Morena, about 30 odd miles from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh conjures up images of the infamous dacoits who held sway over the Chambal badlands. Today it takes a persistent visitor to visit the temples scattered around the villages of Padhavali, Mitaoli, Bateshwar and Kakanmath, which are a millennium old and have shades of the more famous Khajuraho Temples, specially the temple at Kakanmath.
Just off the Gwalior-Bhind road, 20 miles of very bad road, you see the Mitaoli temple on a solitary hill. Rock cut steps to lead you very unusual 200 foot circular temple (8th to 10th century) in the shape of a chariot wheel. If it wasnt out in the boondocks one would think Herbert Baker had used it to design Parliament House in New Delhi. The resemblance grows stronger the more you explore this temple, a circular structure with a series of concentric circles with pillars with carving of goddesses. The central shrine is in the middle of a courtyard surrounded by a circle of shrines roughly 64 in all. This is a Shiva Temple as each of these shrines has a Shivalingam.
Padhavali village, a couple of miles away from Mitaoli has a fortress-like structure surrounding a temple. The outer walls of the fortress has lovely rock carving of gods and creatures from Hindu mythology. A pair of stone lions stand on either side of the steps leading to the temple, with no back wall and no idol, but lovely carvings on its inner walls and beautiful ceiling. You can still make out the Hindu Trinity of Brahma-Vishnu and Shiva on one wall and that of goodess Kali on another. There are lots of rock carving of deities in the courtyard behind the Temple. Another courtyard has rooms and a water tank. In its heyday the courtyard perhaps housed the temple priest and his attendants.
Another couple of miles away is Bateshwar. This is the most amazing site of all, a virtual cluster of temples in various stages of construction or decay. Pillars, carved stones, lie all, around the 2 water tanks. The carvings are exquisite with shikhars of temple all around.
The Mughal must have visited the Morena region as they have left behind a sandstone bridge at Nurabad (en route to Morena). Actually what is of interest near the village of Sihoniya, 20 miles from Morena in the direction of Bhind, where the Kachwahas held sway (11th century), is the magnificent Shiva temple at Kakanmath in the style of the Khajuraho temples with the spire or Shikhar rising over 160 feet into the sky. A part of it is in ruins and many of the carvings on its walls are defaced, perhaps the work of Mughal armies. An inscription on a pillar dates to a later period. Near the main temple is a smaller shrine with a Shivaligam.
How did the temples get here. Who were the craftsmen who built them and at whose behest, if these silent stones could only speak. So far it seems the relentless march of time has passed them by, for the villagers have not realized their worth. It is only the occasioned inquisitive visitor who is surprised and mesmerized by them.