Sunday 23 October 2011

Shri Kanakaditya temple, Kasheli, Maharashtra


Allaudin Khilji attacked Saurashtra in 1296. There were twelve Sun idols on a pedestal in the Sun temple Prabhaspattan, Shri Krishna’s town of residence. When the Pujari of the temple learnt of the impending attack, he climbed on board the ship of a trader heading south the idols. That ship got stuck near the coast near Kasheli. He picked one those idols and hid it in a cave on the coast. This is a 400 sq ft natural cave on a cliff about 15 feet high at the coast.
Later, the ship moved ahead. When the villagers found the idol in the cave, they built a temple in their village and instated it. Shri Kanakaditya is this temple.
There are exemplary carvings and wooden images in the temple. The KanakAditya idol is cut from black rock. There is a silver chariot that can be viewed during the Rath (chariot) festival. The RathaSaptami festival is celebrated here for five days beginning from Magh Sudha Saptami to Magh Sudha Ekadashi.
There is a copper plate in the temple dating 850 years back. There is an article carved on it in Sanskrit.
Kasheli is on the Ratnagiri – Adivre- Poornagad route.

1 comment:

  1. I had been to the place exactly on May 24, 2015. Was trying to gather details on the place and came across your blog. Sincere thanks for the information. However, I need a bit of explanation on the same.

    You have mentioned two distinct years, the first one being 1296 (year when Allauddin Khilji attacked Saurashtra). Current year is 2015, and it means the temple is definitely less than 725 years old.

    Second year refers to an article carved out roughly 850 years back.

    I was told that the teample is 1000 years old. Now, I am not able to arrive at the actual life basis the details you have given and the details I was told at the temple. I am confused - need to do some more searching on the same.

    Thanks anyways...

    ReplyDelete