File:0111821 Ekla temple, Kadwaha, MP 033.jpg

English: The Ekla temple is a c. 8th to 9th century Hindu temple ruin on the west side of Kadwaha village in Madhya Pradesh. It was dedicated to Vishnu. It stands on a jagati (platform) and faces east. The temple has a tri-ratha plan and was likely a larger temple complex. However, the only ruin that survives here is the garbhagriha of the Ekla temple.

This temple is one of the rare examples of a Hindu temple that has artwork inside the sanctum. Typically, the sanctum of Hindu temple has plain walls, without any secondary artwork, where the devotee can focus on the spiritual symbol, pray and make his or her offering. In the Ekla temple, along with the space for Vishnu's pratima (missing), there are two panels – one of Yashoda nursing Krishna, and second of Vishnu lying over Shesha. Both these artwork were mutilated at some point of this temple's history. In the modern era, the sanctum was reclaimed by the regional Hindus with a Shiva linga.

The outer wall artwork includes all major traditions of Hinduism. Notably and relatively uncommon in Hindu temples, in the Ekla temple's outer walls, the kama-mithuna scenes and amorous couples are placed above the band of deities.

On the doorway, the lalitabimba shows Vishnu with a bearded Garuda. The lintel also includes Saptamatrikas and Navagrahas. The architrave has eleven damaged images, which are likely the Rudras.

The temple was restored from scattered ruins in the modern era. This process left unaligned sections, steps and other unusual features.

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