The Sahasra Bahu temples or Sasbahu Temples, at

Nagda, Rajasthan Nagda is a village in Udaipur district of Rajasthan state in India. It was once a prominent city in the early Mewar state. Today it is known primarily for the remains of the Sahasra Bahu Temples. Location Nagda is situated approximately 20 kilo ...

, are a pair of late 10th-century

Hindu temple A Hindu temple, also known as Mandir, Devasthanam, Pura, or Kovil, is a sacred place where Hindus worship and show their devotion to Hindu deities, deities through worship, sacrifice, and prayers. It is considered the house of the god to who ...

s dedicated to

Virabhadra Virabhadra (), also rendered Veerabhadra, Veerabathira, and Veerabathiran, is a fierce form of the Hindu god Shiva. He is created by the wrath of Shiva, when the deity hurls a lock of his matted hair upon the ground, upon hearing of the self- ...

. They share a platform, facing the temple tank, and are similar in style, but one is rather larger than the other. The larger one is surrounded by ten subsidiary shrines, the smaller by four; only the bases remain of some of these. The temples have many of the characteristics of slightly later

Māru-Gurjara architecture Māru-Gurjara architecture or Solaṅkī style, is the style of West Indian temple architecture that originated in Gujarat and Rajasthan from the 11th to 13th centuries, under the Chaulukya dynasty (also called Solaṅkī dynasty). Although or ...

but lack others, especially in the plan and exterior sculpture. They are locally referred to as Sas Bahu temples (a local corruption of the original Sahasra-Bahu, meaning "One with thousand arms", a form of Vishnu). Nagda was once an important city of Mewar, possibly a capital of one of its rulers. Both temples have a sanctuary,

mandapa A ''mandapa'' or ''mantapa'' () is a pillared hall or pavilion for public rituals in Indian architecture, especially featured in Hindu temple architecture and Jain temple architecture. ''Mandapas'' are described as "open" or "closed" dependin ...

with side projections, and an open porch. Their somewhat ruined

shikhara ''Shikhara'' (IAST: '), a Sanskrit word translating literally to "mountain peak", refers to the rising tower in the Hindu temple architecture of North India, and also often used in Jain temples. A ''shikhara'' over the ''garbhagriha'' chamber ...

s are in brick, with many subsidiary turrets. That of the smaller temple has been largely repaired, while the larger one remains truncated. Below the platform there is a

torana A ''torana'' (; '' awr-uh-nuh') is a free-standing ornamental or arched gateway for ceremonial purposes in Hindu architecture, Hindu, Buddhist and Jain architecture of the Indian subcontinent. Toranas can also be widely seen in Southeast Asi ...

-style entrance screen, with four columns and a decorative cusped arch in the centre. The interiors and parts of the exteriors, especially around the porches, are lavishly carved, but much of the exteriors are plain. Lotus flower painting is visible on the roof top of temple.

Iltutmish Shams ud-Din Iltutmish (1192 – 30 April 1236) was the third of the Mamluk kings who ruled the former Ghurid territories in northern India. He was the first Muslim sovereign to rule from Delhi, and is thus considered the effective founder of ...

(Delhi emperor of that time) destroyed Nagda in 1226. The temples are on the

Archaeological Survey of India The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexander ...

's list of heritage monuments. Adbhutji Shanthinath Jain Tirth or Nagahyuda Jain Mandir, an ancient Jain centre is located nearby, next to the Bagela Lake.

Location

The site is very easily accessible by road, only about 20km from

Udaipur Udaipur (Hindi: , ) (ISO 15919: ''Udayapura'') is a city in the north-western Indian state of Rajasthan, about south of the state capital Jaipur. It serves as the administrative headquarters of Udaipur district. It is the historic capital of t ...

(one of the main lake & palace hotspots of

Tourism in Rajasthan Rajasthan is one of the most popular tourist destinations in India, for both domestic and international tourists. Rajasthan attracts tourists for its historical forts, palaces, art and culture with its slogan "Padharo Mhare Desh (Welcome to m ...

), a mere 2.7 km from the well frequented

Shaivite Shaivism (, , ) is one of the major Hindu traditions, which worships Shiva as the supreme being. It is the second-largest Hindu sect after Vaishnavism, constituting about 385 million Hindus, found widely across South Asia (predominantly in ...

shrine of

Eklingji Eklingji () is a Hindu temple complex in Udaipur District of Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India ...

, or 30 km from the hugely popular

Vaishnavite Vaishnavism () ), also called Vishnuism, is one of the major Hindu denominations, Hindu traditions, that considers Vishnu as the sole Para Brahman, supreme being leading all other Hindu deities, that is, ''Mahavishnu''. It is one of the majo ...

shrine town of

Nathdwara Nathdwara is a city in the Rajsamand district of the state of Rajasthan, India. It is located in the Aravalli hills, on the banks of the Banas River and is 48 kilometres north-east of Udaipur. Shrinathji, is a swarup of lord Krishna whic ...

Gallery

File:Aesthetic view of sahastrabhu temple.jpg, Temple 1 File:Sahasra_Bahu_Temple_in_Nagda,_Rajasthan.jpg, Sahasra Bahu Temple2 File:Sahasra_Bahu_Temple_carvings.jpg, Carvings on the walls of the temple Nagda-10-Sas Bahu-2018-gje.jpg, Part of temple 2 Nagda-12-Sas Bahu-2018-gje.jpg, Reliefs on temple 2 Nagda-38-Sas Bahu-2018-gje.jpg, Gate File:External carving on temple 2.jpg, Relief on Temple 2 File:Samudra Manthan ceiling sculpture.jpg, alt=

Spelling confusion

Sahasra is the correct prefix that means "a thousand", not SahasTra. However, it is invariably misspelled as the latter. Notice how the same prefix is spelled when referring to the crown chakra: " Sahasrara Chakra" or when it occurs in family names (example: Sahasrabuddhe) ''without'' a T. Also see

Sahasralinga Sahasraliṅga (sanskrit: सहस्रलिङ्ग) is a pilgrimage place, located around 14 km from the Sirsi Taluk in the district of Uttara Kannada of Karnataka state in India. It is in the river ''Shalmala'' and is famous for bei ...

. The confusion arises because the

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; in script: , , ) is an Indic script used in the Indian subcontinent. It is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental systems: alphabets, writing system), based on the ancient ''Brāhmī script, Brā ...

letter "sa" (स) merges with "ra" (र) to make "sra" (स्र), which looks like "stra" (स्त्र).

References

*Michell, George (1990), ''The Penguin Guide to the Monuments of India, Volume 1: Buddhist, Jain, Hindu'', p. 287, 1990, Penguin Books,

External links

*
Sahastra Bahu Temple Guide
Hindu temples in Rajasthan Tourist attractions in Udaipur district Buildings and structures in Udaipur district Hindu temples sacked in the Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent {{india-hindu-temple-stub