Marthand sun temple was a wonderful architectural feast and pride of Kashmiri architecture which secured a prominent place among architectural wonders of the world. The construction was said to have been started between 370 - 500 C.E. by Ramaditya of Karkota dynasty. The construction was completed by the third ruler of Karkota dynasty, Lalitaditya Muktapida between 725 - 756 C.E.
Location:
This square limestone temple was built on a plateau and one can have a beautiful view of Kashmir valley from this temple. This temple is located ate a place called Kehribal, 9 km north-east of Anantnag district. The distance between Marthand temple and Srinagar is 63.3 kilometers and it approximately takes an hour and half at an average driving speed of 50 kilometers per hour.
Architecture:
Marthand sun temple is an excellent example of art, skills and craftmanship of kashmiri inhabitants who took pride in their skills. A perfect scenic spot of view of whole Kashmiri valley was chosen to construct this temple. The temple is a square limestone temple and has pillars constructed in Greek style. This temple has blends of Roman, Greek, Chinese, Gupta, Gandharan and Syrian-Byzantine forms.
This temple consists of a primary shrine which is located exactly at the centre surrounded by 84 smaller shrines.It stretches to 220 feet long and 142 feet broad.It has various chambers which are proportional in sizes and are aligned with overall perimeter of the temple. The whole courtyard of the temple looks like a quadrangle and the primary entrance into the temple is situated in western side of the quadrangle according to Hindu temple architecture. The entrance has a elaborate decoration and allusion to the dities worshipped inside.
The top of the central and primary shrine is in the shape of a pyramid. The pyramidal top can be usually seen in the Hindu temples of Kashmir. The walls of the temple has carvings of other gods also like Vishnu, river goddess like Ganga and Yamuna, in addition to sun god Surya.
Destruction:
The temple was destructed by a Islam ruler named Sikandar Butshikan who was a sixth sultan of Shah Miri dynasty, around 15th century. This cruel ruler in order to supress Hinduism demolished several Hindu temples which includes Marthand sun temple.But this temple gave a tough time destroying to the Sikandar. The Sikandar set up a huge establishment over a years time to destruct this temple. But there was no use. Finally Sikandar set the whole temple on fire and completed the destruction processs.
There was an interesting saying that after digging and destroying of Marthand temple, a copper plate was found below the foundation by Sikandar. He read the script on it and the script said "having built this temple, the king was desirous of ascertaining from his astrologers about how long the temple would last, and was informed by them that after eleven hundred years, a king name Sikundar would destroy it. "By reading that script Sikandar was surprised though vexed, that the Hindu prophet should have predicted the truth and declared. If the King Sikandar would have known about this script on copper plate earlier, he would have saved the temple from destruction to prove that the prediction of Hindu prophets was false.
Declared as site of national importance:
The Archaeological Survey Of India has declared the Marthand Sun temple as a site of national importance in Jammu and Kashmir. Measures are being taken by government of India to protect the remains of the temple which remained after destruction done by Sikandar Butshikan.
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