HYDERABAD: A rare Chaturmukha Nandeeshwara Lingam was found in the backyard debris of the Phanigiri Kosagundla Narasimha Swamy temple in Chaitanyapuri in Hyderabad.
The site belongs to Hinayana Buddhist monastery called Govindaraja Vihara, which is known to be more than 1,600 years old.
A historian, Dyavanapalli Satyanarayana, found the Lingam in the debris of the backyard of the temple on Sunday. There was a two-feet square granite slab with four eight-inch Nandis, each carved in four cardinal points of the slab. At the centre of the Nandis is a Shivalinga with paanavattam to drain abhisheka water.
Describing the artefact, Satyanarayana said, “The unique sculpture is rare and the oldest of its kind in Telangana. Earlier monolithic Shivalingas belonging to 2nd century BCE to 2nd century CE are found in Gudimallam in Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh and Rangapuram and Ghumakonda in Jogulamba Gadwal district of Telangana. But the Shivalinga now found is unique in the sense that it is surrounded by four Nandis at its four cardinal points. Since the sculpture is found in a well-known Buddhist site constructed by early Vishnukundin ruler (Govindaraja, 400 CE), it gives scope to presume that the subsequent rulers neglected the Buddhist site and promoted Shaiva cult on its ruins”.
He further said that the same was attested at Phanigiri in Suryapet district where a Buddhist slab is chiselled with a Shivalinga. Historians have concluded that the later Vishnukundin rulers patronised Shaivism instead of Buddhism. In support of this presumption, the later Vishnukundin rulers — Indra Bhattaraka Varma and his son Vikramendra Varma — of 6th century CE called themselves Parama Maheshwaras.
“The Chaturmukha Nandeeshwara Linga was subsequently followed in a Chaturmukha Basaveshwara Linga in Mannanur in Nagarkurnool district, which was described in great detail by Palkuriki Somana in Panditaradhya Charitra in 13th century. And subsequent temples at Alampur, Srisailam and other places have adopted the example of sculpting four Nandis at four cardinal points of the main temple complexes,” Satyanarayana added.