Famous Temples in India

Architecture

Built on a hillock the temple structure looks like a fort. An archway leads to stairs, which are approximately 380 in number and lead up to the temple building. While going up to the temple there are two langar halls located on the way. The temple of Jayanti Devi is built on a 6.10 m high platform supported by four hefty octagonal bastions at the corners measuring 3 m across. There is one oval shaped bastion each on the southwest and southeast side of the platform. In the center of the platform is the shrine which measures approximately 9x9 feet and is a small cubical chamber with two cusped arch doors one on the northwest side and the second on the southwest sides. The northeast and the southeast walls inside have similar blind doors. The door on the southwest side is used as the main entrance to the shrine. In front of the entrance door against the back wall of the shrine is a niche which enshrines the iconic and aniconic forms of the Goddess. In front of the idol of the Goddess three pindees (aniconic forms) are placed. The idol of the Goddess is carved out of white marble and is beautifully draped in red cloth and decorated with gold ornaments and mukut. The three pindees are also decorated with necklaces and tall mukuts. Above the idols are suspended silver and gold chattras. The niche is faced with white marble with the jamb of niche clad in ceramic tiles with different images printed on them depicting Saibaba, Ganpati, Shiva and Parvati, Hanuman, Kali and Durga. The floor of the shrine is clad in white marble whereas the walls and the ceiling are faced with off-white ceramic tiles. There is ample space around the shrine for pradakshina.

The outside walls of the shrine have blind cusped arched doors, three each on the southeast and northeast sides, apart from the central blind doors on the southeast and the northeast walls all the other eight have niches in them containing idols of different deities, Bhairon and Hanuman on the southwest side, Shiva Parivar and Sundri Bala on the northwest side, Lakshmi and Lokda on the northeast side and Kali and Ganesha on the southeast side. All the idols in the niches are in cement and are painted. The entire facade of the shrine is covered with tiles making a chequered pattern. On all the four sides of the cubical shrine is a projecting eave with a low parapet. The temple has a domical superstructure which is crowned by an inverted lotus, Kalash and finial. On all the four corners of the roof there are four burjis (pillars) with a small domical superstructure shaped like a Kalash surmounted by a finial. In this shrine around the Garbhagriha we come across some local deities of the areas enshrines in the niches such as Lokda and Sundri Bala.

The superstructure of the shrine is not in the Indian temple architecture style but is influenced by Mughal architecture (dome). This must be the architectural style popular at the time when the temple was built and moreover it would have been difficult for the Mughals to recognize a Hindu religious structure from outside and hence these types of Hindu religious structures were safe. The other such examples of historic Hindu religious structures with the outlook of Mughal architecture in this area are the Mansa Devi Temple near Manimajra town of Chandigarh and the Chandi Mandir from which the Chandigarh city took its name Chandigarh. In the absence of proper restoration the original flooring of the shrine has been replaced by marble and the walls have been faced with different ceramic tiles. Printed ceramic tiles with the images of different deities have been added to the facade of the Garbhagriha and the facade of the shrine has been faced with tiles arranged in a chequered pattern. The niches in the outer wall of the shrine also are faced with floral pattern ceramic tiles. With an early intervention of the authorities the original face of the shrine could have been saved in a better way.