Category:Sidhpur

Siddhpur 

town and historic Hindu pilgrimage site in Gujarat, India
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Instance of	town
Location	Siddhpur Taluka, Patan district, Gujarat, India
Elevation above sea level	123 m
Different from	Siddhpura
23° 55′ 04.19″ N, 72° 22′ 19.63″ E
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Siddhpur – also spelled Siddhapur or Sidhpur – is a town in northwestern Gujarat. It was already a major north Gujarat pilgrimage site and town by the 10th-century. It is, however, a far more ancient site called Sristhala or Sristhalaka in pre-4th century Hindu literature including the Puranas. Its fame is connected with various legends associated with shraddha rituals here after the mother's death of Parasurama, as well as various Hindu saints and kings.

Siddhpur is home to many temple complexes and monasteries, of which the Matrugaya and Rudra Mahalaya temple are often attested in historic literature and inscriptions. The Rudra Mahalaya temple complex was already under construction in the 10th-century, as affirmed by an inscription found in Siddhpur. It was likely incomplete then, but expanded and completed by mid-12th-century to become one of the largest temples complex in western part of the Indian subcontinent. Hindu and Jain literature both confirm its completion.

At three storeys, the main temple was enormous in itself, surrounded by 11 shrines each dedicated to each of the 11 forms of Rudra. The massive temples complex stood for about 150 years before being attacked and destroyed by Delhi and Gujarat Sultanates. By the 15th-century, Rudra Mahalyas pillars, temple parts were used to build a mosque at this site, and parts of three of the shrines were incorporated into the masjid. (For more discussions and 19th-century images of Siddhapur, see for example, Chapter VI: Siddhapur, Archaeological Survey of India Volume XXXII, Western India Vol 9: Architectural Antiquities of Northern Gujarat, pp. 58–69).

Siddhpur has many other Shiva, Shakti and Vishnu related temple complexes, some of which were a part of 10th to 13th-century Hindu monasteries. The ruins of these are found on both sides of the Saraswati river within 30 kilometers of the Matrugaya Tirthadham. Sidhpur is also known for its Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, with its neighborhood called Vohrawad. As successful traders during the colonial era, they built their Siddhpur mansions in European style.