Bhojpur #10 The abandoned Yoni’s and the Dam

We were driving back to Bhopal when I stopped because I noticed this.

What on earth is a Yoni doing on the side of the road? Its like driving to Stonehenge and finding a bunch of abandoned menhirs near Heathrow.

I looked up to see the landscape littered with abandoned Yoni’s.

See what I mean?

Climbed up on top of the stone and there were at least 20 of these. Just littering the place.

Not like they were dug out there and left. But they were literally scattered around.

Zooming into one of them, there are plants over it so its quite old.

But not that old that you cant see the marks of the chisel.

You can barely make out the Shiv Temple in the distance. Cant see it?

Can you see it now? We are talking at least 3-4 kilometres away as the crow flies and about 8-10 on the road. Highly zoomed in shot.

Panning left.

More left.

Further left. Hello? what’s that on the top left?

There’s the car and the road.

Further going around to the left.

But going back to what caught my eye. Its a dam. Extends to a very long distance.

Walking down towards the dam. A flag. What on earth is happening here?

This is an actual road which was constructed way back in the dim and distant past. With stones. A millennia back. Like the Roman Roads. Very interesting.

Here is the beginning of the dam. Dressed stone.

At least 6 feet in depth on each layer, and from what it looks, three layers of stone. Pretty substantial earthen dam.

About 25 feet at this point.

And carries on for about 1.5 kilometres.

 
Ah! ha! the flags are for a real estate firm which is presumably selling land / plots.

This is amazing. Some more details from here.

Cyclopean Dam: This dam was a marvel during olden times; the great dam now lay in ruins on the western side of Bhojpur. The dam was built on a vast lake which is no more there. Huge hills enclosed the entire area from all sides, but two big gaps were there that were blocked by different dams. The earthen dams were huge with the bigger one being 44 feet high and 300 feet thick and the smaller one being 24 feet high and 100 feet wide. The construction of the dams was done without using mortar.

As it so happens, in the 15th century, Sultan Hussein Shah of Malwa attacked the Bhojpur temple and demolished the Bhojpur dam, which kept releasing water for 30 years.

Another text from here.

The Cyclopean dam was a marvel during olden times; the great dam now lay in ruins on the western side of Bhojpur. West of Bhojpur once laid a vast lake which was destroyed by Hoshang Shah of Malwa (1405- 34), who cut through the lesser dam, and thus either intentionally or in a fit of destructive passion, added an enormous area of the highest fertility to his possessions. According to a Gond legend, it took an army of them three months to cut through the dam and the lake took three years to empty, while its bed was not habitable for thirty years afterwards. The climate of Malwa is said to have been considerably altered by the removal of this vast sheet of water.

Sort of confused, eh? 3 or 30 years? lol. But interesting indeed to see the remnants of the dam, the road and those amazing abandoned Yoni’s.