Gadarmal Devi Temple

Gadarmal temple
Religion
Affiliation	Hinduism, Jainism
Deity	Gadarmal devi, Krishna and Shiva
Location
Location	Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh
Geographic coordinates	23°55′06″N78°13′21″E / 23.9182813°N 78.2224866°E / 23.9182813; 78.2224866 (Gadarmal Devi Temple)
Architecture
Style	Pratihara, Māru-Gurjara
Creator	Gadaria people
Date established	7th Century
Temple(s)	1

Gadarmal Devi temple is a Hindu and Jain temple at Badoh village of Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh. It was built by a person of Gadaria caste. Also called Gadarmal Temple of the Mothers, it is one of India's yogini temples. It has 42 niches for yogini statues, unusually arranged in a rectangle; it must originally have been hypaethral.

Description

Gadarmal Devi temple dates back to the 7th century A.D., which was built by a Gadaria. ^[1] The architecture of this yogini temple is a fusion of Pratihara and Parmara styles. It is built similar to Teli ka Mandir in Gwalior fort. This temple houses both Hindu and Jain idols. ^[2] The temple is made of sandstone with seven small shrines surrounding the main shrine. ^[3]

It is a 42-niche yogini temple. 18 broken images of the goddesses that once fitted into grooves in the temple platform are preserved from the waist down. It is composed of a rectangular shrine and a tall and massive Shikhara. Vidya Dehejia writes that as a yogini temple, it must once have been hypaethral, open to the sky. ^[4]

The archaeologist Joseph David Beglar photographed a colossal bas-relief sculpture of a mother and child inside the temple in 1871–2. He called it a figure of Maya Devi and the infant Buddha. ^[5]

• 
  Idol of Vishnu
• 
  A ceiling with Idols of Hindu goddesses
• 
  Doorway decorated with Hindu deities and human figures

See also

• Gadaria caste
• Vidisha Jain temples
• Khajuraho Group of Monuments
• Nachna Hindu temples
• Siddhachal Caves

References

1. Ayyar, Sulochana (1987). Costumes and Ornaments as Depicted in the Sculptures of Gwalior Museum. Mittal Publications. ISBN   978-81-7099-002-4.
2. ASI & Gadarmal Temple.
3. Mitra 2012, p. 26.
4. Dehejia 1986, pp. 141–145.
5. Beglar, Joseph David (1878). Report of a tour in Bundelkhand and Malwa, 1871-72. Vol. VII. Calcutta: Archaeological Survey of India. p. 70.

Sources

• Dehejia, Vidya (1986). Yogini Cult and Temples: A Tantric Tradition. National Museum, Janpath, New Delhi.
• Mitra, Swati (2012). Temples of Madhya Pradesh (1 ed.). Goodearth Publications. ISBN   978-9-3802-6249-9.
• "Gadarmal Temple". Archaeological Survey of India.

External links

• Photo-reportage of the temples on the site