01Bayajabai’s temple
Bayajabai, wife of Maharaja Daulatrao Scindia of Gwalior, built the temple in the 19th century, when Ujjain was a Scindia town. It is a square marble shrine on a high plinth with a spire in Maratha style, its sanctum holding a two-foot Krishna in silver-covered stone, with Shiva, Parvati and Garuda. Its silver-plated doors are famous; the temple’s tradition says they came from Somnath by way of Ghazni and were recovered by Mahadji Scindia, a claim historians have not been able to confirm.
02Harihar milan
Through Chaturmas, the shastras say, Vishnu sleeps and Shiva bears the work of the world. On Vaikuntha Chaturdashi in Kartik, at midnight, the palanquin of Mahakal comes through the lanes to Gopal Mandir with drums and torches. Mahakal offers Hari a garland of bilva leaves and receives one of tulsi, the only night in the year when each takes the other’s leaf, and the charge of the world passes back to Vishnu. Janmashtami is the temple’s own great festival.
The life of this place
- 19th centuryBayajabai Shinde builds the Gopal Mandir.
The temple is in the main bazaar of old Ujjain, a short walk from Mahakaleshwar; the Harihar milan is at midnight on Vaikuntha Chaturdashi.
