Place · ruined early-medieval temple complex · India
Malinithan
Malinithan at the foot of the Siang hills in Lower Siang district is the ruined 10th-13th century stone-temple site that archaeologists associate with the Chutiya and Sutiya kingdoms of the upper Brahmaputra valley. Twenty-two carved blocks and lintels — of Durga, Indra on Airavata, Ganesh and attendant river-goddesses — survive on the plinths of a five-shrine complex, and are among the only pre-Ahom medieval stone sculptures in Arunachal Pradesh. In the local Mishing and Adi tradition, the goddess Durga here is Malini, the garland-maker, who received Krishna and Rukmini on their flight from Dwarka — making Malinithan a Krishna-marriage tirtha and the only such site in the north-eastern hills.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Patron dynasty
- Chutiya
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 28.085, 94.721
Connections (1)
- Site adjacencyPasighat
Malinithan at the foot of the Siang hills in Lower Siang district and Pasighat on the right bank of the Siang in East Siang district are the two main cultural anchors of the Adi country, forty kilometres apart on either side of the river gorge where the Yarlung Tsangpo emerges onto the plains as the Siang. Malinithan is the ruined medieval temple complex of the Chutiya and Sutiya kingdoms; Pasighat is the oldest town in Arunachal, founded by the Assam Rifles in 1911 as the forward base for the Abor Expedition and the headquarters of the Adi today.
Sources
Standard reference.
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