Famous Temples in India

Architecture

The temple is constructed from white bricks and is having a height of around 80 feet and is spread in around 2 square kilometers area. The temple on a sandstone mound about a mile to the north-west of the village, rising boldy from the sea that washes their western face, are enclosed by a fortified wall, the gate approached by three flights of steps. The courtyard is surrounded by a battlemented wall armed formerly with three small guns. In the middle, on a platform 4​1⁄2 feet high 63​1⁄2 long and 49 broad, is a handsomely built stone temple of Mahadev. The porch has three domes with, under the central dome, a large and beautiful brass bull presented by Rao Deshalji-I of Cutch State in the right dome a large statue of Hanuman and in the left dome one of Ganpati. Inside tho porch is the hall, mandap, 19 feet 9 inches long and 24 feet 8 inches wide, with a large central and two side domes. On a marble tablet, let into the centre of the hall floor, the names of Kshatri Jetha and Sundarji Shivji are humbly cut that the feet of the worshippers may tread on them. At the inner end of the hall and between it and the shrine are, on either side, figures of Ganpati and Hanuman. In the screen wall of the shrine are two inscriptions referring to the rebuilding of the temple in 1820. The frame of the door is of carved stone. 

The door itself, 2​1⁄2 feet wide and 12​3⁄4 high, is plated with carved silver. The shrine, paved with black marble, is 11​1⁄2 feet square. In the back wall is an image of Parvati, and in tho west wall are two images of Ganpati and Revaji. In the centre of a basin, jaladhari, rather far back in the shrine, is a four feet high ling of the kind called self-born. One can also see a brass Nandi Idol, presented by the Rao Deshalji I of Kutch State. At the time of rebuilding the temple in 1820, the foundation of the east wall was kept and it was enlarged on the west. The change so altered the position of the ling that it was no longer under the central lotus. This was said to be ominous to the ruler and in 1863 (Samvat 1920) Rao Pragmalji-I of Cutch State, when he visited the temple, ordered a silver canopy to be placed over the ling. By the Rao's death the work was stayed before the plans were finished.