Temples in the Valley

Avantipur was founded by king Avantivarman who reigned from AD 855 - 883 situated at a distance of 18 miles from Srinagar on the Anantnag cart-road, represents the town of Avantipura. The site has two temples.

The larger one, Shiva-Avantishvara, is marked by massive walls some half a mile beneath the town on the outskirts of village Jaubror. The subsidiary shrines are to the rear corner of the courtyard. But the complex has, over the years, lost its grandeur and has been reduced to ruins, though it is still visited by the devout.

The temples here have groups of figures of both sexes, engaged in drinking, making love, and other such things. The sculptured reliefs are principally found on the walls of the entrance and the flank walls of the stairs.

It is probable that not only the plain wall surfaces but also the reliefs were covered with a fine coat of lime plaster, on which the addition of colour defined the more delicate details of decoration. The base is either a plain square block with the upper edge rounded off or is elaborately molded. Half a mile up is Avantisvami-Vishnu, a better-preserved temple

The temple, which has been sadly mutilated, is situated in a courtyard enclosed by a massive stone wall, the western face of which is adorned externally with a row of fluted columns, but without any recesses behind. The gateway is in the middle of this wall, and is divided into two chambers by a cross wall. Its walls are not decorated with figure sculpture. The niches and the panels are quite plain.

The base on which the shrine in the centre of the court-yard stands is 57 feet 4 inches square and l0 feet high. To each of its corners was attached a platform about 16' square, which must originally have supported a small subsidiary shrine. It has a stair on each of its four sides like the temple of Pandrethan. The stairs have a width of 28.5 feet, and are supported on either side by flank walls 17.5 feet in length. The sanctum has been reduced to a "confused mass of ruins."

The platforms seem to have originally been attached to the plinth of the temple at one point only, but afterwards they were completely joined with it by means of a connecting wall built of architectural fragments which had fallen from the temple. This arrangement can best be seen at the south-eastern corner of the base.

The sole exterior decoration of the temple base, the only part of the building that exists, is a series of projecting facets, the larger of which were originally surmounted by plain rectangular capitals.

In the two rear corners of the courtyard are two subsidiary shrines.

There is a large assortment of architectural fragments strewn about in the courtyard, the most interesting of which are

(1) the spandrel of an arch in front of the southern stair,

(2) the flower-and-vase capital of a dodecagonal pilaster,

(3) the spandrel of another arch by its side, and

(4) the base of a pilaster decorated with two seated rams and a dancing girl who plays upon a .damaru (small hand-drum) standing on a throne ornamented with two lions at the sides and an elephant, facing, in the middle.

Summers are mild in Avantipur with the temperature averaging around 25°C. Winters are harsh and the temperature can go below 0°C quite a few times. Light cottons are the recommended clothing for the summers and heavy woolens for winter