Discovering Poetic space in the ruins of Chikkajhala

While returning from one of our gallivanting trips, more was to come. We saw what looked like a tempting Vimana of an ancient temple. Set in the concrete jungle this structure was destined to catch our eyes.

We braked, parked and immediately rushed out for we were on the Natioanal Highway 7 The temple is located in Chikkajala.  We took the service lane and thus began our tour of a ruin that beckoned ud from the highway.

The place looked pretty old but there was no signboard. There was rubble piled right in front of it. We were not prepared to encounter the sight that greeted us when we mounted down that rubble The whole place took our breath away. 

The complex with its neatly proportioned tank, the temple in the centre, a pillared mandapa kind of structure behind the temple, pillared corridor to left of the temple, all surrounded by the rampart wall of a now demolished circular fort were beyond expectations.

The three of us are suckers for ruins; for it gives unbridled run to our imagination. This  ruined temple ignited our imagination and we were on a  fantasy trip, more so because there was no information about this place!!

The fort enclosing the temple was circular, just the ramparts no bastions and not much of brick masonry to support the walls from inside.

The main temple and the mandapa along with the corridor did not belong to same period, at least that is what we  deduced, after much deliberation.

The temple had beautiful sculptures on the Vimana but the other parts were bare. Surprisingly, we saw a lamp lit in front of the idol of Hanuman!

The pillars of the mandapa and the corridors are laid out in a rather simple manner, the whole area had the look of a place that had perhaps encountered Ghazni's eighteenth invasion! The floors had been dug up, the pillars the ceilings everything has been stripped to its bone or stone? 

The place looked delerict and run down. But then we saw fresh marks in the mandapa behind the temple. Was it still being inhabited and looked after?

Thus we set about exploring the space, finding the poetic space in that ruined structure at Chikkajala. What was the significance of these marks?

What was the architectural style? Was it W. Ganga or Nayakas looking at the stucco figures one conjectured so 

Was it a private property enclosed within a fort perhaps to protect the temple? 

But then what happened? Who were the marauders, who had stripped the place of its beauty and dignity?

The beautifully laid out symmetrical tank must have been full of water once The ladies  of the haweli after dipping in the tank , offering puja to the lord might have rested in the corridors, exchanged chit-chat and then must have gone into carry out their domestic duties. Perhaps  it might have meant have been a resting place, a serai for  travelers built by a local chief ? Or it might have been a popular deva-sthana?

Was it built by one of the officers employed by the king? Who knows what stories the place holds but we sure did make our own stories and loved every second of story telling at the  ruins of Chikkajala.