Sariska Tiger Reserve, Alwar, Rajasthan, India.
The Hanuman idol at Pandupol.
To visitors used to seeing the Vedic age Hanuman in its present day highly sculpted form complete with the face of a monkey and standing upright as a man with a mace in one hand and a mountain in the other. The idol at Pandupol can at first be a little difficult to comprehend, let alone imagine as another artistic version of the much revered and loved demigod.
Peculiar as it is with its splayed out shape which from certain angles resemble a squid like creature with a massive head rising between two over-sized tentacles and comes nowhere close to resembling that of a primate.
Yet, the peculiar shape of the stone carved idol is what makes it a rarity in existence and perhaps the only one to come out of antiquity that depicts Hanuman in a reclining position.
As narrated on a cenotaph inside the temple that tells of a mythical encounter between the Pandava brothers and the demigod at Pandupol.
A narrow passageway that goes through a hill, located not far from where the modern day temple, made of brick and mortar, stand harboring the idol inside its walls.
An early artistic version of the deity.
Although there is no historical evidence to suggest as to which era the idol was created. Or whether it existed before or after the epics were compiled.
The rudimentary craftsmanship suggests it was likely by a people who hadn’t as yet developed the skills or arrived at the uniform image in which the demigod came to be represented later.
In which case the idol could indeed be a very early form of the deity.
Sariska, home of the Matsya.
History records the region of Sariska to be the home of the Matsya – an ancient Vedic clan. Who in all likelihood may well have been aware of the passageway through the hill, and may perhaps also have been the ones to create the idol.
However, much of it is mere speculation. Since the region of Sariska has also been found to have been inhabited since the Palaeolithic period. Not to mention may also have witnessed the Harappan civilization that preceded the coming of the Indo-Aryans.
On a more concrete note, geologists have ascertained that the passageway that is Pandupol is the natural result of water on limestone. Hinting this natural gateway at some point in time may have inspired poets of the age to re-imagine it as the gateway of the Pandavas.
The word Pandupol too is quintessentially an old Sanskrit word – meaning the gateway of the Pandavas, see Pandupol, Alwar Tourism
