne

The Jain Temple at Kudne was once a beautiful little temple dedicated to Adinatha and belongs to the medieval period. The monument is thoroughly neglected today though it must have stood elegant in this charming and quaint village of Kudne. Said to have been built through grants in the early Vijayanagar era, it is an important monument from the time of the period giving us an insight into the prevalent building practices then. 

It is a proud structure built in the typical North Indian Shikhara style. The lateritic blocks uncovered point to the existence of arches in the Mukha Mandapa of the temple. The Octagonal Shikhara over the Garbha Griha  is five tiered including the semi-spherical lower part with a small rectangular entrance to the sanctum.

The five tiered Shikhara

A broken stone head of a Tirthankara (Jain religious leader) with beautifully sculpted curls was also found near the garbhagriha. A stone torso of a Jain Tirthankara with a srivasta symbol was also unearthed. The sculptural structure of the idols indicates that the temple belongs to the Kadamba period. This is the only medieval temple of Goa which has a nagara (Indo-Aryan) architectural feature.

Likeness of the Idol of the Tirthankara

This temple also has a marked semblance with the Saptakoteshwar temple at Narve and the Chandranath at Paroda.

Heritage Heirlooms - The Caves at Arvalem

INDEX

The Buddhist caves at Rivona

The Petroglyphs of Usgalimal

The Caves at Arvalem

The Jain Temple at Kudne

The Caves at Lamgaon

Goa is an ancient land. In the recent past, it has always been showcased as a Portuguese cultural centre, but its rich history predates the Portuguese by many millennia. The heritage structures in Goa include some really ancient laterite rock-cut caves. Fascinating as these are, they are from Buddhist, Jain and sometimes Brahmanical origin. The scholars are still ambivalent on some of them. One such place is the Arvalem caves in Bicholim Taluka.

Archaeological Survey of India plaque outside the caves 

Arvalem Caves

These caves are believed to have been carved out in the 6th century AD. Located near Sanquelim, overlooking a river, the caves have a courtyard in front which has a flight of steps which probably went down to the river (Now the area has been filled up by soil because of the road that is passing in front of the cave). There are altogether five inner chambers having two outer chambers and one separate chamber which seems to be a residential chamber. The outer chambers have a colonnade. 

Seeing the construction of these caves with the sanctuary at the southern end and the vihara at the northern end, many experts are of the opinion that these are Buddhist caves. In later times though, they seem to have been taken over by Hindus and Shiv-lings have been established which is attributed to the Bhoja period. This would be somewhere around the 8th century AD according to the dating done on the Shiv-lings.

Sources: 

1. Cave Architecture in Goa-A project report submitted to the Goa University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Architecture by Varun Desai

2. Research in history books and websites