Kankali Devi Temple, Tigawa

Alexander Cunningham, who surveyed the site for the ASI in the 1870s (report published 1879), found a mound about 76 m long that had held more than 36 temples. They ranged from tiny three-walled shrines to buildings with pillared porches, all with spires crowned by an amalaka, and none with Buddhist or Jain features. In the later 19th century a railway contractor demolished most of them and carted away about 200 loads of dressed stone as building material. Villagers petitioned the British official at Jabalpur, who stopped the work. The Kankali Devi temple, too big to be used as railway material, survived.

The temple has no foundation inscription, and its date rests on style. Cunningham assigned it to the Gupta period. Percy Brown placed it between 400 and 450 CE, and most later scholarship narrows it to about 400–425 CE, though Michell suggests the late 5th century. The UNESCO entry dates it to the 5th century CE. According to the National Monuments Authority list of the ASI Jabalpur Circle, 'the whole site of Kankali Devi temple including the Devi temple and ruined temple close to them' at Tigwa was declared protected in 1906.

Architecture and sacred features

The temple faces east, deviating by about 13 degrees according to Cunningham, and stands on a low platform. It has a square sanctum, about 2.4 m inside, and an open porch (mukhamandapa) carried on four massive pillars. The pillars change from square to octagonal to sixteen-sided to round as they rise, and are crowned with vase-and-foliage capitals topped by pairs of crouching lions. The sides of the porch were walled in at a later date. The roof is made of flat stone slabs.

The doorway is framed by carved bands. At the top stand the river goddesses Ganga, riding a crocodile, and Yamuna, riding a tortoise. Each holds a water vessel and reaches for fruit from a tree. Wikipedia compares the temple closely to the Gupta Temple 17 at Sanchi and to the cave shrines of Udayagiri.