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The name of the village is derived from the famous ancient Rishi Markandeya of the Puranas. The village itself is situated on an ancient mound of irregular shape, 1000’ by 800’ approximately. Since the place housed a temple of the Sun, Cunningham has guessed that the name may have been derived from Martanda which is a common title of the Sun. Cunningham has also mentioned about the attribution of the ruins to Phul Chand or Pushp Chand, a Cherwani or Chero Raja, who is said to have lived before Vikramaditya. Buchanan also mentions about this tradition but he mentions the name of the king as Phudi Chandra. A Sanskrit verse regarding the construction in 120 Vikram Samvat was quoted by the locals to Bloch.
The historicity of Phul Chand Chero is unknown, but Cunningham was quite convinced about their being quite ancient as he found the design to be much earlier than the nearby temple of Deo Barunarak visited by him, where a Gupta age inscription of Jivagupta was found. Cunningham also referred to the presence of Cheros in the hills to the south, and mentioned rule of Chero kings at Chainpur, one of the chief towns of the district as late as the time of Akbar. Buchanan (1812) reported about the presence of a similar inscription at Deo Markandeya on a stone leaning against the well of the chief temple, but the same was untraced during the visit of Cunningham and Garrick (1880-81). The drawing of the inscription was never published.
Before describing the present situation of the site as seen by me in 2008, it would be worthwhile to trace the site as described in the earlier reports made by Buchanan, Cunningham, Garrick and Dr. D R Patil.
To be continued.....