Gadarmal Devi Temple

Gadarmal temple
Gadarmal temple
Religion
Affiliation	Hinduism, Jainism
Deity	Gadarmal devi
Location
Location	Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh
Geographic coordinates	23°55′06″N 78°13′21″E / 23.9182813°N 78.2224866°E
Architecture
Style	Pratihara, Māru-Gurjara
Creator	Pratihara dynasty
Date established	8th to 9th century
Completed	10th century
Temple(s)	1

Gadarmal Devi temple is a Hindu and Jain temple at Badoh village of Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh.

Description edit

Gadarmal Devi temple dates back to the 9th century. 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.^[1] The temple is made of sandstone with seven small shrines surrounding the main shrine.^[2]

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.^{[citation needed]} Vidya Dehejia writes that as a yogini temple, it must once have been hypaethral, open to the sky.^[3] The temple was supposedly built by shepherds (gadariya), and is therefore called Gadarmal Devi Temple among locals. It consists of one oblong cell with an entrance porch but without sabhamandapa.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[4]