->KartikMistry at 11:47, 24 September 2021

2021-09-24T11:47:29Z

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{{For|the taluka of the same name|Nakhatrana Taluka}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=May 2018}}
{{Infobox settlement
| name = Manjal
| other_name =
| nickname =
| settlement_type = village
| image_skyline =
| image_alt =
| image_caption =
| pushpin_map = India Gujarat#India
| pushpin_label_position = right
| pushpin_map_alt =
| pushpin_map_caption = Location in Gujarat, India
| coordinates = {{coord|23.23|N|69.40|E|display=inline,title}}
| subdivision_type = Country
| subdivision_name = {{flag|India}}
| subdivision_type1 = [[States and territories of India|State]]
| subdivision_name1 = [[Gujarat]]
| subdivision_type2 = [[List of districts of India|District]]
| subdivision_name2 = [[Kutch district|Kutch]]
| subdivision_type3 = [[Taluka]]
| subdivision_name3 = [[Nakhatrana Taluka|Nakhatrana]]
| established_title = 
| established_date =
| founder =
| named_for =
| government_type =
| governing_body =
| unit_pref = Metric
| area_footnotes =
| area_rank =
| area_total_km2 =
| elevation_footnotes =
| elevation_m =
| population_total =
| population_as_of =
| population_rank =
| population_density_km2 = auto
| population_demonym =
| population_footnotes =
| demographics_type1 = Languages
| demographics1_title1 = Official
| demographics1_info1 = [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]], [[Hindi language|Hindi]]
| timezone1 = [[Indian Standard Time|IST]]
| utc_offset1 = +5:30
| postal_code_type = [[Postal Index Number|PIN]]
| postal_code = 370610
| area_code_type = Telephone code
| area_code = 02835
| registration_plate = GJ-12
| blank1_name_sec1 = Nearest city
| blank1_info_sec1 = Bhuj
| blank1_name_sec2 = [[Climate of India|Climate]]
| blank1_info_sec2 = [[Climatic regions of India|Dry]] <small>([[Köppen climate classification|Köppen]])</small>
| website = {{URL|gujaratindia.com}}
| footnotes =
}}
'''Manjal''' is a village in [[Nakhatrana]] Taluka of [[Kutch district]] of [[Gujarat]], India. Nearby ruins of fort and temples of '''Paddhargadh''' is historical place associated with legendary [[Jakh Botera]].

==History==
About two miles to the north-west of the village, in a low country surrounded by hills and overgrown with bushes, the ruins of '''Paddhargadh''', '''Punvaranogadh''' or '''Patan''', are there which has traces of once been a large well-peopled city. In 1830, a great number of [[Indo-Sassanian]] coins were found buried in a copper vessel.<ref name="gbp">{{cite book|title=Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency: Cutch, Palanpur, and Mahi Kantha|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dLUBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA210|year=1880|publisher=Printed at the Government Central Press|page=2324-237}}</ref>

===Fort===
The walls, 2385 yards round, are easily traced, though all the masonry; except one narrow gateway on the west, has gone to decay. Within the walls are the ruins of two palaces, a mint, and a temple of [[Shiva]], all of stone without any trace of wood. In style they closely resemble the ruins at [[Kera, Kutch]]. Punvar is also associated with Lakho Phulani.<ref name="gbp"/>

Punvaranogadh was built around 878 by Punvar, son of Ghaa or Ghav, the chief of [[Kera, Kutch]] and possibly a nephew of Lakho Phulani. Quarreling with his family, Punvar, whose chief characteristic seems to have been cruelty, resolved to found a city and call it after his own name. When the city was finished, the architect was rewarded by having both his hands chopped off that he might not do work like it for any one else. The legendary [[Jakh Botera]], literally seventy-two Yaksha, freed people from oppression of Punvar. Later they were revered by people and temples are erected in their dedication. A fair dedicated to them is organised on the second Monday of [[Bhadrapad]] (September-October) every year on the foothills. This fair lasting two to three days is attended by thousands of pilgrims.<ref name="gbp"/><ref name="Megalithic Portal Gallery2007">{{cite web | title=Punvareshvar Palace | website=Megalithic Portal Gallery | date=28 October 2007 | url=http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=a312&file=index&do=showpic&pid=21628 | accessdate=1 August 2015}}</ref><ref name="The Megalithic Portal 2007">{{cite web | title=Punvareshvar Palace | website=The Megalithic Portal | date=28 October 2007 | url=http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=26553 | accessdate=1 August 2015}}</ref>

===Palaces===
The large palace, ''Vadi Medi'', upper storied and surrounding an open quadrangle; about fifty -five feet square and twenty high, tastefully built of very large blocks of stone, stands on the north side of the city. The front porch and colonnade are ornamented with carving. The upper story and the very heavy stone terraced roof are each supported by eighty -four pillars, each pillar one block of stone, round, and with capitals carved into figures of men and animals. The small, or half-day palace, ''Nani Medi'' or ''addho taro'', for it was only twelve hours building, one storied, of stone, and with rather poor carving, is forty feet long by thirty-three broad. There are two rooms in the back with two [[verandah]]s The roof is a flat terrace of massive stone slabs, joined with dove-tails of iron and plastered with cement 1{{1/2}} inches thick. It seems to have stood in a garden watered by a well now filled with earth and stones and overgrown with trees.<ref name="gbp"/><ref name="Megalithic Portal Gallery2007"/>

===Temples===
[[File:Ruins of Punvareshwar Mahadev temple at Manjal, Kutch, Gujarat.jpg|thumb|Ruined Punvareshwar Mahadev temple]]
;Punvareshwar Mahadev temple
It is said that Punvara married a daughter of the king of Sindh. She was devotee of [[Shiva]] and carried the deity to the village where she installed it.<ref name="Desai2007">{{cite book|author=Anjali H. Desai|title=India Guide Gujarat|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZRLGZNZEoEC&pg=PA325|year=2007|publisher=India Guide Publications|isbn=978-0-9789517-0-2|page=325}}</ref>

In the centre of a platform, 7 feet 9 inches high 160 feet long and 41 wide, stands a temple of Shiva, 50 feet 9 inches long and 22 feet 3 inches wide. In each corner of the platform is a small ruined shrine. Between the ruined entrance and the porch is a hollow for sacrificial fire, ''agnikund''. The temple, facing the west, of blocks of grey and black iron sandstone put together without cement, must have stood about fifty feet high. The porch, 26{{1/2}} feet long and 18 wide, has 16 pilasters and 8 square, 12 feet high, pillars forming two aisles. In the brackets are figures of men and lions. The dome has fallen, hut an upper floor, with rosettes in the middle of the ceiling and a cornice of creeping plants cut in the stone, is entire. Above the lintel are large figures of musicians. The upper part of the shrine has fallen and been rebuilt. Near the temple are some tombstones apparently of later date, but without any writing.<ref name="gbp"/>

;Other temples
At some distance west of the fort are two ruined Shiva temples. They are said to have been built by Dheds or Meghvals, but the richness of the sculpture and the size and style of the materials make this doubtful. One of them, of the same stone as the 'half- day palace' stands on a platform 70 feet long 50 wide and 15 high, built of large blocks ornamented with bands of carving and with a ruined shrine at each corner. In front of the central shrine were two domed porches, one of which is still standing. In this porch; ten feet high pillars support a dome of excellent workmanship with, under its centre, a sacred fire hollow, ''agnikund''. The shrine, with a richly carved doorway, is ten feet square. The other temple, smaller and standing on a platform twenty feet broad, is all in ruins. Of the mint, tho only trace is a low stone wall enclosing a space of 120 by 80 feet. Inside of the enclosure is a small building apparently once a temple.<ref name="gbp"/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* This article incorporates [[Public Domain]] text from {{cite book|title=Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency: Cutch, Palanpur, and Mahi Kantha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dLUBAAAAYAAJ|year=1880|publisher=Printed at the Government Central Press|pages=234-237}}

[[Category:Villages in Kutch district]]

{{Kachchh-geo-stub}}

Manjal - Revision history

->KartikMistry at 11:47, 24 September 2021