Jagdish Temple, Udaipur

About

Standing a short walk from the city palace of Udaipur, the Jagdish Temple, known formally as the Temple of Jagannath Rai and affectionately as Jagdish-ji, commands the surrounding streets from atop an elevated marble terrace. Thirty-two marble steps lead worshippers upward past a brass figure of Garuḍa, the divine eagle-vehicle of Lord Viṣṇu, before they reach the main sanctum. Within, a four-armed image of Lord Jagannath, understood locally as a form of both Viṣṇu and Kṛṣṇa, has been carved from a single piece of black stone and adorned with flowers and regalia.

The Temple is the finest surviving specimen of Māha Māru or Māru-Gurjara style in Udaipur, its three storeys encrusted with intricate hand-cut stone carvings. The structure joins a double-storey maṇḍapa (pillared hall) to a double-storey sāṃdhāra sanctum that includes a roofed ambulatory for circumambulation. The maṇḍapa conceals an additional storey within its pyramidal samavaraṇa bellroof, while the clustered hollow śikhara above the sanctum rises to house two further non-functional levels. Four subsidiary shrines arranged in a circle around the central garbhagṛha honour Lord Gaṇeśa, Sūrya, Goddess Śakti, and Lord Śiva respectively.

The lanes of Udaipur's old sheharpanah city wall radiate outward from this Temple, reflecting its role as a spiritual and civic anchor for the city. The most celebrated annual event in the Temple's ritual calendar is the Rath Yātrā procession, which draws devotees together in festive veneration of the Lord.

History

Maharana Jagat Singh I of Mewar commissioned the Temple, then known as the Temple of Jagannath Rai, and its construction was completed in 1651 at a cost of some one and a half million rupees, a vast sum that made it the largest Temple raised in Udaipur. Thirty-two marble steps lead worshippers up past a brass image of Garuda, Lord Vishnu's vehicle, to the sanctum at the summit of the terrace. From the year of its consecration the Temple has remained in continuous worship, and the lanes of Udaipur's old walled city still radiate outward from its steps.

Significance

Jagdish Temple is the largest Temple in Udaipur and the finest surviving example of Maha-Maru, or Maru-Gurjara, Temple craft in the city, its three storeys covered in stone carving of exceptional fineness. Four subsidiary shrines set around the main sanctum honour Lord Ganesha, Surya Dev, Goddess Shakti, and Lord Shiva, gathering the wider Hindu pantheon around the central worship of Lord Jagannath. The Temple's annual Rath Yatra procession, carrying the Lord through streets he has watched over for more than three and a half centuries, remains a living part of Udaipur's devotional calendar.

Architecture

Maha-Maru (Maru-Gurjara) Temple architecture