Pandrethan Temple

5 km from present Srinagar

It was the ancient Srinagar established by Asoka Maurya in the 3rd cent BC

Asoka was then a Hindu and has not embraced Buddhism then

According to an account it had 96 lakhs of houses then

It was very populous and prosperous then

Ashoka’s son Jalauka built the Jyeshta Rudra temple

Around 525 Mihirakula the Hun king built another Siva temple there named Mihiresvara

About 550 it witnessed further building activities under Pravarasena I

He constructed a Siva temple with a circle of Matrikas named Pravaresvara. It seems it was Yogini temple.

He also built more temples in the capital

About 575, Pravarasena II built the new capital named Pravaresvara-pura which is the modern Srinagar

The old city was called Purana adhisthana (Pandrethan)that continued to be called loosely Srinagar

In course of time both the cities were integrated and retained the old name Arinaga

In 630 the Chinese pilgrim arrived at Srinagar and was received by the Durlabha-vardahana

The king provided him with 20 clerks to write his works and five servants to wait on him

Srinagar was a great center of Buddhist study then

There was a stupa said to have been built over a tooth relic of Buddha

Around 920 Meruvardhana, a minister to the king built in Purana-adhithana a Vishnu temple named Meruvardhana swami

In 1130, Rilhana, minister to King Jayasimha embellished both the old and new cities

He also built a Siva temple in the old city, named the Rilhanesvara

The Pandrethan became a centre of all important religions like Saivism, Buddhism, Vaishnavism, and Sakta

Around 1400 the Sultan Sikandar started destroying the temples and images and yearned the idol breaker (Butshikhan

He destroyed all most all the temples of the country. The images were mutilated and thrown

This was achieved by heaping timber over the temples and setting them on fire

In this he employed a Hindu convert to Islam, Suhu Bhatta.

Records say that Brahmins were tortured and the temples ruthlessly destroyed.

The Images of Vijayesa, Chakradhara, Martanda, Brihad Buddha, Suresvari, and Varaha were so destroyed by him

Those times the central image used to be made of metal – gold, silver or brass. All these images were mutilated and melted down for Sikandar to issue his coins.

Abu Fasl also wrote about Sikandar’s zeal in destroying all religious foundations other than his own.

Western scholars found in the 19th-century an enormous number of mutilated Sculptures and lings lying among the heaps of temples.

Alexander Cunnigham found a large number of destroyed sculptures, etc from the Sankaracharya hill for about 5kilo meters.

The sculptures found are noe in the Pratap sing Museum.

The only ancient vestige in Pandrethan is a Siva temple surrounded by water of a tank.

Though it is in the ruined condition it shows the ancient trend in buildings temples in Srinagar

It is dated to an age earlier than the 10th cent

It is a square temple with a pyramidal roof

There are some sculptures one representing Lakulisa with a lakuda (Shaft) in hand

The ceiling inside has lovely carvings

It is an important temple that needs to be visited in the old Srinagar / Pandarethan