Type: Monument - Temple
Province: Azad Jammu and Kashmir
District: Bhimber
Period: Historic
Relative Chronology: 1799-1849 CE
Description: This temple is located on the eastern side i.e., left side of the metaled road from Chamb to Gujrat. This temple is locally called Chak-Pandith Mandir. It is an ancient Hindu temple with two shikaras. It is a Shiva and Krishna temple. It is located in Chamb, district Bhimber, Tehsil Barnala. The nearest village is Chak-Pandith. The temple has simple architecture where we see the use of standard size bricks in lime mortar. The temple has two garbha-grhas. The first one is surmounted by smaller shikara has a seat for placing Murti and the second garbha-grhas has the place for Shiva lingam with a narrow outlet for water and milk attached to it and there are four arches on each side of this garbha-grhas. It has two shikaras, the left one large in size then the other smaller one. It has a horizontal sanctum with two worship places surmounted by paramedial shikaras. The left one is larger in size decorated by finial on the top and it is decorated by the picture of lord Krishna. Below this the base of this shikara is decorated with lotus petals and four roses with four petals. The shikara on the right side is smaller in size. On the front of the temple there are two framed panels which have some traces of goddesses which are now defaced. The panel on the left side is longer in size than the other one. There is a narrow path around the garbha-grhas for devotees to revolve around the Murti and Shiv-lingam. There are three stairs to enter the temple and each stair measures 0.97 m in length, 0.24 m in width and 0.1 m in height. The temple is decorated with simple art. The left shikara which is longer than the other one has a small painted picture of lord Krishna. He is shown playing flute dressed in maroon. He is shown with long black hair and wearing a long white mala round his neck. Below the picture of lord Krishna, the shikara has the lotus petals and these petals are in green, red, yellow and black color. And finally, the base of this shikara is decorated with four petal flowers which are painted with black color and one flower is joined to other by a long green leaf and these flowers are painted only on the front of the shikara. While the lotus petals surrounding the whole shikara and there are nine petals on each side. In the surrounding of the temple there are two pipal trees. One is quite near the entrance stairs of the temple and the other is on the other side of the road and this pipal tree is some 500-600 years old.
Latitude: 32.868757137
Longitude: 74.243485773
Ownership: Private
Legal Status: Not Protected
Title of Publication: Threat to the Cultural Heritage of Pakistan Survey and Documentation of Tangible and Intangible Heritage of Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan
Published In: Taxila Institute of Asian Civilizations, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 2020
Year of Publication: 2020
Bibliography/Reference: Khan, Ashraf, Ghani-ur-Rahman
