Deotak Temple: Chandrapur’s Oldest Stone Records of Ancient India

thenewsdirt
Nov 28
6 min read

In the forested landscapes of Chandrapur district in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region lies an unassuming ancient shrine with a remarkable past.

Archaeologists have discovered that the stone foundation of this ruined temple bears inscriptions from two very different eras. On one side is a Mauryan edict in Brahmi script from Emperor Ashoka’s time (3rd century BCE) forbidding the slaughter of animals.

On the reverse is a Sanskrit inscription naming King Rudrasena I of the Vakataka dynasty (4th century CE) as the builder of a shrine at the same site. Together, these carvings make Deotak (also spelt Devtek) one of the oldest recorded historical sites in the Vidarbha area.

The temple itself is mostly in ruins, but its weathered stones and faded inscriptions connect modern Chandrapur to empires of the distant past.

Ancient Inscriptions at Deotak

Deotak’s fame rests on the two inscriptions discovered in its fallen masonry. The older text, carved in archaic Prakrit with early Brahmi letters, closely mirrors Emperor Ashoka’s own rock edicts. It contains a royal order banning the hunting and killing of certain animals, reflecting Ashoka’s policy of wildlife protection.

An official known as a Dharmamahāmātra (royal inspector of morality) and even a regnal year (“fourteen”) are mentioned, indicating that Ashoka’s officers supervised this decree in ancient Vidarbha.

By including the name of a town (Chikamburi, modern Cikmara) and a dated year, the edict shows that around 260 BCE the Mauryan administration reached into this region. Scholars note that the presence of a horizontal slab inscription is unusual in Ashokan epigraphy, making Deotak’s text a unique local evidence of Mauryan rule in central India.

The later inscription, cut across the same stone slab, is in boxy Brahmi script of the 4th century CE and written in Sanskrit. It proudly records that King Rudrasena I (reigned c. 335–360 CE) of the Vakataka dynasty built a dharma-sthāna (shrine) at Chikamburi, the very location named in Ashoka’s text. Archaeologists translate this as Rudrasena having “founded a temple” at the site.

The inscription explicitly calls it a place of worship and notes Rudrasena’s royal lineage, underlining his authority as a sovereign of his house. In short, more than six centuries after Ashoka’s decree, the same site was chosen for a temple by a Vakataka monarch. As one scholar observed, no other place in Vidarbha is known to link the Ashokan and Vakataka eras in this way.

These inscriptions were first noticed by British surveyors in the 19th century, but only partially studied. Major analysis came from epigraphist V. V. Mirashi in the 1930s. He reported that the slab had been built into a ruined temple wall and that the tiny shrine covering it was “essentially a single cell.” In fact, when explorer J. D. Beglar sketched the site in 1873, he saw only a small laterite temple base.

By the 1930s, the stone had become a simple one-cell-walled room with a plain entrance. Despite its humble form, the double inscription carved on the stone was already recognised as highly significant.

The older, Ashokan-style text and the later Vakataka record together make Deotak’s slab the earliest known inscription from Vidarbha. In effect, this single stone holds the only first-millennium BCE record in this part of India, bridging the Mauryan era to India’s Gupta-Vakataka period.

Temple Architecture and Dedication

Today, only the skeleton of the Deotak temple survives, but it still reveals clues about its origin and use. The village name “Deotak” (also spelt Devtek) means the “hillock of Gods.”

The site lies in Nagbhir taluka, a few kilometres from the town of Nagbhir, roughly 96 km northeast of Nagpur.

It has long been noted that there is just one small temple at Deotak along with various scattered archaeological remains, among which the inscribed slab was once prominent.

The remaining temple structure is built of laterite and faces east. In the 20th century, it was already dilapidated.

Archaeologists recorded it as a small plain shrine consisting of a single cell. This matches the style of a simple medieval mandir. The sole surviving chamber (garbhagriha) enshrines a carved image of Ganapati (Ganesha). A stepped pyramid (shikhara) roof above the sanctum suggests medieval Nagara-style influence.

On the ground around the cell lie a few fragments, including a broken Shiva-linga base (yoni), a headless Nandi statue, and damaged pillars and architectural debris. These remnants imply the temple once had a porch and mandapa, now collapsed.

According to tradition and some evidence, the medieval temple at Deotak may originally have been dedicated to Lord Shiva. The Vakataka inscription itself implies the shrine was a dharma-sthāna, a pious foundation by a Shaiva king. The inscription indicates that Rudrasena I’s temple was intended for Shiva.

Over time, the focus of worship changed, and today Ganesh occupies the sanctum. The temple is listed as a protected monument by the Archaeological Survey of India and formally recognised as an ancient religious structure of historical importance.

Preservation and Current Condition

Despite its recognised historical importance, the Deotak temple site has suffered neglect and natural decay.

Studies show that the temple’s roof and walls exhibit damage, suggesting a major collapse in the past.

The eastern flat roof has completely fallen, and the south and west walls show widening cracks. Assessments indicate that this damage may have resulted from seismic activity, and no structural repair followed, leaving the building exposed to further weakening.

Broken pottery, erosion patterns, and the absence of later construction suggest the site remained abandoned for centuries. Accounts indicate that villagers once used the stone slab as seating, which gradually smoothed parts of the carved letters.

In recent years, the Archaeological Survey of India (Nagpur Circle) has carried out documentation and condition mapping of the temple. The site was included in a regional conservation programme that involved measurement recording, drafting, and physical inspection of damage zones.

During a heritage exhibition on Vidarbha monuments organised in Nagpur, Deotak was highlighted as one of the least-known sites with deep historical relevance. Officials at the exhibition stated that awareness programmes were a priority in reducing further deterioration. Preventive conservation was emphasised to limit vandalism, structural strain, and vegetation damage.

Yet, no large-scale restoration has followed. The temple remains fenced but unguarded on most days. There are no signboards explaining the site’s importance. No visitor centre exists in the village. The structure is not illuminated, and organised tourism is absent. Most visitors who come to Deotak do so on religious occasions rather than for historical interest. Academic research visits remain rare.

Experts continue to classify the inscriptions as among the most important in central India. They confirm that they prove administrative presence during Ashoka’s reign and that later Vakataka rulers selected the same location for temple construction. These findings demonstrate uninterrupted sacred relevance across nearly six centuries. Historians point out that the inscriptions provide primary confirmation that this part of Vidarbha lay within the administrative system of the Mauryan Empire and later became an established religious centre under the Vakatakas.

Currently, the inscribed slab itself has been shifted to the Nagpur Museum for protection. At Deotak, only a replica or empty mounting remains. The temple walls continue to erode under seasonal weather. Wild growth gathers along the base, further weakening the stones. Despite this, the interior shrine remains in daily use by villagers who treat the site as an active place of worship. Ritual lamps, flowers, and offerings appear inside the chamber on festival days.

Deotak today stands as both an archaeological site and a functioning village shrine. The dual role contributes to its survival, even in a degraded form. For historians, the location represents a rare overlap between imperial administration and religious foundation at the same spot across centuries. For local residents, it remains part of daily life.

The remains do not present a complete temple complex. They present fragments of India’s ancient transition from empire to regional rule etched into stone. In that sense, Deotak is not merely an abandoned structure. It is a record of rule, religion, and geography converging in one rural site.

In regional history, Deotak remains unmatched. Its inscriptions confirm its place among the earliest recorded locations in Vidarbha.

The broken walls hold information that no modern archive contains. Its stones record a time before state boundaries and before modern district names existed. The shrine’s decline has not erased its significance.

It remains an essential part of Chandrapur’s historical geography and one of the most valuable physical records in central India’s early political history.