Murals of Mansa Devi

The shrine in Manimajra is constructed on the basis of the panchyatana plan of medieval Hindu temple architecture, writes Kanwarjit Singh Kang 

ON the periphery of Chandigarh and Panchkula in Manimajra stands the temple of Mansa Devi. The shrine is a renowned Sidh Peeth where mother goddess Mansa Devi is worshipped. The gazetteer of the Ambala district records that 123 years ago, the shrine attracted as many as 80,000 pilgrims in the month of Chaitra alone.

The temple, built on a hillock and approached by a long flight of stairs, defies the familiar appearance of a Hindu temple with a lofty shikhara. It has onion-shaped domes and superstructures imitating minarets. The principal shrine stands in a large courtyard at the corners of which are four smaller shrines. This is nearly an imitation of the panchyatana (five-abodes) plan of medieval Hindu temple architecture. On the intrados of the main gate is an inscription in Devanagari recording the date of its construction: this was started in V.S. 1868 (1811 A.D.) and completed in V.S. 1872 (1815 A.D.) by Raja Gopal Singh of Manimajra.

The temple was once completely covered with murals. Most of the painted panels were devoted to the glory of goddess Durga in her various incarnations based on the Markendaya Purana, more precisely on an episode of this Purana, Durga Mahatmya. In addition, the murals represented a visual panorama of the vast Hindu mythology.

Unfortunately, however, much has already been claimed by time, by the forces of nature and by coats of whitewash and there is a great danger that the surviving murals will disappear irretrievably before they have been adequately recorded and documented.

The surviving murals greet the visitor at the main gateway itself, the inside of its arch having been embellished with floral designs and incidents from the life of Krishna: Krishna as a cow-herd, with milkmaids, on a swing with Radha and killing the crane-deon Bakasura. On the intrados, parrots are painted perched upon floral motifs.

The rectangular porch of the shrine have faint traces of some murals skirting the ceiling, partly depicting Brahma holding copies of the Vedas in his hands, goddess Kali, Matsya or fish avatara, Krishna and Arjuna seated on a chariot.

The sanctum is encircled by a circumambulatory path wherein surviving murals, in a comparatively better state of preservation, are to be seen. The themes depicted do not follow any sequence rather in their choice the painter has followed his own will. The themes taken from the Ramayana illustrate the wedding ceremony of Sita and Rama, Rama killing the Maricha, Sita in confinement in the island of Lanka, Vibhishana joining forces of Rama and the fierce battle between Rama and Ravana.

Many sages and personalities, both male and female, of the Hindu lore, also appear in these paintings, including Vishnu, Shiva, Karttikeya, Skanda, Visvamitra, Vasistha, Gautama, Narada, Bhasmasura, Aniruddha, Usha, Ambika, Parvati, Uma, Savitri, Rukmini, Taraka, Bhawani, Banasura and the like. The presiding deities of each day of the week are also portrayed in a section skirting the ceiling.

A panel illustrates Indra, Shiva, Krishna and Brahma standing in veneration before goddess Mansa Devi. In another panel, Raja Gopal Singh and Raja Surtha are paying obeisance to Sri Mahamaya, personifying Mother Goddess. On its lower left, Raja Surtha and Vaishya are performing prayers. An obliterated inscription on the upper part bears the date Samvat 1870 (1813 A.D.) and states that the murals were painted by one Angad.

"There is an inventiveness in the compositions", as has been observed by Dr B N Goswamy, "and a tendency occasionally to defy the rigours of a tradition but the line is course and the figures appear stunted. The affiliation of the work are obviously with the painting of the Punjab Hills, but it is seemed to have lost in its transference to the wall of a temple in the submontane region, its poetry and elegance."

Nevertheless, these murals command respect, even admiration, despite its belonging to a period when blossoming of a ‘style’ was dependant for its nourishment on the lack of classical knowledge.

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