File:0111821 Bag group of Hindu temples , Kadwaya Madhya Pradesh 089.jpg

English: The Bag group of Hindu temples – also called the Nahalvar group – in Kadwaya (Kadwaha) consist of three historic temples within the compound of the modern era Bijasan Mata Mandir. Located to the north, two Bag group temples are close to each other and one is further north. All are damaged, only one has a surviving part of the torn sikhara (superstructure above the sanctum). These temples are from about the 9th-century.

The set of two are Vaishnava temples (see image above), profusely carved with Vaishnava, Shaiva and Shakta tradition artwork. The larger of the two faces west, has a pancha-ratha plan. It has a damaged mandapa and sanctum. The notable artwork in this temple include the Vamana, Varaha and Brahma. The doorway is flanked with Ganga and Yamuna goddesses, while the lalitabimba has Vishnu riding over Garuda. Also included are the Sapta-matrikas, Vishnu dashavataras and other Hindu artwork around the doorway. The second of two temples is smaller, but also dedicated to Vishnu. Its mandapa is lost. The notable artwork that can be identified after all the damage in this smaller temple includes Natesha–Nataraja, Surya, Lakshmi-Narayana, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

Background:

Kadwaya – also referred to as Kadwaha, Kadambaguha and Mattamayurapura – is a historic Hindu site in north Madhya Pradesh. With ancient roots, Kadwaya developed into a monumental Hindu temples town between 8th and 11th century. By the 12th century, it contained over fifteen group of temples, a Shaiva monastery-college site, a range of wells, gardens, and water tanks, according to the scholar Tamara Sears. Kadwaha's rapid growth and fame was partly because of its significance to a Mattamayuras-related Shiva tradition as well as partly because it was on the trade route between the northern kingdoms including those in the Yamuna-Ganga river plains and those in the Deccan and central Indian valleys.

Mattamayuras literally means "drunken Peacocks", a Shiva-related monastic tradition. However, the Kadwaha site was not exclusive to the Shaiva tradition; of the fifteen temple groups, five were dedicated to Vishnu, the other ten a blend of Shaiva-Shakta (that is, Shiva and Devi-goddess traditions).

The town was among the earliest targets of conquest by the Delhi Sultanate. The monastery built around itself a fort, in response to attacks and plunder in the 13th century. The town and this fort was conquered by the Tughluq army of the Delhi Sultanate and converted into an Islamic outpost with mosque. It later became a strategic outpost for the Mughals. During this period, many of the temples were reduced to ruins and desecrated. Of these, nine sites of Hindu temples, the Shaiva monastery along with many inscriptions have survived into the modern age. These are important to an objective understanding of the history of central India.

For further scholarly discussions:

• Arvind Singh, Kadwaha temples, in Art, Icon and Architecture in South Asia, pp. 361–382
• Tamara Sears, Following River Routes and Artistic Transmissions in Medieval Central India
• Saurabh Saxena, Kadwaya – The Vestiges of the Mattamayuras