• Jan 25 2016
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Kankaleshwar Temple

Beed is a district headquarters town of the district bearing the same name. It is situated on the western bank of the Bindusara River, a tributary of the Sindphana River, the latter is a tributary of the Godavari River. Bindusara River originated from the Balaghat range, Beed town is situated at the foothills of this range. The Imperial Gazetteer says the town was known as Durgavati during the Mahabharata period. Its name was subsequently changed to Balni and later to Champavatinagar after Champavati, the sister of Vikramaditya.1 The district gazetteer says no authentic information is available for the town’s present name except for the two local traditions. The first tradition tells the town was named after a Yavana ruler who found water at a shallow depth, “Bhir” is water in Persian. The second tradition says that because the town is situated at the foot of the Balaghat range resembling a hole hence the name, “bil” meaning hole in Marathi. The gazetteer says Beed is mentioned in the Puranas stating Jatayu fought with Ravana at this place. When Ravana made Jatayu crippled after clipping his wings, Jatayu waited here for Rama and breathed his last. It is believed that the temple of Jatashankar was built where Jatayu left his body.

The early history of the town is obscure, however, there is a very high probability that it rose to prominence after the construction of the Kankaleshwar temple during the Yadava reign of the thirteenth century CE. The town came under the Khalji rule when Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah (1316–20) conquered Devagiri from the Yadavas. The city came under the Tugluqs when Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq (1320–25) defeated the Khalis. Muhammad bin Tughluq and his army camped at Beed in 1341 while returning to Daulatabad from Warangal. The emperor lost one of his teeth here, which he ordered to be buried with much ceremony and a tomb was constructed at the place. With the fall of the Tuglug dynasty, the city came under the Bahmanid empire. After the Bahmanids, the Nizam Shahi rulers of Ahmadnagar gained control of Beed. Several battles were fought between the Nizam Shahi and Adil Shahi rulers to gain control of Beed. Ultimately, the city came under the Mughal rule in 1598. G Yazdani was the first scholar to describe the antiquities in the town in 1921.3 The temples were included in very few later studies.