Which of the following temples is also known as Khajuraho of Vidarbha ?

Question

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Correct — A, Markandeshwar. The Markandeshwar or Markanda temple complex stands at Markanda village in Chamorshi tehsil of Gadchiroli district, on the bank of the Wainganga river in eastern Maharashtra — that is, squarely inside Vidarbha. It is a group of Nagara-style stone temples of roughly the ninth to twelfth centuries, locally called Hemadpanthi, with Shaiva, Vaishnava and Shakta shrines; something like two dozen structures once stood there and a handful are open to visitors today. The nickname 'Khajuraho of Vidarbha' comes from the density and quality of the figure sculpture on the walls, which invites comparison with the Chandella temples at Khajuraho in Bundelkhand. The complex was in the news around the time of this exam because the Archaeological Survey of India was restoring it, including the main shikhara, which had partly collapsed after a lightning strike about two centuries ago. None of the other three temples on the list is either in Vidarbha or known for Khajuraho-like sculptural ornament.

Why the other options are wrong — (b) The Kailasa temple is Cave 16 at Ellora, carved out of a single basalt scarp from the top downwards under the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I in the eighth century. It is in the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) district — Marathwada, not Vidarbha — and it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage property inscribed as the Ellora Caves, so it is never described as the 'Khajuraho' of anywhere. Its fame rests on monolithic rock-cut engineering rather than on the ornamental sculpture that earns Markandeshwar its nickname.  (c) The Manudevi temple is a Devi shrine in the Satpura foothills of Jalgaon district, which lies in Khandesh in northern Maharashtra, not in Vidarbha. It is a popular pilgrimage and picnic spot set beside a waterfall, but it is not an early medieval Nagara temple complex covered in figure sculpture, so the Khajuraho comparison does not arise.  (d) Bhimashankar is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, located in the Sahyadri range of Pune district in western Maharashtra — again outside Vidarbha. It is famous as a Jyotirlinga and for the wildlife sanctuary around it, the stronghold of the Indian giant squirrel, rather than for sculptural richness. Candidates pick it because it is the best-known temple name on the list, which is precisely the trap.

Concept: Vidarbha is the eastern region of Maharashtra — the Nagpur and Amravati divisions, drained by the Wainganga, Wardha, Penganga and Pranhita, with Nagpur as the state's winter capital. It is the least-visited quarter of Maharashtra's heritage map, which is why its most ornate temple group is publicised through a borrowed name. 'Khajuraho of X' is a media and tourism formula applied to any temple site whose walls carry dense figurative carving in a broadly Nagara idiom, the benchmark being the tenth-to-twelfth-century Chandella temples at Khajuraho in Bundelkhand, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Markandeshwar group belongs to the northern (Nagara) tradition, distinguished by a curvilinear shikhara over the sanctum, as against the pyramidal vimana and gateway gopurams of the southern Dravida style and the hybrid Vesara of the Deccan.

State PCS 2019 Q74 — Art & Culture PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2019 Q74 — Art & Culture PYQ with Answer