हिंदीOn this day
Ruined

Kiradu Temples

The ruins of at least five temples in the Thar near Barmer, the Someshvara Shiva temple the best preserved. Their inscriptions record a Turushka attack and the restoration that followed.

Built: 11th–12th century, by feudatories of the Chaulukya (Solanki) kingsWhere: Rajasthan (Barmer district)Deity: Bhagwan Shiva as Someshvara; also Vishnu25.75° N, 71.10° E
  1. 1161 CE
  2. 1178 CE
Photo: Akshita raina · CC BY-SA 4.0

01Someshvara in the desert

Kiradu, old Kiratakupa, stands on a low ridge in empty scrub some 35 km from Barmer. Its Someshvara temple has lost its spire and most of the hall roof, but its walls still carry elephants, horsemen, scenes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and its octagonal hall columns are carved to the top. Percy Brown called this the Solanki mode; it is the Maru-Gurjara style of Modhera, carried into Marwar by the Paramara and Chahamana chiefs who held these lands under the Chaulukyas of Anahilwad.

02Broken and set up again

Inscriptions at Kiradu name the Chaulukya kings Kumarapala and Bhima II as overlords. One of 1178 CE records that images broken by the Turushkas were set up again, the year Muhammad of Ghor came down on Gujarat and was turned back at Kasahrada. Later the town was deserted, and the temples slowly fell. Five shrines can be traced today: Someshvara, three smaller Shiva temples and a Vishnu temple.

The life of this place

  1. 1161 CEAn inscription of Kumarapala’s reign is cut at Kiradu.
  2. 1178 CEAn inscription records the re-setting of images broken by the Turushkas.
Visiting

Kiradu is about 35 km north-west of Barmer by road via Hathma village; there are no facilities at the site, and it is best seen in the morning.

Nearby

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Bhinmal (Bhillamala, Shrimala)

The old capital of the Gurjara country in south-west Rajasthan, where Brahmagupta finished the Brahmasphutasiddhanta in 628 CE, the book that set down rules for zero and negative numbers.

Baba Ramdev Samadhi Temple, Ramdevra (Runicha)Standing
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Baba Ramdev Samadhi Temple, Ramdevra (Runicha)

The samadhi of Baba Ramdev, the Tanwar Rajput saint of Pokaran whom Rajasthan honours as Ramsa Pir and an avatar of Krishna. In Bhadrapada lakhs walk across the desert to it, flags on their shoulders.

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Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Mehrangarh, Jodhpur

The Rathore fortress on Bhaurcheeria hill, about 125 m above Jodhpur. Rao Jodha moved here from Mandore in 1459; the fort was held by the Mughals from 1679 until Ajit Singh and Durgadas Rathore won Jodhpur back in 1707.

Mandore (Mandavyapura)Ruined
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Mandore (Mandavyapura)

The old capital of Marwar, eight kilometres north of Jodhpur, held first by a Pratihara line and then by the Rathores until Rao Jodha moved to the new fort in 1459. Its gardens hold the cenotaphs of the Rathore kings.