KVPT’s Patan Darbar Earthquake Response Campaign - Work to Date - September 2016

Harishankara Temple
Niels Gutschow and Raju Roka
Historical Significance
The Harishankara temple was consecrated in 1706. An
early 19 th century chronicle mentions King Yoganarendra
Malla's daughter Rudramati as the principal donor,
but Adalbert Gail suggests on the basis of numismatic
evidence, that it was his daughter Yogamati, who acted
as the regent after the king's death in November 1705.
Following the construction of the early Char Narayana
and Narasimha temples in 1565 and 1589, the great
achievements by Siddhinarasimha Malla who initiated
the building of the Vishveshvara and Krishna temples
in 1627 and 1937, the Bhimsen temples at the northern
end of the square and another Vishveshvara temple
(known as Bhaidegah) in 1680 and 1678 punctuated
the square, leaving ample space in front of the Keshav
Narayan Cok, with a pillar bearing Yoganarendra put
up in 1693 in front of the imposing Degutale temple.
Yogamati not only added the Harishankara temple, but
also an octagonal Krishna temple in stone in 1723. With
three roofs and raised on a three-stepped plinth, Harishankara
was only slightly smaller than the Krishna and
Bhimsen temples. In many details it was designed along
the standards set by the Vishveshvara temple, which was
the first temple of its style - based on a sanctum with an
outer ambulatory and colonnettes placed in front of the
20 pillars of the ambulatory.
While Patan kings took the lead in the first half of the
17 th century in presenting previously unknown temple
types, Kathmandu followed in the second half of the 17 th
century, and Bhaktapur at the end of the 17 th and early
18 th century. Obviously, Yogamati had not the resources
to compete with Bhaktapur's five-tiered Nyatapvala
temple which was just completed when her father died.
The impulse to compete resulted at a kind of copy at a
reduced scale.
The sanctum is thirty centimetres smaller than the Vishveshvara
temple, but this small difference and the dimensions
of the pillars created a new verticality, hitherto
unknown in Patan.
The eight-armed cult figure represents Shiva (Shankara)
on its right side, equipped with pot, rosary, hour-glass,
drum and trident, and Vishnu (Hari) on his left with his
most common attributes, namely lotus, discus, conch
shell and club.
The pillars are highly decorated but devoid of iconographical
details. The twenty tympana overarching the
intercolumniations are crowned by forms of Vishnu on
his mount Garuda, grasping the legs of a pair of anthropomorphized
snakes. The bottom ends of the tympana
are marked by Makaras, aquatic creatures spouting forth
demon figures; in the centre - similar to the Vishveshvara
temple - Kirtimukha with hybrid creatures (dragon
and snake) or even a peacock flanked by dragons. The
doorways are much simplified, with triple niches housing
Ganesha, Mahalakshmi and Sarasvati on the lintel.
The extended lintels feature the eight planetary deities,
starting in the east with Candra (Moon) and Surya
(Sun), and continuing with Bhauma (Mars ) and Budha
(Mercury), Brihaspati (Jupiter) and Shura (Venus), Shanaiscara
(Saturn) and Rahu (an invisible planet). The
narrowing lintel ends feature the eight auspicious signs,
four on each side, beginning with the endless knot, lotus,
banner, and the vase of plenty and continuing with
a pair of fly whisks, a pair of fish, a ceremonial umbrella
and conch shell. The quarter-round panels next to the
door jambs feature the Eight Mother Goddesses, of
which four were already lost in the 1970’s. They are sixarmed,
placed on pairs of their mounts: Maheshvari on
peacocks (east-left), Vaishnavi (south, left) on a pair of
Garudas, Mahakali on a pair of corpses (north, right) and
Mahalaksmi on a pair of lions (north, left). The function
of these Mother Goddesses is, as Gail has pointed out, to
ensure the well-being of the living beings (jagat-kalyanakarinyah,
according to the Devibhagavatapurana). The
Opposite
Harishankara Temple
View from the south-east
Photograph Stanisław Klimek,
September 2008
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