File:0121921 Neelkanth temple, Kalinjar Fort, Uttar Pradesh 518.jpg

English: The Neelkanth temple site of Kalinjar consists of several cave temples, dozens of reliefs carved on the walls – quite many of which have inscriptions near them, a colossal bas-relief of 18-armed Kal Bhairav with nearby Kali, a pillared mandapa with associated rock-cut temple for Uma-Maheshvara, a rock-cut water tank, and a ruined temple section that now holds over hundred sculptures, inscribed stone panels and parts of one or more lost temples.

The oldest inscriptions are in Gupta script (c. 6th century). Other inscriptions are in early Devanagari (c. 9th to 10th century) and many in fully developed Devanagari script (11th to 17th century). Quite many of these Hindu inscriptions are of significance to the history of Kalinjar fort, Bundelkhand and Bhagelkhand, but they are also aesthetic art given their fine calligraphy. Quite many start with "Om Namo Shivaya".

The most notable artwork at the Nilkantha temple site include many versions of Ekamukha Shiva linga, a few saharsalinga, dancing Kali, standing Ganesha, anthropomorphic Nandi, Kal Bhairav, Parvati, Saraswati and others.

This site is sometimes referred to as Nilakanth, Nilkantha, or Neelakanth temple.

Background and history

The Kalinjar fort, also referred to as the Kalanjar fort, was originally a 10th-century Hindu fort built by the Chandela dynasty in Vindhyan mountain range, in Uttar Pradesh (near Madhya Pradesh border). It was reinforced in the 11th-century. The site is more ancient as it is mentioned as a Shiva-related Taposthan (place of meditation and austerities) in pre-5th century Hindu texts. Archaeological studies have shown that the site was already active, with Shiva reliefs and structures for Hindu pilgrimage by the Gupta era (6th-century, e.g. one of two Gajasurasamhara bas-reliefs).

Kalinjar literally means "destroyer of time (Kal)", or "one who destroyed even time", an epithet for Shiva. Kalinjar garh or Kalinjar durg means the fort of Shiva, or more literally "the fort that lasts beyond time". An alternate interpretation is that the fort was named after Kali (jara means "old").

The fort is described by many Muslim historians from the 12th century onwards as "one of the strongest, highest", or "among the best" of Hindustan. Its walls extend over 7.5 kilometers, on 25 to 30 meter wide foundations. It was built from granite supplemented with sandstone for artwork, some sealed with lime mortar. The architects and shilpins included the Rajputs, who brought ideas they evolved over the Rajasthan forts.

Mahmud of Gazni invaded Kalinjar-Panna region and attacked the Kalinjar fort in 1023 CE. It remained a target for Islamic armies till it fell to the control of Qutb-ud-din Aibak in 1202. Bundelas recaptured it in the 14th century. The political fortunes of Kalinjar fort drifted between Hindu and Muslim rulers. The Mughal forces of Emperor Humayun attacked it in the 16th century many times over 15 years. Sher Shah Suri led a war of seven months to capture it, then died capturing it. It came under the Mughal Empire and then again the Bundellas. The colonial era British forces occupied it in 1812 CE. This complex history has left the fort with numerous ruins, various styles of Hindu and Islamic architecture, with some mosques and Islamic structures built from ruins of Hindu and Jain temples that existed here before the 13th-century.