A tale of two temples: Mathurā's Keśavadeva and Orcchā's Caturbhujadeva

Abstract

This essay focuses on the last grand temple on the site now known as Krishna Janmabhūmi in Mathurā, which was built by the Orcchā ruler Vīr Singh Dev in the early seventeenth century and destroyed by Aurangzeb about half a century later. I study the motives behind the construction of this temple in conjunction with those behind the Caturbhuja temple, completed by Vīr Singh in his hometown, Orcchā, and destroyed by Shāh Jahān only three decades after its building. As does other recent research, this essay confirms that the common-place interpretation of such events of temple building and destruction as expressions of Hindu or Muslim religious sentiment needs to be problematized. This investigation of the factors that led to the building reveals a multiplicy of discourses. By using not only Persian but also Hindi and Sanskrit sources, the essay shows the complexity of motives beyond the religious rhetorics of some historiographers. It offers complementary explanations of such temple construction as a statement of dharmic kingship justifying irregularities of succession and of upward social mobility within the Mughal imperial formation.

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