Eran
Eran is an ancient town and archaeological site in the Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh, India. It was one of the ancient mints for Indian dynasties as evidenced by the diverse coins excavated here. The site has 5th and 6th-century Gupta era temples and monuments, particularly the colossal stone boar with sages and scholars depicted on the body of the sculpture. The inscription stones found at Eran are important to reconstructing the chronology of Gupta Empire history. Eran or Erakina was the capital of Erakina Pradesha or Airkina Vishaya, an administrative division of the Gupta Empire.
Etymology
The ancient name of Eran, Erakaina, Ekrishiv, Erakanya or Erakina ; Airikina or Erikina is derived from Eraka. The word erakā probably refers to a tall grass commonly called the Elephant cattail, botanical name Typha elephantina, which grows at Eran in abundance.Location
Eran is located on the south bank of Bina River in Madhya Pradesh. It is about north-northeast of the ancient Vidisha-Sanchi-Udayagiri site, about west-northwest of Sagar, and about northeast of Bhopal. At the site, the river makes an inverted "U" turn, surrounding it with water on three sides, which Cunningham stated made it "a very favorite position for Hindu towns". The terrain is forested and hilly, with high grounds shielding the south of the Eran town.History
Eran is an ancient city, one that finds mention as Erakaina or Erakanya in Buddhist and Hindu texts, on ancient coins and inscriptions nearby and distant sites such as Sanchi. It is now a small town surrounded by many mounds, likely archaeological remains of its distant past. The archaeological site nearby Eran has revealed several Gupta Empire era inscriptions. The town of Eran has a museum with a collection of archaeological relics. The first epigraphical evidence of sati is found in an inscription at Eran, the Inscription of Bhanugupta.Archaeology
The following sequence of cultures have been obtained and carbon dated at the site of EranPeriod I: Chalcolithic
Period II: Early historic
Period IIB: 2nd century BC - 1st century AD
Period III: 1st century - 600 AD
Period IV: late medieval
Description
The complex initially consisted in a twin temple dedicated to Vāsudeva and Saṃkarṣaṇa, and guarded by the 13 meter Garuda pillar.Temples
A group of ancient Hindu temples are located to the west of the Eran town. These are not aligned to the east or any cardinal direction, but to 76 degrees, or about 14 degrees off towards north from east. This suggests that they likely date to the Gupta period. According to Cunningham, this deliberate shift for all the temples and some other Gupta era Hindu temple sites may be to match the one nakshatra measure, or one twenty-seventh part of 360 degrees.All the temples have a rectangular or square plan and they are in a row.
Pillar
Pillar: It is exactly in front of the line of temples. The high monolith pillar stands on a square platform of side. The bottom of the pillar are of square cross-section, the next is octagonal. Above it is a capital in the shape of a reeded bell of height and diameter. On top of the capital is an abacus of height, then a cube of and finally double statue of Garuda holding a snake in his hands, with a chakra wheel behind his head. Garuda, the vahana of Vishnu, is depicted as two fused people, sharing the back, each looking over their 180 degree space, one with the temples, the other towards the town. Near the platform, on the side facing the temples, is a Sanskrit inscription. It mentions the year 165 and the Hindu calendar month of Ashadha, and dedication to Vishnu-Janardhana. The Gupta year 165 implies that the pillar was dedicated in 484/485 CE. The pillar is sometimes referred to as the Buddhagupta pillar or Bhima pillar.Varaha temple
The most unusual and remarkable temple is dedicated to the Varaha avatar of Vishnu. Typically, Varaha is presented in Hindu temples as a man-boar avatar. In Eran, it is a colossal theriomorphic representation of the Varaha legend, which Catherine Becker calls an "iconographic innovation".The boar is made of stone, but the intricate carving of the surface of its body, a goddess hanging by its right tusk, inscriptions and other details make the statue a symbolic narrative. The Eran site is in ruins, but there is enough remnants that suggest that the site was far more complex and developed. Currently, the boar stands in open, but the foundation and stumps around it confirm that around it were walls and mandapa that formed a complete temple. Scholars debate what the shape of the temple would have been. Cunningham, the first archaeologist to write a systematic report, suggested a rectangular shrine. Later scholars such as Catherine Becker suggests that it was likely larger, more along the lines of one found in Khajuraho shrine for Varaha.
;Colossal Varaha
The Colossal Varaha at Eran is the earliest known completely theriomorphic iconography for the Varaha avatar of Vishnu. The scene shown is the return of Varaha after he had successfully killed the oppressive demon Hiranyaksha, found and rescued goddess earth, and the goddess is back safely. The Eran Varaha statue is significant for several reasons:
- it shows the importance and popularity of Vaishnavism and its legend of Vishnu avatars
- the statue includes goddess earth hanging by the boar's right tusk; she has a tidy hairdo bun, has a turban that is bejeweled, her face calm
- the floor is carved to depict the ocean with serpents and sealife, a reminder of the oppressive demon who attacks dharma legend
- on the body of the Varaha are carved sages and saints of Hinduism identified by their simple robes, pointy beards and hair knotted up like sadhus, by they holding kamandalu water pot in one hand and with a yoga mudra in the other, symbolizing knowledge needing protection and god's benevolence when attacked by the oppressive demon Hiranyaksha
- the Varaha's tongue is sticking out slightly, on it is standing a small goddess who has been interpreted as Saraswati
- in his ears are shown celestial musicians
- he wears a roundels garland on his shoulders and neck, these add up to 28 matching the 5th-century astronomy that used 28 major stars to divide the night skies into constellations; each of the roundels has miniature carvings with male and female figures
- the artists made the teeth of the boar humanlike, his eyes too are made to depict compassion
- on its front chest is the Toramana inscription which confirms that the Hunas has invaded the northwest, displaced Gupta Empire authority, and their brief rule over the northwest and central India had begun in early 6th-century
- below the inscription are more Hindu sages, further below is ruined fragment that probably was an anthropomorphic carving of Vishnu to explicitly link the Varaha's underlying identity, states Becker.
About in front of what is now the Varaha platform, there is another stone 6 feet by 3.5 feet. It is aligned with the temple alignment and set into the ground. On it is a large shell script inscription that remains undeciphered. It is probably the stone that formed the original temple's entrance. About in front of this entrance stone is the ruined leftovers of a torana. The gateway pillars are broken, but one of them survives and it is ornamented. Cunningham searched for broken parts of the pillars, but only found a few broken statues and most of the torana pillars gone.
Next to the Varaha temple remnants are two terraces, one to the south that is sided square, another by. These were likely temples too, but they are lost.