Category:Shiva Temple, Sakor

Shiva Temple, Sakor 

A Gupta era Shiva temple with the oldest known Nataraja iconography
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Instance of	Hindu temple
Location	Damoh district, Sagar division, Madhya Pradesh, India
24° 12′ 41″ N, 79° 42′ 58.7″ E
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The Shiva temple in Sakor (Damoh) is a small restored Hindu temple from Gupta Empire era in northeastern Madhya Pradesh. It has the oldest known Nataraja – dancing Shiva – iconography in Asia (c. 500 CE) per most scholars. A few scholars date the Sakor temple slightly later between 510–520 CE, thereby dating the Nataraja in the temples of Nachna (Panna) and Bhumara (Satna) to be about the same time as Sakor (early 6th-century, Lippe (1975), p. 176).

The Sakour temple sits on a high jagati (platform). The original temple had a molded base, a part of which still stands. However, much of the original mandapa and garbhagriya exterior walls are lost. The extant temple reflects restorations to protect the exceptional artwork on the sanctum doorway and lintel. The famous Nataraja is found on the temple's lintel. The dancing Shiva along with the Ganga, Yamuna artwork as well as the sakha was deliberately chiseled off, but the trace remains. The Nataraja-Natesha artwork of Sakor along with the nearby Nachna and Bhumara became an inspiration of Shiva as the Lord of Dance, and endearing piece of Hindu temple art all over the subcontinent from 6th-century onwards. Nataraja became particularly popular in the Deccan and South Indian traditions, such as with the Pandyas, the later Cholas, and the Chalukyas.