01Devi on every wall
Ambika rides her lion in the sanctum, and on the outer walls the Devi appears again and again: Mahishasuramardini slaying the buffalo demon, Durga in her many forms, the Matrikas, and between them dancers and musicians, one woman playing a single-stringed vina. The sculpture is crisp and full of movement. The temple is an early example of the Maru-Gurjara manner that would later give Rajasthan and Gujarat their great temples, built when Mewar was ruled by the Guhilas from Nagda.
02The inscriptions
Several inscriptions are cut into the temple. The earliest, of 961 CE (Vikram Samvat 1017), records a repair, so the shrine is older than that date; another records work under the Guhila ruler Allata’s line. The temple was never a royal capital’s showpiece, which may be why it survived: the village of Jagat kept worshipping its Devi through the centuries. It is now protected by the Rajasthan Department of Archaeology and Museums.
The life of this place
- 961 CEAn inscription records a repair of the temple.
Jagat is about 50 km south-east of Udaipur, off the road to Salumbar; go by car and carry water.
