Introduction
Lamhetaghat is approximately 16 kms from Jabalpur city and very well connected by road. Actually Lamheta is the name of a village which is located on the bank of holy Narmada river. As all Narmada Ghats are treated as holy places so Lamheta riverbank is also a holy place for local villagers. If we go by the history of this place, we will find that it is a historic site of Narmada river valley where egg-shells of Dinosaur period were found thus it is place with rich fossils. In history, Lamheta is also referred as Lameta and its reference mainly comes during British India period when Sir William Henry Sleeman visited this place, in 1828 and wrote about Lameta formation in his book. He discovered isolated sauropod caudal vertebrae and write notes about the richness of this place. He studied the rocks in this river bank and concluded that here 02 types of rock formations are present and their is high possibility of finding fossils in between these rock layers. Even after more than 150 years, scientists and students often visit Lamheta for study purpose. Local villagers rarely knows these information and they see this site as sacred location. Presence of ancient temples in Lamheta indicates its heritage importance among local people. Now a days, due to construction of double lane concrete road, we can easily reach this holy site and explore its beauty.
Places to see at Lamhetaghat
Their are many reasons to visit this site. Most of the people visit this village due to presence of Shri Paramhansa Ashram in Lamheta ghat. It is very well maintained holy Ashram where saints, under the leadership of Swami Jagmitranand, are living since many years (around 50 years) and taking care of the ashram on charity basis. This Ashram is dedicated to Lord Shiva thus we will find many small & medium sized temples of Lord Shiva, inside the ashram. Local as well as surrounding village people have great respect for this ashram and they often visit this holy place to spend sometime for mental peace and take positive energy from this site. Their are total 03 main ghats, used by local villagers and later developed by government. One is Bhadbhada or Bharbhara ghat or Mini-Bhedaghat, second one is Ashram ghat or Kuti ghat and third one is Khari-ghat. People visits them on daily basis for different reasons. Apart from Ashram, we can enjoy the scenic beauty of Bhadbhada ghat where river water cascades through rocky formation forming minor waterfall, offering photogenic view to visitors. Similarly if you have visited Bhedaghat and would like to sometime in solace then Ashram ghat is ideal place where very limited people visit the ghat area. Here you can spend sometime in peace while enjoying the beauty of river flow. Apart from ghats and ashram, their are many ancient temples, built in between 13th to 15th century, during the rule of Kalchuri-Gond rulers. Out of all, some are active where as some temples are abandoned due to negligence & lack of proper care. Among them, one of the most prominent structure is of Radha-Krishna temples. We can visit them during Lamehata ghat visit.
Radha Krishna Temple of Lamhetaghat
Radha Krishna temple of Lamhetaghat is an old heritage temple building. At present it is not an active temple and in a ruined state with no idol inside the temple complex. While coming from Jabalpur to Lamhetaghat, you will find Iskcon temple, near Chowkital village. Please don't get confused with it as it is a new temple and Lamheta temple is much older than it thus its archeological importance is much more than newly developed temples. The art and grandeur of the temple is reflected in the pillars of the gate, spacious rooms. Here we will notice the arches & designs on entrance pathways with circular and carved pillars of the verandah. The domes are in pyramid style i.e. plane from four sides. Its angular shikhars of the temple are a fine example of architecture. The roof of the temple is flat and the walls are plain at some points and have some lining design at some places. The shikhars are based on geometry and the leaf patterns carved on pillars and other stones are very beautiful. The temple has an inscription. On visit to this temple complex, we will notice building construction are of two types. Initially we will notice large stone blocks were used for making roof, pillars, gateways etc, but when we enter inside the complex, we will notice that main temple rooms were made of bricks as building blocks and plastered from outside. As if now, it is not an active temples thus local people have also not expressed that munch interest in maintaing this heritage building building turned into ruin. The temple seems to have been built sometime between the fall of the Kalachuris and the rise of Gonds.
Urge for restoration
After visiting this temple complex, the first question that will arise in our mind will be about its ruined condition. Same question came in our mind also and we tried to find their answers one by one. As per our analysis, we should must introspect on following points:
- Young generation of village is not aware of this beautiful temple. This is major failure of local society that they themselves do not aware of their heritage treasure which should be a matter of pride for all of them.
- Instead of maintaing this magnificent ancient temple, local people preferred to built new temples and shifted its statues to new temple. This step further worsened the situation. Those who were visiting this temple for worship, stopped visit to this holy site, due to absence of any idol at temple complex. When such a great temple was present, then why new temples were developed, close to this site, is a matter of debate.
- On talking to local villager, about the ruined condition of a temple, they accused Government for not taking care of structure. They failed to answer the question that did Government aided in development of newly developed temples? If they can develop new structures by social contribution then why not they generated the fund through donation for maintenance of existing temple?
- It was painful to see the mutilated condition of Shivlinga which is sacred for all Hindus. All local villagers are Hindus but still they don't care for their own god when they claim themselves as hardcore religious people.
- Just adjoining to Radha Kirshna temple complex, thousands of surrounding villagers gather to celebrate festivals, worship god etc. but at the same time nobody even think of this great temple.
- As we all know that abandoned places become home of evil forces. Similarly, today this abandoned place become home of evil forces. On visiting this site, I noticed beer bottles, liquor bottles which indicates that notorious people from local society, use to consume beer & liquor on this holy site, as common man has stopped visiting this site. This his how a holy place become hideout of notorious people.
- We all knows that it was a Radha Krishna temple. Just 6kms from this site, a renowned organization is developing new Radha Krishna temple complex in which apart from Temple their will be many other services for visitors. It is a project involving investment of millions of rupee. We expect from such organization to have a look to the existing Radha Krishna Temple of Lamhetaghat also. It is home of same God Godess for whom they are building new temple.
- It is a perfect example of darkness below lightened candle. Their must be a time when it was the large & important temple complex for local people. Their was no mark of any military attack or religious attack on this temple still local people forget this Radha Krishna Temple. Parallel to this temple complex, they developed new temples and shifted their attention towards new temples and shamelessely overlooked the existing one. If god is supreme then how we can overlook the home of god in such a carelesss manner. It resembles the stepmother act of society with our god. People keep on cursing Government to overlook the maintainence but at the same time it is questionable that if you have fund to develop new temples then why not maintained the existing temples.
