Shankaragaurishvara Temple is located in Patan, near Baramulla, Kashmir. 
This temple was built by king Shankarvarman who ruled between 883 to 902 AD. He built his temple, in his devotion towards Lord Shiva, in his capital Shankarapattana (now called Pattan). The temple is named after the King himself and has been a freat affiliation of Hindu Shaivism. There was another temple built next to this temple called Sugandesha Temple in honor of his wife. This temple is also now in dilapidated condition.
The temple’s entrance porch, facing east, has a carvings both on its exterior fascia as well as interior surfaces which appears freshly chiseled. The pediments are symmetrically stacked and the plinth is built in the open colonnade style within walled enclosures which looks like a form of cellular passage.
This general view of the west façade, with a measuring scale and a figure posed in the foreground, is reproduced in Henry Hardy Cole’s Archaeological Survey of India report, ‘Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir,’ (1869), in which he wrote, ‘The Temple of Sankara Gaureshwara is elaborately carved, and some of the details are as a sharp and clear as when first cut. The degree of elaboration in the porch-like projections and interior carvings…The repetition of the pediments one above the other, together with the highly decorated pillars in the porches, all prove that the style of building practiced in Kashmir since the erection of the Jyeshteswara Temple, had in the progress of time followed the natural tendency for greater elaboration.’ The temple is now in ruins and hence no worship can be conducted. This site is one of the listed sites under Archeological survey of India and hence one of the tourist destinations.
This temple was built by king Shankarvarman who ruled between 883 to 902 AD. He built his temple, in his devotion towards Lord Shiva, in his capital Shankarapattana (now called Pattan). The temple is named after the King himself and has been a freat affiliation of Hindu Shaivism. There was another temple built next to this temple called Sugandesha Temple in honor of his wife. This temple is also now in dilapidated condition.The temple’s entrance porch, facing east, has a carvings both on its exterior fascia as well as interior surfaces which appears freshly chiseled. The pediments are symmetrically stacked and the plinth is built in the open colonnade style within walled enclosures which looks like a form of cellular passage.
This general view of the west façade, with a measuring scale and a figure posed in the foreground, is reproduced in Henry Hardy Cole’s Archaeological Survey of India report, ‘Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir,’ (1869), in which he wrote, ‘The Temple of Sankara Gaureshwara is elaborately carved, and some of the details are as a sharp and clear as when first cut. The degree of elaboration in the porch-like projections and interior carvings…The repetition of the pediments one above the other, together with the highly decorated pillars in the porches, all prove that the style of building practiced in Kashmir since the erection of the Jyeshteswara Temple, had in the progress of time followed the natural tendency for greater elaboration.’ The temple is now in ruins and hence no worship can be conducted. This site is one of the listed sites under Archeological survey of India and hence one of the tourist destinations.
Article has been compiled from
Archaelogical survery India – Kashmir
Image from Wiki
