ANGATH TEMPLE COMPLEX
Angath Temple complex is a group of monuments in Wangath, close to Naranag, in the Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir. Wangath is a village located around 77 km northeast of Srinagar. The current structure was built by Lalitaditya Muktapida of the Karkota dynasty in the 8th century AD. Kalhana notes in Rajatarangini that Ashoka built the city of Srinagar in the 3rd century BC. His son Jaluka, 220 BC, built the Shaivite temples Bhuteshvara, Jyestarudra, and Muthas in the Wangath valley around the holy spring of Naranag. The Wangath temples were built in three groups, around the same time as the Shankaracharya Temple in Srinagar and the Bumazuv temple near Mattan. The temple complex is located along the Kanka nadi or the Kanaknai and is constructed of local grey granite.
The first group of six temples, also identified by Aurel Stein as Shiva-Jyestharudra or ShivaJyeshthesa, is situated within an enclosure wall. The Jyestharudra group is placed on high grounds and consists of a main temple of Jyeshthesa (Shiva) surrounded by subsidiary shrines. The principal structure is a square of 25 feet externally and 17 feet internally, and has two entrances opposite each other, facing the northeast and southwest. In the center of the floor is a square space which is unpaved. It marks the site of the pedestal of the image. Internally, it has a domed ceiling but externally, the roof is pyramidal.
The second group of temples is enclosed in a massive rectangular stone wall, pierced by a twochambered gateway. The six temples inside the wall are in ruins and are partly buried in the ground. The largest temple has a 17 feet square base internally, similar to the largest temple in the western complex. This temple has been identified by Stein as Shiva-Bhuteshwara. Between the western and eastern complexes lie a number of structures of a third group. This consists of the remains of a building measuring 120 feet by 70 feet, with a height of 10 feet. Along the side of this structure are 30 monolithic bases or piers at intervals of 12 feet. This was a pillared pavilion or matha.
