Gadarmal Devi Temple

Gadarmal temple
Gadarmal temple
Religion
Affiliation	Hinduism, Jainism
Deity	Gadarmal devi, Krishna
Location
Location	Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh
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Coordinates	23°55′06″N 78°13′21″E / 23.9182813°N 78.2224866°E
Architecture
Style	Pratihara, Māru-Gurjara
Creator	Gadaria Caste
Established	7th to 8th century
Completed	9th century
Temple	1

Gadarmal Devi temple is a Hindu and Jain temple at Badoh village of Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh.^[1] 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[edit | edit source]

Gadarmal Devi temple dates back to the 7 - 8th century, it was built by the Gadaria caste^[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 temple was supposedly built by shepherds (gadariya), and is therefore called Gadarmal Devi Temple among locals.^[5]

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

References[edit | edit source]

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 Ayyar, Sulochana (1987). Costumes and Ornaments as Depicted in the Sculptures of Gwalior Museum. Mittal Publications. p. 10. ISBN 978-81-7099-002-4. The Gadarmal temple is the most important monument in the twin villages. The temple is not preserved in its original form. ... ["According to a popular legend current in the locality, the temple is said to have been built by a shepherd (gadaria) and hence its name Gadarmal."]
↑ ASI & Gadarmal Temple.
↑ Mitra 2012, p. 26.
↑ Dehejia 1986, pp. 141–145.
↑ ^5.0 ^5.1 Beglar, Joseph David (1878). Report of a tour in Bundelkhand and Malwa, 1871-72. Vol. VII. Calcutta: Archaeological Survey of India. p. 70.