Lanji is a town in the Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh. The district gazetteer mentions Lanji as the only village bearing any historical significance. Legends connect the Lanji with the Sarangarh kings. A line of Rajput kings ruled the place before the Mandla Gond dynasty conquered it. Legends ascribe that the Gond kings, Raja Gangji and Somji, built a fort about a thousand years back and a tank now named Raja Rani Talao. A temple inside the fort is dedicated to Mahamayi or Lanjkai Devi.1 The first modern reference to the town is from Henry Cousens in 1897.2 He mentions the fort and a Shiva temple amidst the bamboo jungle. He says the fort was believed to be the work of the Gonds in the early 18th century CE. Surrounded by a moat, the fort was a place of considerable strength.
Koteshwar Mahadev Temple: The temple was found in a state of despair by J F Blakiston during his visit in 1913-14. He was told that the temple was a great place of pilgrimage, but he found no one in charge of it. No one was cleaning its interiors, and the temple was filthy and full of bats.3 Its state of preservation might be its location; the temple was situated amidst a bamboo forest during the 1900s. The forest area has reduced significantly since then, and now the temple is wide open. It is presently protected under the ASI, which has done a few conservation works on the edifice. The statues lying on the ground have been refitted into the temple walls, slightly haphazardly. The temple consists of a garbhagrha, antarala, and a mandapa. The vertical elevation consists of a vedibandha, jangha, and shikhara. The vedibandha has a set of decorated moldings resting over a jagati; the latter comprises two moldings. The temple follows the pancharatha plan with five projections. The original jangha has not survived; the present structure is a recomposition during conservation processes. Various statues are haphazardly embedded into the jangha.
Ganesha and Agni are embedded in the kapali. Apsaras in different postures are studded at various levels over the jangha. Chamunda is in the northern jangha. Agni and Varuna represent the astha-dikpala group. Based on these sculptures, the plan of the jangha could be easily visualized. As the temple is dedicated to Shiva, the bhadra niches over the jangha would carry Ganesha, Parvati, and Kartikeya. The Ganesha sculpture we now see over the kapali was originally enshrined over a bhadra niche. The ashta-dikpala group was distributed over the karna niches. The presence of the consorts of ashta-dikpalas suggests that these were also distributed over the jangha. It would be challenging to state whether the karna-ratha had two tiers with separate niches, one for dikpala and another for the respective consort. The multitude of apsara sculptures suggests that these were distributed over the partiratha niches and recessed spaces.
The garbhagrha doorway is composed of three shakhas (jambs). Dvrapalas with attendants are present over the base of the jambs. The middle shakha has a huge pillar composed of multiple shafts. The base is a multifaceted circular shaft, followed by another circular component decorated with bead designs. Above it is a circular pattika with sculptures of dancers and musicians. The circular shape of the shaft continues above it and culminates in a rectangular abacus. The other two shakhas on the sides are decorated with foliage motifs. Ganesha is present over the lalata-bimba. An architrave supported above the abacus of the pillar shakha has navagrhas standing on either side of Gaja-Lakshmi in the middle. The garbhagrha floor is lower than the antarala and is reached through a flight of steps. Inside the garbhagrha is a shivalinga. The ceiling of the garbhagrha is supported over bharavahakas (caryatids), two in the corner and two in the middle. The ceiling is composed of concentric circles with reducing circumference moving up.
Fort and Temple – The temple is located inside the Lanji Fort. It consists of three garbhagrhas connected to a common mandapa. The central shrine is given due prominence by its tall shikhara and a mukha-mandapa in its front. The temple was built in the late medieval period, as evidenced by its architecture and style. The external facade is very plain and bereft of any sculpture. Inside the garbhagrhas are placed a few sculptures. A local museum is also set up where statues found in and around the fort are kept. The presence of Shaiva and Jain sculptures suggests multiple temples inside, and not all have survived the toll of time.
Inscriptions:
- Lanji Stone Inscription4 — This inscription was first noticed by Hira Lal, who mentioned that it had been deposited in the Nagpur Museum. The inscription refers to the Yadava chief Ramanayaka. This chief cannot be equated with the Yadava king Ramachandra, as Lanji was never part of the Yadava kingdom. An inscription of the Kalachuri king Jajalladeva I (1090-1120 CE) also indicates that the chiefs at Lanji paid tribute to him. Hira Lal does not mention any remark on the contents of the inscription.
1 Low, C E (1907). Central Province Gazetteers – Balaghat District. The Pioneer Press. Allahabad. pp. 324-325
2 Cousens, Henry (1897). Lists of Antiquarian Remains in the Central Provinces and Berar. Government Press. Calcutta. p. 25
3 Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, Eastern Circle, for 1913-14. p. 40
4 Lal Hira, Rai Bahadur (1916). Descriptive Lists of Inscriptions in the Central Provinces and Berar. The Government Press. Nagpur. p. 19
Acknowledgment: Some of the photos above are in CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain from the collection released by the Tapesh Yadav Foundation for Indian Heritage.