Parihaspore

Parihaspora or Parihaspur or Paraspore or Paraspur was a small town northwest of Srinagar in the Kashmir Valley. It was built on a plateau above the Jhelum River. It was built by Lalitaditya Muktapida (695–731) and served as the capital of Kashmir during his reign.

Quotes

• [The Austrian noble, diplomat, and explorer, Charles Baron Hugel (1795-1870) described Parihasapura,]
  It was adorned with many fine temples and monuments; among others, with a pillar cut out of one stone, twenty four yards high, at the top of which stood the image of Garuda, half-man and half-eagle.
  • Charles Baron Hugel (Hugel 1854: 159). IN Jain, M. (2019). Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Espisodes from Indian history.

• The Rajatarangini provided details of the temple of Parihasapura, also constructed by Lalitaditya, and the deities enshrined in it; “the glorious silver [image of Visnu] Parihasakesava [which] shone like the god [Visnu]...;” “the famous [image of] Visnu Muktakesava, made of gold; the [image of Visnu] Mahavaraha.” The king also instated a silver image of Govardhanadhara. He raised a great stone pillar and placed a representation of Garuda on top
  • (Rajatarangini Vol. I: 142). in Jain, M. (2019). Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Espisodes from Indian history. 50-1

• The Surij Bagh is probably on the site of the once famous city of Parihasapur, of the marvels of which the native legends speak so highly. This city was built by the great conqueror Lalitaditya, who reigned from A.D. 714 to 750, and was adorned with many fine temples and monuments; among others, with a pillar cut out of one stone, twenty-four yards high, at the top of which stood the image of Garuda, half-man, half-eagle. Sikandar Budh Shikan probably destroyed it, but several fragments were seen in 1727 by Mohammed Azim. Immense images of gold, silver, and other metals, also adorned the interior, but all traces of this splendour have disappeared.
  • pillar at Surij Bagh [the Bagh was made by Surij Bahri, who was summoned to Kashmir by Moti Ram, the first viceroy under Ranjit Singh], Baron Hugel,Hugel, Baron Charles, Travels In Kashmir And The Punjab, Languages Department, Punjab, year not stated, first published 1844. quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume IV Chapter9