Harshnath: The Broken Tenth Century Shiva Temple Above Sikar

The old temple is dated by an inscription, which is why it matters to historians as much as to devotees.

What the record says:

• The inscription is dated Vikram Samvat 1030, corresponding to 973 CE
• It records the building of a temple of Harshadeva on this hill
• The work is associated with a Shaiva ascetic and with the patronage of the Chahamana rulers of Shakambhari, the dynasty later known as the Chauhans
• It records grants made for the temple's maintenance, listing the villages and revenues assigned to it

Why such a record is valuable:

• It gives a firm date to a building, which is rare for Indian temples of this period
• It names a dynasty at a stage where other evidence is thin, and the Chahamanas of the tenth century are much less documented than their twelfth century descendants
• It shows how a hill temple was endowed, with named villages supporting named ritual duties, which tells us how such institutions actually ran

This is worth pausing on. A temple is often read purely as a religious building. An endowment inscription shows it was also an economic institution, receiving revenue, employing people, holding land, and expected to continue for centuries. The care with which the grants were recorded is the care of people who assumed the arrangement would outlast them.

It did not, in the end. But the stone that recorded it survived the building it was cut for.

The old temple was destroyed, and what stands today is a platform with fragments. The destruction is generally placed in the late medieval period, and local tradition and regional histories attribute it to iconoclastic raids of that era.

What survives on site:

• The adhisthana, the temple platform, with its mouldings largely intact
• Pillars and pilasters carved with the density typical of tenth century western Indian work
• Sections of doorframe, with river goddesses, guardians and floral bands
• Loose sculpture, including forms of Shiva, dikpalas, apsaras, musicians and narrative panels
• Fragments incorporated into the later temple and into structures nearby

Where the rest went:

• Pieces from Harshnath are held in the Sikar collection, and others reached museums including collections in Jaipur, Amber and Delhi
• Some carved stone was reused in later construction on the hill, which was normal practice and is why fragments turn up in walls

What the sculpture shows. The style belongs to the western Indian idiom of the tenth century, the same broad tradition that produced the great temples of Rajasthan and Gujarat in this period. The figures are slender, the ornament is deep, and the treatment of the doorframe in particular is of high quality.

What is worth saying plainly, without turning it into grievance. Harshnath was a first rank building. Rajasthan has very few surviving temples of this date and ambition, and the loss of this one leaves a real gap in what can be studied. The site is protected now and should be treated as what it is, a ruin of national importance rather than a picnic spot.

Worship on Harshagiri did not end when the old temple fell. A later shrine carries it, and this continuity is the more interesting half of the site.

The eighteenth century temple:

• It is attributed to Shiv Singh, ruler of Sikar, in the eighteenth century
• It is a working temple with a linga in worship, priests in attendance and a regular schedule
• It stands close to the old ruins, using the same hill and in places the same stone
• A Bhairav shrine on the hill receives its own offerings

What happens here through the year:

• Mahashivratri, the largest occasion, with a fair on the hill and crowds from across Shekhawati
• Shravan Mondays, when local devotees climb in numbers
• Somvati amavasya and the regular Monday observance of Shiva
• Ordinary daily worship with bel patra, water and flowers

The pattern is worth naming because it repeats across north India. A temple is destroyed. The site is not abandoned. Within a generation or a few generations, someone rebuilds, usually smaller, usually plainer, usually with the old stone lying about them.

That second building is rarely of much interest to art historians. It is of enormous interest to anyone asking how traditions actually survive. What kept Shiva on this hill was not the tenth century temple, which was destroyed, but the habit of climbing the hill, which was not.

No account of Harshnath is complete without the shrine on the neighbouring hill, because the two are held together by a katha that everyone in the region knows.

The story as it is told locally:

• Jeen and Harsh were sister and brother
• A quarrel arose in the family, in most tellings involving Harsh's wife and a slight to Jeen
• Jeen left in distress and went to a hill to perform tapasya
• Harsh followed to bring her back and could not persuade her
• Both then remained where they were, each undertaking austerity on their own hill, and each came to be worshipped there

Jeen Mata is enshrined at Jeenmata village, on a hill roughly ten kilometres from Harshnath, and hers is one of the busiest Devi shrines in Shekhawati, with very large gatherings during both Navratris.

What the katha is doing. Sibling pairs on facing hills are a recurring pattern in Indian folk religion, and they usually mark something real about the landscape, that two shrines grew up in relation to each other and their communities overlapped.

What it means for a visitor is simple and practical. These two are worshipped as a pair, many devotees do both in one journey, and the correct way to see Harshnath is with Jeen Mata on the same day.

Getting there

• Harshagiri hill, about 14 km from Sikar town in the Shekhawati region
• Sikar is on the Jaipur to Bikaner highway, roughly 115 km from Jaipur and about two and a half hours by road
• Sikar has a railway station on the Jaipur to Churu and Bikaner line
• A motorable road climbs most of the hill, with a short walk at the top. Taxis from Sikar are the usual arrangement

When to go

• October to March for climbing weather. Shekhawati summers are extreme and the hill has no shade
• Mahashivratri for the fair, if you want the site at its busiest
• Shravan Mondays for local devotion
• Early morning for the light on the carvings and for clear views over the plain

On the hill

• The ruins and the platform of the old temple, worth an unhurried hour
• The working temple and the Bhairav shrine
• Views across Shekhawati, and wind turbines along the ridge

Practical notes

• Carry water. There is little on the hill and the last stretch is exposed
• Shoes with grip. The approach is rocky
• There is no substantial food or facility at the site. Eat in Sikar
• Do not climb on the ruins, move fragments or make chalk or paint marks. The site is protected and the pieces are irreplaceable

Combining the visit

• Jeen Mata, about 10 km away, which most devotees pair with Harshnath
• Khatushyamji, roughly 45 km from Sikar, one of the busiest shrines in Rajasthan
• The painted havelis of Nawalgarh, Mandawa and Fatehpur in the wider Shekhawati region

A closing thought. It is easy to read a ruin as an ending. On Harshagiri you can stand at the old platform, look across at a bell being rung in a smaller temple built eight centuries later, and see that the tradition treated the destruction as an interruption rather than a conclusion.