Bhojshala

Bhojshala, Madhya Pradesh

Bhojshala is an 11th-century complex linked to Saraswati (above)

The Bhojshala (IAST: Bhojaśālā, sometimes Bhoj Shala, meaning 'Hall of Bhoja') is located in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, India. It is the site of the early 11th century centre for Sanskrit studies and temple of Sarasvatī – the Hindu goddess of learning, music and arts – located in the hall's precincts. Bhojshala is attributed to celebrated King Bhoja of the Paramāra dynasty of central India, a great patron of education and arts, and to whom major Hindu Sanskrit works on poetics, yoga and architecture are attributed.^[1] The term Bhojashala became linked to a later era mosque and tombs that exist immediately next to it, an association that started in early 20th century, though the Islamic structures were built between the 14th and 15th century.^[1]

Bhojshala is also an archaeological site, one which is disputed between Hindus and Muslims. The site excavation since the 19th century has yielded information on medieval era Indian religions particularly of Hinduism and Jainism, as well as a goddess statue that was housed in the British Museum but whose current location is a mystery.^[1] The site also houses the Kamal-Maula mosque with four Sufi tombs,^[2] wherein the hypostyle mosque was built primarily from demolished temple pillars and parts around 1400 CE, while the tomb of Kamal al-Din Malawi (c. 1238-1330) is older.^[3] The Muslims use the mosque for Friday prayers and Islamic festivals, while the Hindus pray on Tuesday. The Hindu also attempt to pray to goddess Saraswati at the site particularly on Vasant Panchami festival, and this been a source of Hindu-Muslim conflicts and occasional riots when Vasant Panchami falls on a Friday.^[4][5][6]

History: King Bhoja

Raja Bhoj Statue on Upper Lake, Bhopal.

King Bhoja, who ruled between circa 1000 and 1055 in central India, is considered in the Hindu tradition as one of the exceptional kings.^[7] He was a celebrated patron of arts, and out of reverence for him, Hindu scholars that followed traditionally attributed a large number of Sanskrit works on philosophy, astronomy, grammar medicine, yoga, architecture and other subjects to him. Of these, a well studied and influential text is in the field of poetics called Śṛṅgaraprakāśa.^[7][8]

Along with his literary and art support, Bhoja began constructing a Shiva temple at Bhojpur. If it had been completed to the extent he planned, the temple would have been double the size of the Hindu temples at the Khajuraho Group of Monuments. The temple was partially completed, and the epigraphical evidence confirms that Bhoja founded and built Hindu temples.^[7]

Bhoja's successor was king Arjunavarman (circa 1210-15). He and many others, in Hindu and Jain traditions, held Bhoja in such high regard that they stated or were revered as an reincarnation (rebirth) of Bhoja or Bhoja-like ruler.^[7][9] Centuries later, Bhoja remained a revered figure as evidenced by Merutuṅga's Prabandhacintāmaṇi completed in the fourteenth century,^[10] and Ballāla’s Bhojaprabandha composed at Varanasi in the 17th century.^[11] This tradition continued, and in the 20th century, Hindu scholars described Bhoja as an example of the glorious past of their historic culture and a part of Hindu identity.^[7][12]

The capital of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal, is named after him, i.e. Bhoj-pal.^[13]

Dhār and Inscriptions in the Bhojaśālā

One of the serpentine inscriptions found by K. K. Lele at Kamāl Maula

The archaeological sites at Dhār attracted the early attention of colonial Indologists and historians. John Malcolm mentioned it in 1822, along with building projects such as the dams planned and completed by King Bhoja.^[14] Malcolm also mentioned that he removed an inscribed panel from the site; this appears to be the Rāüla vela of Roḍa, a unique poetic work in the earliest forms of Hindi. This inscription was kept first in The Asiatic Society of Mumbai and was later transferred to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya in Mumbai.^[15]

Some years later, in 1888, William Kincaid published his Indian Antiquary which makes no mention of the term Bhojshala, but does mention a Akl ka kua or "Well of Wisdom" in front of the tomb of Kamal al-Din. According to Michael Willis, Kincaid was not a sympathetic ethnographer, but the absence of the term Bhojshala in his text may be because there was "no living tradition about Bhojshala in the middle decades of the nineteenth century" among those who he interacted with in Dhar.^[14]

The scholarly studies on the inscriptions of Bhojshala began in the 19th century, such as with the efforts of Bhau Daji in 1871.^[14] In 1903, K. K. Lele, Superintendent of Education in the Princely State of Dhār, reported a number of Sanskrit and Prakrit inscriptions in the walls and floor of the pillared hall at Kamāl Maula mosque.^[16]

The first of these records is a series of verses in Prakrit praising the Kūrma or Tortoise incarnation of the god Viṣṇu. The Kūrmaśataka is attributed to king Bhoja but the palaeography of the record suggests that this copy was engraved in the twelfth or thirteenth century. The text was published by Richard Pischel in 1905-06, with a new version and translation appearing in 2003 by V. M. Kularni.^[17]

A second inscription is part of a drama called Vijayaśrīnāṭikā composed by Madana. The preceptor of king Arjunavarman, Madana bore the title 'Bālasarasvatī'.^[18] The inscription reports that the play was performed before Arjunavarman in the temple of Sarasvatī. This suggests that the inscription could have come from the site of a Sarasvatī temple.^[19] The variety and size of pillars, and the inscribed tablets recovered by Lele from the site, among them two serpentine inscriptions giving grammatical rules of the Sanskrit language, show that materials were brought from a wide area and a number of different structures.

The finds—and the serpentine grammatical inscriptions in the building—prompted Lele to describe the building as the Bhojśālā or Hall of Bhoja because king Bhoja was the author of a number of works on poetics and grammar, among them the Sarasvatīkaṇṭhābharaṇa or 'Necklace of Sarasvatī'.^[20] The term Bhojaśālā was taken up by C. E. Luard and published in his Gazetteer of 1908 although Luard noted that it was a misnomer.^[21]

Sarasvatī

Goddess Ambika from Dhar, whose inscription mentions Vagdevi (Sarasvati).^[1]

After Lele and Luard had identified the Bhojaśālā with the Kamāl Maula masjid, O. C. Gangoly and K. N. Dikshit published an inscribed sculpture in the British Museum, announcing that it was Raja Bhoja's Sarasvatī from Dhār.^[22] This analysis was broadly accepted and had a significant impact. The statue in the British Museum was identified as Bhoja's Sarasvatī in the years that followed.^[23][1]

The inscription on the sculpture mentions king Bhoja and Vāgdevī, another name for Sarasvatī.^[1] However, later study of the inscription by Indian scholars of Sanskrit and Prakrit languages such as Harivallabh Bhayani,^[24] demonstrated that inscription records the making of a sculpture of Ambikā of Jainism after the making of three Jinas and Vāgdevī. In other words, according to Michael Willis, "although Vāgdevī is indeed mentioned, the inscription's main purpose is to record the making of an image of Ambikā, i.e. the sculpture on which the record is incised".^{[1][25][note 1]}

The inscription on the statue previously with the British Museum indicates that the Vāgdevī at Dhār was dedicated to the Jain form of Saraswati deity. While Ambika statue was discovered at the Bhojshala site, the Vagdevi statue mentioned in the inscriptions no longer exists or is yet to be located. Other evidence suggests that the Hindu King Bhoja's eulogistic tablets in the Sarasvatī temple engraved with a poem are dedicated to a Jain Tirthankara.^[1][27]

Current status

The building is a Protected Monument of national importance under the laws of India and is under the juristiction of the Archaeological Survey of India. Both Hindus and Muslims claim the site, and use it for their prayers. According to Archaeological Survey of India guidelines, Muslims can pray on Friday and Islamic festivals, Hindus can pray on Tuesday and on the festival for goddess Sarasvatī, namely Vasant Panchami. The site is open to visitors on other days. ^[1][28]

The disputes about the site were prompted by the inscriptions and the information they provide about historic Indian religions, particularly Hinduism and Jainism. Data about Jainism comes from texts and a statue of the goddess Ambikā that is now housed in British Museum.^[1] The area beside the Bhojshala has four Sufi Islam tombs.^[29] The most important is the tomb of Kamāl al-Dīn (circa 1238-1330), famous Chishti saint, who tomb was rebuilt under the Malwa Sultanate. Architecturally, the Bhojshala is earlier in date, and appears to be a hypostyle hall built of temple parts in the 1300s in a manner similar to the Quwwat-ul-Islam in the Qutb Minar complex, Delhi.^[30]

Conflicts arise when the Vasant Panchami falls on Friday. The Archaeological Survey of India attempts to assign hours to both Hindus and Muslims on such days. However, this been a source of communal conflict and occasional distrubance when the religious group scheduled for the earlier time slot refuse to vacate the premises in time for the next.^[31][32][28]

See also

• Ayodhya dispute

Notes

References

External links

• Archaeological Survey of India
• British Museum, collections online
• University of Tokyo, photo album

Research Resources

• Karlsruher Virtueller Katalog
• About the KVK
• Internet Archives
• Jain Studies Newsletter, SOAS, London
• Acharya, Merutunga (1902). Prabandhacintamani. Asiatic Society.