Nagda : Sas Bahu Temples

India

By kevinstandagehotography on April 5, 2015 • ( 10 Comments )

Not far out from Udaipur is Nagda, and the little visited but superb Sas Bahu (or Sahastra Bahu) Temples. This makes for a nice short excursion out of Udaipur for the afternoon, and highly recommended.

Sas and Bahu mean ‘mother-in-law’ and ‘daughter-in-law’  respectively, and are names given by locals to the two temples that are of different sizes. However, it’s probably just a local corruption of the original Sahasra-Bahu name, meaning “one with thousand arms”, a form of Vishnu.

The Sas Temple is the larger one, with a ruined tower and remains of ten shrines. Both temples are dedicated to Vishnu, although there are also images of Shiva, Parvati and Ganesha.

The entrance and interior of the Sas Temple is richly decorated with carvings, including elaborate friezes of scenes from the Ramayana.  The smaller Bahu temple is less decorated, and sits by an open assembly hall.

Nagda was the ancient capital of the Mewar region before Chittorgarh and Udaipur, there are several other ruined buildings in the countryside around but unfortunately I had little time to explore. One for next time…

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Categories: India, Nagda : Sas Bahu Temples, Rajasthan

Tagged as: Hindu Temples