Context: The Madhya Pradesh High Court directed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to conduct a scientific survey of the Bhojshala Temple-Kamal Maula Mosque complex.
About Bhojshala
- Located in: Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh
- Established in: 1034 AD
- Built by: Raja Bhoj of Parmar Dynasty (1000–1055 AD)
- Key features of the temple: It was the University in which the statue of Vagdevi ( Mata Saraswati) was installed.
- Bhojshala was first attacked by Alauddin Khilji in 1305 AD.
- In 1514 AD, Mehmudshah Khilji II attacked Bhojshala and tried to convert it into dargah. He encroached land outside Saraswati Temple and built ‘Kamal Moulana’ Makbara.
- In 1952, the Central Government gave up Bhojshala to the Archaeological Survey of India.
- Architecture of the complex:
- It has a large open courtyard around which there is a verandah decorated with pillars and a prayer hall is located behind it in the west.
- The carved pillars and the exquisitely carved ceiling of the prayer hall were from Bhojshal.
- Inscriptions: In the rocks of complex , two hymns written in Prakrit language of the Karmavatar or crocodile incarnation of Vishnu are engraved.
- Two Sarpabandha pillar inscriptions, one containing the Sanskrit alphabet and the main endings of nouns and verbs and the other containing the individual declensions of the ten tenses and moods of Sanskrit grammar. These inscriptions belong to the 11th-12th century.
- Two Sanskrit texts are engraved in Anustubha verse.
- In one of these, Raja Bhoj's successors Udayaditya and Narvarman have been praised.
- In the second, it is told that these pillars were installed by Udayaditya.