Jyotirlingas, Temples and Religious Places of MP Notes

Madhya Pradesh sits at the centre of the country and holds religious sites from almost every Indian tradition: two of the twelve jyotirlingas, the oldest surviving Buddhist stupa, temple groups of the Chandelas and the Paramaras, Jain colossi, Bundela shrines and the source of the Narmada. MPPSC, MPESB and MP Police papers ask this chapter as site, district, river and builder, so the surest way to prepare it is to learn those four together for each place.

The two jyotirlingas

Of the twelve jyotirlingas, two are in Madhya Pradesh. Mahakaleshwar stands at Ujjain on the bank of the Shipra; it is the only south-facing, or Dakshinamukhi, jyotirlinga, and its Bhasma Aarti before dawn is unique to it. Omkareshwar is on the island of Mandhata in the Narmada, in Khandwa district, with the Mamleshwar temple on the opposite bank. Ujjain itself is a whole chapter: it was the capital of the Avanti mahajanapada and of the Mauryan west, it hosts the Simhastha Kumbh once in twelve years, and it holds the Harsiddhi and Kal Bhairav temples, the Sandipani ashram and the Vedh Shala observatory built by Sawai Jai Singh II. The Tropic of Cancer passes near it, and ancient Indian astronomy took Ujjain as its prime meridian.

Khajuraho and the temple groups

Khajuraho, in Chhatarpur district, was built by the Chandela rulers between about 950 and 1050 CE in the Nagara style, and was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1986. The largest and most finished temple is the Kandariya Mahadeva, raised under Vidyadhara; the Lakshmana temple belongs to Yashovarman, the Chausath Yogini is the oldest and the only one of granite, and the Matangeshwara is still in daily worship. The eastern group has the Jain temples of Parsvanatha and Adinatha. At Bhojpur in Raisen district, on the Betwa, Raja Bhoja of the Paramara dynasty began the Bhojeshwar temple in the eleventh century; it was never finished, and its lingam, carved from a single stone, is among the largest in India. Nearby Udayagiri in Vidisha has Gupta-period caves with the great Varaha panel and an inscription of Chandragupta II, and Gwalior fort holds the Sas-Bahu temples, the Teli ka Mandir and the Data Bandi Chhod gurudwara of Guru Hargobind.

Sanchi and the Buddhist and Jain sites

Sanchi, in Raisen district, has the Great Stupa built by Ashoka in the third century BCE, enlarged later, with carved toranas added in the Satavahana period and an Ashokan pillar carrying the schism edict. The site was brought to notice in 1818 and was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1989. Bharhut in Satna district was another great stupa, whose railings are now in a museum. Jain pilgrimage centres include Bawangaja in Barwani, with a rock-cut standing image of Adinatha about eighty-four feet high, Sonagiri in Datia and Kundalpur in Damoh. At Mandu in Dhar district stands the tomb of Hoshang Shah, the first building of marble in India.

Devi shrines, river sources and Ram sites

Maihar in Satna district has the Sharda Devi temple on the Trikuta hill, reached by more than a thousand steps. Amarkantak in Anuppur district, on the Maikal range, is the source of both the Narmada and the Son, and the Narmada Kund temples cluster there. Orchha in Niwari district, the Bundela capital on the Betwa, has the Ram Raja temple, the only place where Rama is worshipped as a reigning king, along with the Chaturbhuj temple and the Jahangir Mahal. Chitrakoot, on the Mandakini, is linked with Rama's forest years and has Ramghat, Kamadgiri and Sphatik Shila. Other sites asked about are the Pitambara Peeth at Datia, Salkanpur in Sehore, the Jata Shankar and Mahadeo caves at Pachmarhi, and the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Raisen, which became the state's third World Heritage Site in 2003.

Site and district