Udaipur : Taneshwar Mahadev Temple is located 50 km from Udaipur city on Udaipur-Ahmedabad National Highway 48. Thousands of devotees keep fast by wearing the thread of Manshapurna Mahadev in the complex built on a 40 feet high hill. The platform of the statues located here (Mataji Ka Than) Tanesar Udaipur, is registered as a protected monument in the Rajasthan Archaeology and Museum Department. This place came into discussion on the world stage when the rare statues stolen from here as cultural heritage, which are said to be from the Gupta period, were recovered by the New York Court in America and ordered to be handed over to the legal owner Tanesar Udaipur in 2022.
2 foreigners had stolen the idols
According to the information, before going to Chavand after the battle of Haldighati, Maharana Pratap stayed at Seesa Magra with his platoon after worshipping here. Pareva is found in large quantities in the mines of the region. The smuggled idols reached the prestigious gallery of the Western Museum. In the report filed by Nahar Singh Ranawat, it was told that in 1965, two foreign guests came in a white car on the pretext of staying overnight. In the night itself, they beat up the watchman Kadva Baba and stole 5-6 idols and ran away. The idols were of mother goddesses, two feet high. Many people have also done research on the story of the idols. The grand idols of gods and goddesses, which were heritage, were stolen from here and one idol was sold for about 50 lakh rupees at today’s price.
Tanesar village was named after Taneshwar Mahadev
As per the rules, no one can vandalise this complex. Tanesar is not the name of a place, but a temple of Taneshwar Mahadev located in Delwas Gram Panchayat of Udaipur district, which holds thousands of years of history in its lap amidst natural beauty. People have been misled till date by showing Tanesar as a place. Statues of Aatra Mata, Aashapura Mata, Shivling, a huge statue of Lord Vishnu, Hanuman ji are installed in the temple complex.
A report regarding theft was also filed in 2003
Chhagan Das Vairagi, who has been living in this complex for 50 years, doing Shringar and Puja-Paath. He told that this temple is also mentioned in page number 674 of Skanda Purana. The idols stolen from here have been recovered from a museum in New York, America. When their age was assessed, the idols were found to be 2500 years old. International smuggler Winner had stolen these idols from Mataji Ka Than, Tanesar complex in 1965. Temple Board Committee President Karna Singh Ranawat told that his father had also filed a report regarding the theft in 2003 at Rishabhdev police station. Whenever the idols come here after the legal process, they will be duly reinstalled. The people of the area are waiting for those idols. To identify a similar idol lying in Jaipur, Nahar Singh Ranawat, Poonam Chand Meena, Madhav Kalal, Ratan Singh Ranawat, as committee members from here, said that the idol was identified from here.
Flow of immense water in the temple premises
Dhiraj Sewak told that the temple complex is built on 5 bigha land. There is 70 bigha land in the name of the temple. There is a water tank under the floor of the temple. During the construction of the temple, the temple was built on big rocks by digging very deep with a lot of effort. There is so much water that the tank remains full all the year round. A Gomukh is emerging from under the temple complex, there also water of the same temperature of 35 degrees flows throughout the year.
The former sarpanch said that the temple is miraculous
Former Sarpanch Hazari Lal Meena Delwas said that the temple is very miraculous. There is a well outside the temple door, which is currently covered with an iron mesh to prevent any accident. During my tenure, a machine was called to dig a tubewell. So much water came at a depth of 5 feet that it could not go deeper than 40 feet. The water pressure was so high that the machine remained there for two days, but the driver refused in frustration that he could not dig it deeper than this. Even today, despite the closed casing in the tubewell, water is coming in the pipeline without a motor. If the casing is opened, then water can be filled in the tank even at a height of 12 feet.
The case is in New York court
Dr. Pankaj Dharendra, Director, Department of Archeology and Museum, Jaipur, said that when we corresponded to bring back the recovered idols, the New York court told us that we will hand over the idols to the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. As soon as the idols come back to India, we will take possession of the idols as soon as possible and hand them over to the legal owner. After the judicial process is completed, the idols will be handed over with a mention of public transfer.
