Golamgarh Shiva Temple, Rajasthan

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Dr Shilpi Gupta

Dr Shilpi Gupta is M.Phil, Ph.D and SLET (Rajasthan). Currently, Dr. Gupta is an Associate Professor in the Department of History and Indian culture, Banasthali University, Rajasthan. Her research interest lies in the area of Rajasthan and Indian Art, History and Culture and recently engaged on “Temple art and Culture.”

She has authored 30 papers in various journals and a book entitled "Menal evam Bijolian ke Mandir: Atihasik aur Kalatamak Paripekshya Mein". The major contribution of Dr.Gupta is in Archaeological Discovery. She has discovered three unusual and interesting temples which are related to Gupta, Prather and Parmara periods. Dr. Gupta has been awarded Rs. 25000/- for research work on “Architecture and Sculpture of Temples of Menal and Bijolian” by Indian Council of Historical Research, (ICHR) New Delhi.

'It was on 17th May 2004 that one of my students Ms. Shilpi Gupta of the History Deptt., Banasthali Vidyapeeth, (Tonk, Rajasthan) discovered a Gupta structure, enshrining a Siva-Linga, at Golamgarh of district Bhilwara in Rajasthan. During her temple survey of the region, in the vicinity of Bijolian situated on Bundi-Chittorgarh road, she noticed a lonely structure, popularly known as Devaria and built of rectangular and some carved stones outside the village of Golamgarh, hardly 10 kms away from Bijolian. She showed me the photograph of the outside facade; I was surprised to see carvings of vase and foliage (ghata-pallava) on both sides of all the four entrances meant to approach the Siva-Linga inside. I at once compared the motif with specimens in Gupta art and was delighted to locate similarities with those from Deogarh (Jhansi-UP) and even a place like Tigava (M.P.). It is also to be noted here, at Golamgarh under study, the depiction of the ghata-pallavas is somewhat in the form of incisions and not very deep carvings as at elsewhere as the motifs do belong to 5th century A.D. This discovery was very, very encouraging as till now we were al; aware of the region as famous for the medieval temples of Bijolian Distt. Bhilawara and Menal (Chittorgarh district); both not far from the newly discovered site of Golamgarh.'

-- R.C. Agarwala [https://www.sahapedia.org/recently-discovered-chaturdik-siva-linga-gola…]