Bhojpur
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Founded by the legendary Paramara king of Dhar
Raja Bhoja (1010-53 A.D) has remains of its
magnificent Shiva
 temple
and cyclopean dam. Raja
(King) Bhoja was, an engineer, a warrior, a
great administrator and a man of formidable
vision.
The Paramaras were warrior nomads from the
Steppes who had ridden intothe reputedly rich
lands of India. The Paramara dynasty lasted for
110 years and produced a lineage of
warrior-scholars who were as a adroit at waging
wars as they were at penning poems. But of all
the heroic Paramaras who dominated Malwa, Raja
Bhoja was undoubtedly the greatest the Huns and
Chalukyas of Kalyani, he also wrote books on
astronomy, medicine, grammar, lexiconography,
religion and architecture. |
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Bhojeshwar Temple
The temple of Raja Bhoj dominates the hillock.
After being cured from the disease, in thanks
giving, Raja Bhoja began the construction of
great Bhojeshwar temple. Constructed in the
latter part of 11th century, its great stone
blocks encompass a doorframe, which towers ten
meters high and five meters wide. Four titanic
pillars, richly carved, rise to support an
incomplete dome. The high noon sun lances
through doom, illuminates a massive pedestal
made of three stepped blocks of sandstone, seven
meters square. |
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Dominating this platform and the great brooding
temple is a magnificent lingam ( a phallic
symbol, a symbol of energy, fertility and
potency) more than two meters high and over five
meters in circumference. The temple still shows
the Renaissance reach of his mind. Here religion
and architecture, sculpture, drama and weired
vision combine in a compelling assertion of
reality.
Bhojpur Lake:- The warrior’s legend |
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History
Named after the great king Bhoja, Bhojpur Lake is a rare
piece of engineering feat. It was an object of wonder,
and helped to maintain in the region an equable climate.
A vast sheet of water stretching over 250 square miles
was impounded by rising embankments for shutting off the
outlet in a circle of hills.Raja Bhoja suffered from a
terrible disease, an ascetic advised him to construct a
lake larger than any other in India, fed by 365 springs
and bath in it at an auspicious hour. About 40
kilometers from Bhopal, near head waters of river Betwa,
Bhoja’s engineers found just such a concourse of natural
springs. With great ingenuity, they constructed a lake
which, spread over 64,750 hectares, changed the climate
of Malwa region. The great social benefits of this
stupendous work must have soothed the troubled mind of
Raja Bhoja because after he bathed in the lake his
ailment was cured. The great lake, now drained but still
lush and green-bedded with fields, showed Bhoja’s
imperial might.
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