Category:Bhojeshwar Temple

**Bhojeshwar Temple**
	11th century unfinished Shiva Temple near Bhopal
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Instance of	Hindu temple (Shiva);
Location	Raisen district, Bhopal division, Madhya Pradesh, India
Heritage designation	Monument of National Importance;
	23° 06′ 01.08″ N, 77° 34′ 46.92″ E
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	Q24951898;
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The Bhojeshwar temple, also referred to as the Shiva temple of Bhojpur, is a massive unfinished 11th-century Hindu temple about 30 kilometers southeast of Bhopal. If completed, it would have been the largest Hindu temple in India. It also has the oldest architectural line drawings of a temple in Asia, on several acres of rocky surface.

Some of the earliest published photographs of this Shiva temple are from the 19th-century. A collection was published in 1882 by Deen Dayal, now held by the British Library. It shows the upper section of the temple structure in ruins, sections of the roof torn out, its limited artwork to be badly damaged. Alexander Cunningham reported two inscriptions, which later helped date this monument. The temple was cleaned up in the 20th-century and restored in the 21st-century with significant improvements to the visitor infrastructure.

The temple is attributed to the Paramara dynasty king Bhoja. It stands on a 4 meter high massive platform with a large surface that sometimes hosts classical Indian dance performances. The surviving structure consists of the temple's sanctum. The sanctum's doorway towers about 35 feet high. Larger than life size, but mutilated, dvarapalas, Ganga, Yamuna and other sculptures flank the massive doorway. Steps leads one down the sanctum with a massive Shiva linga, one of the largest in India. Just its pitha is 20 feet high. The temple was envisioned as a sandhara temple, providing a circumambulatory path around the linga inside the sanctum. Hindu pilgrims continue to bring flowers and offerings, though the temple does not have formal or full services except on special festivals.

To the north of temple are acres of flat and sometimes gently sloping rocky surface. On it are numerous architectural line drawings of structures, mandapa, pillars, sikhara along with sketches of sculptures and artwork that were planned for this temple. The temple and these drawings have attracted a detailed study by Adam Hardy and his scholarly colleagues, as well as mentions by many more. These drawings correlate with the historic Hindu Sanskrit architectural treatise titled Samaranganasutradhara. Hardy's publications suggest that the Indian temple construction in 11th century was a planned and sophisticated process. If those design principles and relative proportions were followed, the completed temple would have an elevation of greater than 100 meters – one of the largest pre-12th century monuments in the world. However, for reasons unclear, the temple was never finished.

This temple is a national monument of India, managed and protected by ASI.