Shamlaji

01The dark Lord of the hills

Shamaliya means the dark one. The murti in the sanctum is a black-stone Vishnu holding the gada, and the Bhil and Garasia people of the Aravallis count him their own god as much as the Vaishnava pilgrims from the plains do. The temple stands on a raised plinth, its walls carved with elephants, Vishnu’s forms and scenes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata, under a tall Nagara shikhar. The Kartik Purnima mela draws tribal families from Gujarat and Rajasthan for days of bathing in the Meshvo and darshan.

02Gupta sculpture

Excavations and chance finds around Shamlaji and nearby Devni Mori have produced grey schist images of the Gupta age: a Vishvarupa Vishnu, Matrikas, a Skanda, a Ganesha. Many are now in the Baroda Museum and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya in Mumbai. They show that worship here is far older than the present temple. At Devni Mori, excavations by the M.S. University of Baroda between 1959 and 1963 also uncovered a Buddhist stupa and monastery with an inscribed relic casket.