Wikipedia
Manwal is a village located in Udhampur district in Jammu and Kashmir, India.It is 28 km away from district headquarter.it is well connected with jammu (through manwal-samba-jammu route, manwal-domail-jammu route and manwal-mansar-suruisar-jammu route)and to udhampur via dhar road.
The manwal railway station is located at approx 4 km from main town area. There are several local trains stops at this station. Railway connects manwal to capital delhi through JAMMU mail express train. It is beautiful town surrounded by shivalik mountains. If you love being in the company of majestic hills, want to roam free aimlessly under the clear sky and breathe fresh air standing in the middle of mustard fields communicating with the nature, listening to the chirping of birds in chorus with gushing waters of running stream.You need not do much. Simply fill your rucksack with your basic essentials and embark on an hour long train journey from Jammu to reach Manwal, India’s first green railway station powered by solar panels.
Coming out of the Manwal railway station you will be greeted by the calm, green environs and dash of fresh air. As you will look around your eyes will be set on hordes of livestock grazing the fields and majestic mountain peaks at the back. The surroundings resemble humble settings of just any other hill station. So what is so different about Manwal, a small village situated at Dhar road roughly 28 km from Udhampur.
Riding on an auto rickshaw, the only mode of cheap local transport, as you will approach the main bazaar passing through the link road dotted with neat and clean village houses, you will start experiencing the earthy charm of a relaxed life. Laziness would soon engulf you and you would be longing for a cozy bed to catch all the lost sleep, far away from the hum drum of hectic life.
The still landscape and picturesque mountain ranges, filled with white snow blanket looks enticing on a bright sunny day.
As you hit the main road connecting Manwal and Kishenpur, the nearest power station, you will not find any rush hour. A handful of minibuses, auto rickshaws and few odd cars can be seen parked along the main road. Though all kinds of businesses were on yet the number of people present on the main road was even far less than those huddled inside one compartment of metro rail in urban centres across India.
The life moved on at its slow pace. Elderly can be seen playing cards and sitting in small groups outside tea shops and temporary eating points. The school going children were returning home after appearing in their annual exam.The women were busy in daily house hold chores.After soaking yourself in the local environs as you start moving forward a small board on the main road catches your attention.
Painted in white and black colours the board displayed by the Archeological Survey of India guides you to the Ancient Bhagwati temple inside the narrow street.
As you step inside the protected monument you come face to face with the golden history of Manwal village and instantly travel back in to the time machine with every forward step in the right direction.Devi Bhagwati temple was originally dedicated to Vishnu and is dated back to 10-11 century A.D, a local priest Satpal Gupta informs you.
Along with four other ancient temples Bhagwati temple has been taken over by the Archeological Survey of India for preservation and protection. Compared to four other temples Bhagwati temple is remarkably preserved and is in good form.
It consists of a Garbhgriha (sanctrum) and an Antarala with square Mandapa. The walls of the Mandapa have eight niches. As per the legend the garbhgrihas once carried the image of Shakti, the divine power of creation. The outer chamber is open but the doors of the entrance have been richly carved with deities of different nature.The horizontal beam of the door has been carved with the images of navgrahas, intermittently decorated with floral and geometrically designed motifs.
The parikrama of the temple is a wide path around the main building where in several sculptures of various godly images are kept. The most prominent among them are the images of Sun god and Mahaveera.There is a strange sculpture of a carved serpentine coil kept in a niche carved out of the main wall of the parikrama. Other images include various incarnations of Shakti and Shiva. The temples are the stone structures which has resemblance to one, which the great kashmir ruler Lalitaditya built at Wangal at the foot of Harmukh mountain in Kashmir in the 8th century A.D.
The remains of ancient temples throw lights on how impressive the art and architecture was prevalent in that time. These ruins are the structures of great solidity and considerable beauty.Some of the stones,monolithic beams,pillars used in their construction are over a dozen feet long and their sculptures and carving are splendid and impressive.Temples must be a part of great pilgrimage of by gone ages which lost either importance or damaged in some calamity.
Famous historian Dr Ashok Jerath,in his book tilted ‘Dogra legends of Art and Culture’ has written, “A few hundred metres from the main road, deep in the village of Dera, we find a colossus structure of a massive building with towering pillars, wide sanctums and open mandapas”. This holy building is erected on a massive platform which can be reached with a flight of twelve steps on west side. We suddenly find ourselves in a wide chamber with eight fluted columns with ornamental bases. These columns might have been used for the support of horizontal and oblique slabs which we find in one of the surviving roofs of Kala Dera temples.
These slabs support the stone sheets forming the roof of the chamber or so called the antechamber. There are four garbhgrihas. The upper door beams of the entrance possess the beautiful carvings of Gods and Goddesses which in due course of time have deteriorated to some extent but carvings of navgrahas on the horizontal upper beam of the door of the garbhgriha, situated at north side of the temple, are still magnificent in their forms and structure. Almost all the frames of garbhgrihas contain the carvings of the river deities and their maids.
In the centre of each upper beam there is a carving of Lord Ganesha.They are planned in the style of Sapt Rathis.The niches with lotus flower decoration and the horizontal beam supported by two vertical columns contain different deities.Some of the niches are devoid of any deity.May be in due course of time these deities could not survive the process of alternate heating and cooling.The outer walls of the temple are decorated with the chiselling of geometrical figures,triangles,quardrangles, pentagonals and so on, which is the unique character of this temple.
Since this is a Shikhra style of temple and in structure closely related to Krimchi complex of temples the time period of its construction is believed to be around 10th century. Historians and the art critics could not trace the genesis of the feudal lords responsible for its construction. . Manwal area of this district has a few monuments whose existence dates back to about 10th century A.D. Let us take a trip around these beautiful places:
KALA DERA TEMPLE-I, MANWAL, DISTRICT UDHAMPUR
Kala Dera temple actually refers to the black temple which is dedicated to Lord Shiva and faces east. It comprises a Garbhagriha (Sanctrum), an Antarala (Vestibule), an Ardhamandapa (Entrance Porch) and a Mandapa (Hall). The temple is built on a high platform and heralded by a Mandapa. The entrance is through a flight of stairs in the east direction. The superstructure is somewhat missing and the temple has two columns of the sanctum, the entrance to the Mandappa and the bases of four jambs. Between the sanctum and the Mandappa lies a porch which also contains similar pillar bases. The noteworthy architectural members lying at the site are fluted, shafts, carved ceiling with inverted lotus flowers beside sculptures which have been preserved. The temple is assignable to round about 10th century A.D.
KALA DERA TEMPLE-II, MANWAL, DISTRICT UDHAMPUR
This temple is Saptratha on plan externally and is also built on an elevated platform. There is a makaramukha pranala through which the water flows into a small rectangular storage tank and is carved out of a single block. The roof of Mandappa is supported on four fluted columns surmounted by capitals. Besides the principal entrance facing the central aisles, it has two smaller entrances at the rear end. The figures on the jambs of the door and porch are now damaged. A well can be spotted in close vicinity. The temple dates back to circa 10th century A.D.
DERA TEMPLE, THALORA, DISTRICT UDHAMPUR
This temple is also constructed on a raised rectangular platform which is approached by a flight of stairs on the west side. It has two principal square sanctums divided from each other by a luxuriant cell. Each of the sanctums is preceded by a porch having two fluted pillars surmounted by a very baroque vase and floral capitals. The decoration over the architrave above the columns of the porch of the sanctum on the northern side of the mandappa contains ornamented Navagraha panel. The ASI has played an important part in bringing the structure back to its original state. Like other structures, this temple is also assignable to circa 10th century A.D.
DEVI BHAGWATI TEMPLE, THALORA, DISTRICT UDHAMPUR
Dev Bhagwati temple consists of a Garbhagriha (Sanctrum), an Antarala (Vestibule), an Ardhamandapa (Entrance Porch) and a Mandapa (Hall). The entrance of the antrala has a joist which is carved with figures of Ganesha at the centre while its jambs bear the characters of Ganga and Yamuna. Externally, the temple is well ornamented. It has foliated projecting triangles alternating with rectangular fortes surmounted by stepped pediments. Garbhagriha is wreathed with plain mouldings, niches on central projection for Parsva Devtas (subsidiary Gods).The temple structure dates back to circa 10th century A.D.
Favourite tourist spots like mansar,suruisar,patnitop,mata vaishno devi katra etc. are 10 km,18 km,75 km and 50 km respectively. Manwal falls under RAMNAGAR constituency.
The Manwal branch of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank with IFSC Code : JAKA0EDREAM (5th character is zero) and MICR Code : 182051015 is located here. Other banking facilities are also available here. Punjab national bank and jk co-operative banks are also serving here. J&k bank has established an ATM machine also. State Bank of India bank and ATM is 10 km away from here.
Manwal railway station lies on Jammu-Udhampur line of Northern Railway Zone of the Indian Railways.