Mahalakshmi (Ambabai) Temple, Kolhapur

The temple's age is debated. The District Gazetteer says construction is thought to have begun in the Rashtrakuta period (9th century), notes a view that the oldest parts may be early Chalukya work, and elsewhere says the temple was built in the 7th or 8th century. Maharashtra Tourism credits a Chalukya ruler, Karandev, in the 7th century. The Gazetteer also records a long-standing claim that the building was originally a Jain temple.

The temple trust cites inscriptions as evidence of royal patronage. It names the Sanjan copper plate of the Rashtrakuta king Amoghavarsha (871 CE) as the oldest known documentary reference to the goddess. It also notes that the Shilahara rulers of Kolhapur (11th-12th centuries) styled themselves as having received boons from Mahalakshmi, and that Yadava-period inscriptions include one of Singhana (1218-19 CE). The Gazetteer lists four Devanagari inscriptions in the temple, including ones dated 1218 and 1236 CE.

According to the Gazetteer, during the disturbances of the 14th and 15th centuries the image was hidden in a private house. It was reinstalled in the temple around 1722 on the orders of Sambhaji of Kolhapur. The Garud Mandap in front of the temple was added between 1838 and 1843.

Architecture and sacred features

The Gazetteer describes a cross-shaped temple of local black stone in the mortarless Hemadpanti style. It faces west, with a drum chamber (nagarkhana) over the main entrance and smaller gates on the north, east and south. Ambabai is enshrined under the main dome, with Mahakali and Mahasaraswati in smaller side shrines and a linga in the upper storey directly above the goddess. The outer walls carry niches with carved figures of musicians and dancers.

Maharashtra Tourism describes the image as a black stone figure about three feet tall, crowned by a five-headed serpent, holding a matulinga fruit, a mace, a shield and a drinking bowl, with a stone lion behind it.