File:0122221 Kumra Matha, Teliya Hindu monastery, Nachna Madhya Pradesh 002.jpg

English: Kumra matha, also called as Teliya math, is one of the two 15th-century brick monuments ruins on a smaller hill that is about 500 meters south of the Parvati temple complex, and about 200 meters west of the Jain monuments on Shreyansh giri. There is no road to it, just a hike trail.

The Kumra matha stands in neglect midst a yet to be fully excavated mound, with ruins scattered around as one approaches it. It has three layers of construction, which mixes 5th and 6th century lost temple and monastery parts, some 8th or 9th century parts, mixed in with a brick structure with 15th-century architecture. It is the ancient embedded artwork here that is notable and much published. According to Walter Spink, one better known for his scholarship on Ajanta Caves, this structure was rebuilt from the doorway and ruins of a destroyed four-sided Hindu temple. Some of the artwork has been moved to the Parvati and Mahadeva temples complex in Nachna. Many others were moved to three Indian museums and many European museums during the colonial era.

The ancient stone artwork found here is primarily Vishnu-related. One doorway has one of the oldest known reliefs of Narasimha avatar of Vishnu. This site was likely much larger Vaishnava monastery and temples complex as many of the mutilated statues from this site are too big and diverse to fit in the extant ruins of the 15th-century temple.

For a scholarly discussion of Gupta era artwork (5th and 6th-century) embedded in the Mahadeva temple, along with the context of other Nachna-Kuthara temples, please see

• Joanna Williams, The Art of Gupta India, pp. 105–112 with appended plates and footnotes.
• Walter Spink, A Temple with Four Uchchakalpa Doorways at Nachna Kuthara, pp. 161–172
• S.K. Saraswati, The Origins of the Medieval Temple Styles, pp. 227-232

Background:

Nachna is a small remote village in the hilly forested terrain of Panna district of Madhya Pradesh. It is sometimes locally referred to as Kachhagawan. It must have been a prosperous, major town in ancient India given the wealth of temples and archaeological remains found in and near here (Nachna–Kuthara–Lakhorobagh). It is one of the notable, much published Gupta and post-Gupta era sites in India, sometimes referred to as Nacha-Kuthara or Kachhgawan site. The artwork and temples found here, together with other Gupta era sites in India, have provided insights into Gupta era Hinduism and Jainism, the development of Hindu temple architecture in the 5th and 6th century, firmer dating for Hindu and Jain iconography throughout Indian subcontinent, and a window into Indian culture during the Gupta Empire era.

Nachna-Kuthara was a part of the historic Baghelkhand region, which some scholars classify as northeastern Bundelkhand between Satna and Jabalpur. Between the 4th and 7th-century CE, this region was ruled by the Parivrajakas (forest ascetics dynasty) and the Uchchhakalpas (shilpins or artisans dynasty named after their capital). Many inscriptions and copper plate grants found in this region suggest the prosperity and importance of Nachna area as a regional trade and culture hub, particularly to the Uchchhakalpas. Given the array of beautiful artwork and temples here from the ancient period, Nachna may have served as a regional capital of the Uchchhakalpas.