The Sanskrit Inscription of Barshi Takli: Philological Evidence for the 1176 CE Yadava Temple Shift

In the Akola district of Maharashtra, popular local tradition and tourism directories often mislabel medieval structures. The shrine now known as the Maa Kalanka Devi temple in Barshi Takli is frequently described as a general Chalukyan monument. However, stone epigraphy preserved directly on its walls records a far more precise political and architectural transition.

The primary source for the site's history is a damaged 12th-century Sanskrit stone inscription dated to Saka 1098, corresponding to 1176–1177 CE. First documented in modern archaeological surveys by antiquarian Henry Cousens in 1902, the epigraph sits embedded in a monument that marks the stylistic shift from late Western Chalukyan carved masonry to the dry-ashlar Hemadpanthi architecture (hemāḍpantī sthāpatya, an architectural style using mortarless interlocking basalt stones).

IAST: ... Mallugideva-suta ... Tekkali-rājadhānī ...
Devanagari: ... मल्लुगिदेव-सुत ... तेक्कलि-राजधानी ...
Translation: "... son of Mallugideva ... the royal capital of Tekkali ..."

The vertical fracture running down the stone slab leaves roughly half of each line missing. Despite the damage, epigraphists have read critical historical details from the surviving characters. Line 3 cites the son of Mallugideva, a historical ruler of the Seuna (Yadava) dynasty of Devagiri. Line 6 introduces King Hemadrideva, a ruler belonging to a collateral branch of the Yadavas who established his seat at Tekkali—the ancient Sanskritized name for modern Barshi Takli.

The inscription explicitly records that Gamiyaya, a minister (mantrī, an administrative minister or counselor) serving King Hemadrideva, commissioned a temple dedicated to Vishnu along with a water tank (taāga, a reservoir) and a stepped well (vāpī, a masonry well) at Tekkali. This textual statement reveals a clear shift in religious dedication. While the epigraph confirms the original 1176 CE construction was a Vaishnava shrine (vaiṣṇava mandira, a temple dedicated to Vishnu), the present-day sanctum houses an image of Bhavani or Kalanka Devi, demonstrating a later sectarian conversion of the site.

The text also provides administrative vocabulary that clarifies regional geography. The inscription designates the settlement as Tekkali-rājadhānī (the royal seat of Tekkali). Local tradition holds that the older town name was Taṅkāvatī. The modern name "Barshi Takli" developed centuries later when a market suburb (peth, a market district) was established on the twelfth day (baras, the twelfth lunar day) following Ekadashi.

Philologically, the stone contains a compound phrase describing the consecration of the royal capital:

IAST: ... Tekkali-rājadhānī-vārāṇasī-kṛta ...
Devanagari: ... तेक्कलि-राजधानी-वाराणसी-कृत ...
Translation: "... making the royal capital of Tekkali equal to Varanasi ..."

The scribal compound vārāṇasī-kṛta is a classic chvī-pratyaya construction—a Sanskrit grammatical derivation where an adjunct noun receives the suffix -ī before the root kṛ (to make) to signify transforming something into a state it did not previously possess. By stating that the minister's civic works made Tekkali "into Varanasi," the scribe recorded a deliberate ideological effort to elevate a provincial Yadava capital into a sacred urban space (tīrtha, a holy Ford or pilgrimage site).

Architecturally, the Kalanka Devi temple exhibits structural features that bridge two major Deccan building traditions. The exterior plan features a star-shaped sanctum (stellate garbhagṛha, a star-plan inner sanctum) mounted over a raised platform (pīṭha, a structural base), characteristic of late Chalukyan design. However, the masonry construction relies on precisely cut black basalt blocks joined without mortar. This dry-masonry technique (hemāḍpantī, a mortarless interlocking stone technique) became the signature method under the Yadavas, traditionally named after the 13th-century minister Hemadri Pandit (also known as Hemadpant).

The layout of the sabhā-maṇḍapa (assembly hall) further reflects regional adaptations. Unlike standard linear temple plans where the hall aligns on a single axis with the inner shrine, the hall at Barshi Takli is set at a right angle to the sanctum, entered from the north. Two small windows placed in the eastern wall of the assembly hall were precisely positioned to direct the morning sunlight onto the central image inside the sanctum during specific solar alignments.

Later local historical events devastated the surrounding settlement. The Akola District Gazetteer notes that Barshi Takli suffered severe population declines during the 18th and early 19th centuries due to a seven-day raid by Pindari irregulars, a major fire, and the famine of 1803. By the time Census records were compiled in 1901, the town's population had dropped to 6,288 before recovering to 30,214 in the 2011 census.

Throughout these demographic shifts, the stone inscription preserved on the temple wall remained intact. Epigraphic evidence shows that rather than being an undated Chalukyan shrine, the site represents a documented 1176 CE Yadava construction. The inscription provides primary textual proof of how 12th-century ministers funded regional public works and how scribes used formal Sanskrit compounds to document the growth of Deccan royal capitals.