Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Junagadh (

Devnagari Devanagari ( ; in script: , , ) is an Indic script used in the Indian subcontinent. It is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the ancient '' Brāhmī'' script. It is one of the official scripts of India and ...

: श्री स्वामिनारायण मन्दिर, जूनागढ), also called Shri Radha Ramana Temple, Junagadh is a

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 ...

Junagadh Junagadh () is the city and headquarters of Junagadh district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Located at the foot of the Girnar hills, southwest of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar (the state capital), it is the seventh largest city in the state. It i ...

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. This temple was ordered to be built by Swaminarayan bhagwan himself, the founder of the

Swaminarayan Sampradaya The Swaminarayan Sampradaya, also known as Swaminarayan Hinduism and Swaminarayan movement, is a Hindu Vaishnava sampradaya rooted in Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita, characterized by the worship of its charismatic founder Sahajanand Swami, be ...

History of this temple

The city of Junagadh is nestled in the lap of Mt.

Girnar Girnar is an ancient hill in Junagadh, Gujarat, India. It is one of the holiest pilgrimages of Jains, where the 22nd Tirthankara, Tirthaṅkar, Lord Neminath attained omniscience, and later nirvana at its highest peak (''Neminath Shikhar''), ...

. The temple is located in the centre of the town. The land for the temple was donated by King Hemantsinh (Jinabhai, Darbar of Panchala), and memories of him have been maintained here. The foundation stone was laid by

Gunatitanand Swami Gunatitanand Swami (28 September 1784 – 11 October 1867), born Mulji Jani, was a paramhansa of the Hindu Swaminarayan Sampradaya who was ordained by Swaminarayan and is accepted as the first spiritual successor of Swaminarayan by the Bochas ...

in the presence of

Gopalanand Swami Gopalanand Swami (1781–1852) was a paramhansa of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya who was ordained by Swaminarayan. He worked and guided many followers to spread the Swaminarayan Sampradaya. The Swaminarayan Sampradaya believes that Gopala ...

and other senior

paramhansa Paramahamsa (Sanskrit: परमहंस), also spelled paramahansa or paramhansa, is a Sanskrit religio-theological title of honour applied to Hindu spiritual teachers who have become enlightened. The title literally means "supreme swan". The ...

s on May 10, 1826, A.D. Construction was supervised by

Brahmanand Swami Brahmanand Swami (12 February 1772 – 1832) was revered as a saint of the Swaminarayan Sampraday and as one of Swaminarayan Bhagwan's Paramahamsa. He was also known as one of Swaminarayan's Ashta Kavi's (eight poets) within the Swaminarayan S ...

. The prana pratishta, or the installation of the deities, lasted for two full days with the festivities of the auspicious events. On May 1, 1828, A.D., Swaminarayan himself installed Shri Ranchhodrai and Trikamrai in the inner sanctum. In the eastern wing, he installed

Radharaman Dev Radha Ramana () is one of the three combined forms of the Hinduism, Hindu deities Radha and Krishna. The other two forms are Bankey Bihari Temple, Banke Bihari and Radha Vallabh Temple, Vrindavan, Radha-Vallabha. Radha Ramana is typically adorned ...

and Harikrishna Maharaj and in the western side he installed Siddheswar Mahadev,

Parvati Parvati (, , IPA: /Sanskrit phonology, pɑɾʋət̪iː/), also known as Uma (, , IPA: Sanskrit phonology, /ʊmɑː/) and Gauri (, , IPA: /Sanskrit phonology, gə͡ʊɾiː/), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the Devi, ...

Ganesha Ganesha or Ganesh (, , ), also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka and Pillaiyar, is one of the best-known and most worshipped Deva (Hinduism), deities in the Hindu deities, Hindu pantheon and is the Supreme God in the Ganapatya sect. His depictions ...

and Nandishwar. The Mughal Subba Bahadur Khan paid a personal visit to the place on this occasion. Swaminarayan blessed the provincial head of the

Mughal empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

and honoured the king Hemantsinh for his gift of the land for the temple. Swaminarayan appointed

as the first

mahant Mahant () is a religious superior, in particular the chief of a temple or the head of a monastery in Indian religions. James Mallinson, one of the few westerners to be named as a mahant, describes the position of a mahant as a combination of an ...

(religious and administrative head): he served in this role for over 40 years. The Swaminarayan temple has a circumference of 278 ft. The

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

here has five

spires The Stanford Physics Information Retrieval System (SPIRES) is a database management system developed by Stanford University. It is used by universities, colleges and research institutions. The first website in North America was created to allow re ...

and many sculptures.

Image gallery

Images of this temple: Image:Chhatri of Lord Swaminarayan's Charanavind.jpg, Chhatri of Swaminarayan's Charanavind Image:Lord Ranchhodrai Junagadh Temple.jpg, Radha Raman with Hari Krishna at this temple

Notes

References

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Shri Swaminarayan Mandirs - Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Junagadh
{{Hindu temples in Gujarat Swaminarayan Sampradaya Junagadh district