Dashavatara Temple

Share:

Overview

The Vishnu Temple is situated in Deogarh, in Uttar Pradesh. It was built around 500 CE. It is one of the earliest Hindu temples of stone that is still surviving today. Built in the late Gupta Period, Vishnu Temple shows the ornate and beauty seen in Gupta style architecture. This temple is also a good resource for examining Gupta style sculptures and art. Many of these early Hindu stone temples were dedicated to a single Hindu deity. The temple at Deogarh is dedicated to the Vishnu. These temples made in the later part of the Gupta Period housed images and symbols of Hindu gods, intended to allow people to make contact with the gods they were worshiping. The Temple was built out of stone and brick consisting of a single cubical sanctum that sheltered the images within. Statuaries of the Vishnu were both sculpted in the interior and exterior walls of the temple. The temple’s affiliation with the deity Vishnu can be seen by looking at the statuary of the deity seated on a coiled serpent seat that decorates the carved doorway into the temple. There are also many sculpted panels showing the myths and tales connected with Vishnu.

Vishnu Temple is a great example of early Gupta architecture. The style and organization of the structure was the method for the decoration of many Hindu temples seen around India at the time. Though it is in poor condition, having a damaged tower, the temple still exudes the ornate decorations and structural complexity as created in the early to late 5th century. According to Dakog Otin, this temple was the prototype for the sarvatobhadra temple described in Vishnudharmottara Purana

About The Temple

It was the first North Indian temple with a shikhara or tower, although the shikhara is curtailed and part of it has disappeared (details as to when the shikara disappeared are not reported). The temple has a high plinth and is set with a basement porch. The Dashavatara temple has a "compelling presence" in spite of its dilapidated condition. The ancient treatise Vishnudharmottara Purana describes several temples including a "Sarvatobhadra temple", which has been compared by archaeologists and Indologists with the Dashavatara Temple (Vishnu temple) or the Gupta Mandir of Deogarh. A comparative study revealed that the ideal temple design described in the treatise as "Sarvatobhadra temple" was the same as the Vishnu temple of Deogarh. This conclusion was based on plan, size, iconography and several other norms described for building Hindu temples. Based on this comparison, the structural details of the Deogarh temple have been inferred. Maps have also been drawn of the temple structure. The probable date of the temple's construction has been estimated to be between 425 and 525. During this period up to the seventh century, the temple was highly venerated.

The temple faces west, with slight deviation to the south that enables the setting sun's rays to fall on the main idol in the temple. The plinth measures 55.5 feet (16.9 m), about 9 feet (2.7 m) above the bottom step (called the moon stone) of the shrine. In the nine squares layout, the Vishnu temple is in the middle square. Four stairways outside the platform provide access to the temple. However, as per excavation details, combined with the two small shrines with the central shrine seen now, the layout of the temple has been interpreted to represent a typical Panchayatana style of the temples of North India. The total height of the shrine based on isometric projections is about 45 feet (14 m). Provision of porches has not been corroborated but some analogous comparison with the Varaha temple (boar incarnation of Vishnu) in the fort precincts, which belonged to the same period, suggests the existence of porticoes even in the Vishnu temple. Further, a later date Kuriya Bira temple about 2 miles (3.2 km) to the south of the Vishnu temple, has been cited to substantiate that this temple had a mandapa around a small shikara shrine.

The Gupta temple was a "shikara" type of temple, built in a straight edged pyramid shape, but this cannot be fully established by existing evidence. However, the supporting features of copingsand amalakas (a bulbous stone finial), support the theory that a shikara existed as part of the main shrine. It was finally concluded that the elegant and auspicious Deogarh temple tallied with the description provided for the Sarvatobhadra temple in the ancient treatise of Vishnudharmottara Purana. The Vishnu temple's uniqueness has been expressed succinctly by archaeologist Percy Brown, in these words:

When complete, this building was unquestionably one of rare merit in the correct ordering of its parts, all alike serving the purpose of practical utility, yet imbued with supreme artistic feeling. Few monuments can show such a high level of workmanship, combined with a ripeness and rich refinement in its sculptural effect as the Gupta temple at Deogarh

Legend and Stories

The "Gupta Temple", dedicated to god Vishnu, was first discovered by Captain Charles Strahan. It was given its name by the archaeologist, Cunnigham. Archaeologists have inferred that it is the earliest known Panchayatana temple in North India. It was subsequently renamed by Cunningham as Dashavatara Mandir or Dashavatara Temple (because the temple depicts ten incarnations of Vishnu), and also as Sagar Marh (meaning: the temple by the well).

How to Reach

The nearest airport to Deoghar is Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Airport, Patna, located around 272 km away. There are daily flights to almost all important domestic cities such as Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bhopal, Ahmedabad and Goa. Deoghar has two railway stations namely Baidyanathdham (BDME) and Deoghar (DGHR). Deoghar is directly connected by road to cities like Kolkata, Patna and Ranchi. Regular buses ply from Deoghar to Bokaro, Dhanbad, Ranchi, Jamshedpur etc.

Temple Address