Malinithan

Location

The Malinithan archaeological site is located at the base of the Siang mountains in the Likabali town and a sub-division of the Lower Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh. It is situated on a hill that rises to a height of 21 metres (69 ft), which affords a commanding view of the plains around it and of the Brahmaputra River.

History and Dating

Archaeologists have generally dated the principal temple complex to the 13th–14th centuries. Art-historical assessments, however, place the cultural period represented by the surviving sculptures and architectural remains within a broader span extending from about the 10th to the 14th century. As per Bhyomakesh Tripathy, the scale of its stone architecture has also been taken to indicate construction under a prosperous polity before the Ahom occupation of the region in the 16th century, with its latest phase assignable to the period of the Chutia kingdom. The granite sculptures like the images of Indra, Surya on chariot and Karttika have been dated to the 13th–15th centuries and described as representing a later development of the Pala-Sena sculptural tradition.

Historians generally assign the temple complex to the Chutia period and suggest that the Chutia rulers may have employed artisans brought from Odisha or other parts of eastern India in its construction. An architectural analysis likewise links the site's layout and construction to the era of Chutia rule. It notes that the fully developed ground plan comprising the vimana, mandapa and mukhamandapa is characteristic of temple architecture of the 12th century or later. The vimana at Malinithan is of the saptaratha type; while pancharatha plans remained more common up to about the 12th century, the adoption of a seven-projection plan is interpreted as indicating a construction date in the 12th–13th centuries. On chronological grounds, the study therefore places the construction of the temple within the period of the rise of the Chutia polity.

The same study further draws attention to the arrangement of the vimana, mandapa and mukhamandapa as three distinct architectural units separated by small intervals. It compares this layout with medieval temples of Odisha, while noting that such a plan is not generally seen in temples of Assam attributed to the Salasthamba and Kamarupa Pala periods. Since this form of temple construction continued in Odisha at least until the end of the 13th century, whereas the Kamarupa Pala polity had already declined by the time of the rise of the Chutias, the author suggests that the temple may have been built under Chutia royal patronage by craftsmen brought from Odisha.

Stonemason marks found in Malinithan were also found in other sites of Sadiya like Tamreswari temple, Bura-buri, a brick-stone tank (near Dibang), as well as other places like Naksaparvat and Buroi. The boundary stone-cum-brick wall of Tamreswari temple, which contains the mason marks, was built by the Chutia king Muktadharmanarayan in 1442 AD. The temple is not mentioned in the 10th–11th-century Kalika Purana, indicating that the present temple was likely built after this period. The site may, however, have existed earlier as a local or indigenous shrine before its later development into a formal temple complex.

By the early twentieth century, Malinithan was already a ruined monument, although the site continued to retain a sacred character. In the early 1920s, W. H. Calvert, the Assistant Political Officer at Pasighat, visited the site and encountered a sadhu residing there. It was subsequently inspected by D. Barua and B. Bhuyan, the latter finding a detached sivalinga, several damaged stone images including a ten-armed Durga, pieces of decorated silver and smoking pipes. On the basis of these remains, Bhuyan considered the site to have continued to receive occasional pilgrims.

Local traditions also preserved the sacred character of the ruins before their archaeological excavation. A later account records that the site was formerly known as Ghagrathan, after the nearby Ghagra River, and that local tribal hunters avoided hunting in the area and made offerings there for protection from harmful spirits; the place subsequently developed as a centre of pilgrimage.

Systematic archaeological excavation began in 1968 under L. N. Chakravarty, then Deputy Director of Research (History) of the Arunachal Pradesh Administration, and continued in a series of campaigns until 1971. The excavations exposed the decorated basement of the temple complex and recovered more than one hundred sculptures and architectural fragments, including images of Hindu deities, dancing yakshas, animal and floral motifs, carved panels and iron dowels or clamps used in the masonry. A further excavation reported in the Indian Archaeology 1972–73: A Review recovered, among other remains, a granite image of Surya standing on a chariot drawn by seven horses and an image of Ganesha.

The site subsequently underwent conservation and further archaeological investigation. Five sculptures from Malinithan were chemically treated in 1990–91, while conservation of the antarala and mandapa and further excavation were undertaken in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Malinithan is presently a state-protected archaeological monument maintained by the Directorate of Research of the Government of Arunachal Pradesh.

Legend

A legend was implanted around the site by Srimanta Sankardev in the 16th century, connecting the place to the mythological king of Bhishmaka (Lord of Vidarbha) of the epics. The association of the legend with the place led to a widespread renaming of the region.

As per the mythology constructed, when Krishna wanted to marry Rukmini, the daughter of King Bhishmaka of Vidarbha, he abducted her prior to her wedding with Shishupala. Krishna and Rukmini then travelled from Bhishmakanagar to Dwarka, stopping at Malinithan on the way over, where they were guests of Shiva and Durga, who were doing penance. Parvati, Shiva's consort, warmly welcoming her guests, presented them with garlands made of flowers plucked from her orchard.

Features

The archaeological excavations revealed a very well-designed and carved plinth of a temple, 8 feet (2.4 m) high, with sculptures of deities and animals, floral designs, and damaged columns and panels. Four sculptures of lions on elephants were found at the four corners of the temple ruins.

Among the sculptures found at Malinithan, five notable examples carved from granite are Indra riding Airavata, Kartikeya riding a peacock, Surya riding a chariot, Ganesha with his mouse, and a large Nandi bull. The images of Indra and Kartikeya have been dated to the 13th–14th centuries and described as representing a later development of the Pala-Sena sculptural tradition.

Later excavations revealed additional structural and sculptural remains. Excavation on the eastern side of the complex recovered sandstone sculptures including a small image of Varahi, gaja-simha figures and other carved fragments, while another temple base was exposed to the north of the principal temple together with pillars, lintels, beams and roof elements. In the northern excavation, the architectural members were predominantly sandstone, whereas most of the sculptures were of fine-grained spotted granite. The finds included fragments interpreted as belonging to a large ten-armed Durga image, a granite lotus pedestal, lamp stands and other sculptural remains.

Based on the erotic Maithuna sculptures found here in different postures, it is believed that tantricism prevailed here as a fertility rite of the primitive tribal people who held the "mother principle as the procreative power of nature".

The temple is carved entirely out of stone, a type of temple known as Asmamayai. Iron dowels discovered in the ruins of the stone temple resemble the ones found in the Tamreswari temple of Sadiya.

Conversion to a Sacred Hindu shrine

With the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state, similar to the Kamakhya temple, Malinithan has been portrayed as a sacred Hindu shrine as part of a broader effort to saffronise the region.