Category:Turturiya Dham, Chhattisgarh

Turturiya Dham, Chhattisgarh 

6th to 8th century Hindu pilgrimage site
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Instance of	Hindu temple
Location	Baloda Bazar district, Raipur division, Chhattisgarh, India
21° 29′ 32.63″ N, 82° 21′ 42.38″ E
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The Turturiya Dham – also spelled Turturia archaeological site – is an ancient Hindu pilgrimage site in the forests east of Mahanadi river, near the remote Bahria village. The site is between the well studied Hindu, Buddhist and Jain sites of Sirpur and Shivrinarayan (Seorinarayan) – about 40 kilometers of each. The site is named after the natural spring that emerges here from the rocky surface and makes a phonetic sound of "Tur Tur", or "Sur Sur" to some ears. The site is also called Sursuri Ganga.

The site is spread of several hectares and contains archaeological remains of beautiful but deliberately damaged statues, art panels and temple parts. Some of these pieces have been collected by the villagers and placed near the small Turturiya waterfall and pushkarini. These are of Vishnu, Shiva and Devi traditions. They date from the 6th to 8th century, and show Vakataka influences – a dynasty best remembered for the spectacular art in Ramtek and the Ajanta Caves.

The Turturia site is thus significant for establishing that Hinduism was well established in eastern forested parts of Chhattisgarh by mid first millennium (c. 5th century CE).

The Turturia site is also famous as one of the notable historic sites where only Hindu women manage and officiate priestly services. This was noted in the 19th century in the scholarly report of the site by Beglar and Cunningham, and they speculated whether this was linked to possibly a Buddhist nunnery tradition of more ancient India that continued to thrive here in what became Hindu temples and monasteries by about the 6th century (Beglar and Cunningham, ASI Report of Tours in the Southeastern Provinces, Volume XIII, pp. 146–148). Later scholarship and archaeological excavations has found no Buddhist remains in Turturiya, or any mention of Turturiya in any Buddhist texts, placing their speculations in doubt.