Chandreh, also spelled Chandrehi or Chandrehe, is a village in

Rampur Naikin Rampur Naikin is a city, municipal headquarters (Nagar Parisad) and a subdistrict of Sidhi district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Madhya Pradesh. In 2011 Rampur Naikin City had a population of 11,936. The well-known C ...

block of

Sidhi district Sidhi district () is one of the districts of Madhya Pradesh state of India. The town of Sidhi is the district headquarters. The district is part of Rewa Division. History Rulers of Sidhi In the 1800s, there were three separate rulers of Sidhi ...

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

. Located near the confluence of the

Son A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some current ...

and Banas rivers, it is known for its 10th-century Shiva temple and monastery. As of 2011, Chandreh has a population of 1,823, in 370 households.

Geography

Chandreh is located 1.6 km east of the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

of the

and Banas rivers, and about 24 km southwest of Sidhi, the district headquarters.

History

The earliest evidence of human habitation at Chandreh consists of archaeological from the early and middle

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

period. In the 10th century, there was a wave of construction at Chandreh linked to the

Shaivite Shaivism (, , ) is one of the major Hindu traditions, which worships Shiva as the supreme being. It is the second-largest Hindu sect after Vaishnavism, constituting about 385 million Hindus, found widely across South Asia (predominantly in ...

sect known as the Mattamayūra. These include a temple to Shiva, an adjoining monastery (''

matha A ''matha'' (; , ), also written as ''math'', ''muth'', ''mutth'', ''mutt'', or ''mut'', is a Sanskrit word that means 'institute or college', and it also refers to a monastery in Hinduism.

''), and an

irrigation tank An irrigation tank or tank is an artificial reservoir of any size. In countries like Sri Lanka and India they are part of historic methods of Rainwater harvesting, harvesting and preserving rainwater, critical in regions without Perennial water, ...

and a well. An inscription in the monastery identifies it as being built (or completed) in March 973, on the orders of the Mattamayūra leader Prabodhashiva. The temple was constructed by Prabodhashiva's predecessor Prashantashiva sometime earlier in the century. The temple is made of

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and has a rather unique design, featuring a high raised foundation, a

chaitya A chaitya, chaitya hall, chaitya-griha, (Sanskrit:''Caitya''; Pāli: ''Cetiya'') refers to a shrine, sanctuary, temple or prayer hall in Indian religions. The term is most common in Buddhism, where it refers to a space with a stupa and a rounded ...

-like floor plan, and a

shikhara ''Shikhara'' (IAST: '), a Sanskrit word translating literally to "mountain peak", refers to the rising tower in the Hindu temple architecture of North India, and also often used in Jain temples. A ''shikhara'' over the ''garbhagriha'' chamber ...

decorated with a

gavaksha In Indian architecture, gavaksha or chandrashala (''kudu'' in Tamil, also nāsī) are the terms most often used to describe the motif centred on an ogee, circular or horseshoe arch that decorates many examples of Indian rock-cut architecture and ...

motif also reminiscent of chaityas. The monastery has two levels and is also made of sandstone.

Demographics

As of 2011, Chandreh had a population of 1,823, in 390 households. This population was 51.5% male (921) and 49.5% female (902). The 0-6 age group numbered 284 (147 male and 137 female), making up 15.6% of the total population. 100 residents were members of Scheduled Castes, or 5.5% of the total.

Infrastructure

As of 2011, Chandreh had 1 primary school; it did not have any healthcare facilities. The village had a sub post office but no public library; there was at least some access to electricity for all purposes. Streets were made of '' kachcha'' materials.

Gallery

File:Shiva temple and monastery, Chandreh Rampur Naikin, Madhya Pradesh 06.jpg File:Shiva temple and monastery, Chandreh Rampur Naikin, Madhya Pradesh 08.jpg File:Shiva temple and monastery, Chandreh Rampur Naikin, Madhya Pradesh 15.jpg

References

{{Rewa Division Villages in Sidhi district Archaeological sites in Madhya Pradesh