Jagdish Temple, Udaipur

The Jagdish Temple stands close to Udaipur’s City Palace and is the largest temple in the city, built by Maharana Jagat Singh I of Mewar and completed in 1651 — a construction date and patron that are well documented rather than a matter of local legend. The main sanctum enshrines a four-armed image of Jagannath, a form of Vishnu, carved from a single block of black stone, and it has reportedly been in continuous worship since its 1651 consecration. Four subsidiary shrines around the main sanctum are dedicated to Ganesha, Surya, Shakti, and Shiva, reflecting a broadly inclusive Vaishnava temple plan common to major Rajput-era royal temples.

Architecturally the temple is a well-preserved example of the Maru-Gurjara style associated with western Indian temple building, with three storeys of hand-carved stone rising to a spire nearly 79 feet high, a double-storey pillared hall (mandapa), and a sanctum reached by 32 marble steps up a raised terrace, crowned by a brass image of Garuda facing the shrine. As the city’s principal temple, it sits at the convergence of several lanes leading from Udaipur’s old city walls, and its annual Rath Yatra, in which the deity is taken out in procession, remains its most prominent festival.