Continuing my quest to explore ancient temples in the Morena district, I visited the Bateshwar group of temples. A group of 200 sandstone Shiva temples and ruins scattered near Padavali village. The temples were built during the 6th-8th century and destroyed during the 13th century. Along with the temples, the stories of its establishments or destructions were lost too. Ruins were lying around hidden from civilization until the late 19th century when they were rediscovered. Though protected by ASI, the temples were too damaged to be restored.
But something unusual happened in the year 2005. It caught the fancy of archeologist KK Muhammed of the Bhopal region (now heads ASI) when he discovered the architecture of the temples follows two ancient documents on architectures and design principles written in the 3rd century and 7th century. He started leading the restoration work. But ruins were scattered across the region. Some far from the temple ground. It is not an easy task to excavate in a region famous (rather infamous) for being ruled by notorious dacoits. Chambal Dakus. Surprisingly the Chambal dacoits played a crucial role to find all ruins scattered across the Chambal valley. Till now his team with the help of Chambal dacoits has restored more than 60 temples like jigsaw puzzles from mounds of rubble. Rest is still being restored.
I heard many interesting stories about ancient structures but never heard anything more interesting about the restoration of a place. Few 6-8th century temples being restored in the 21st century with the help of 3rd-century texts and notorious dacoits.