Laxminarayan Temple (Birla Mandir, Delhi)

Built between 1933 and 1939 by the industrialist Jugal Kishore Birla, together with his father Baldeo Das Birla, this temple — popularly known as Birla Mandir and formally as the Laxminarayan Temple — was the first large Hindu temple constructed in the new capital of New Delhi and remains one of the city’s most recognizable religious landmarks. Architect Sris Chandra Chatterjee designed it in the Nagara style of north Indian temple architecture, with a three-storied main structure and a central spire rising roughly 49 meters, its surfaces carved in marble by artisans brought from Benares and built up with Kota stone throughout the grounds.

Mahatma Gandhi agreed to inaugurate the temple in 1938 only on condition that it be opened to worshippers of all castes, a stance consistent with his broader campaign against untouchability and a landmark moment for caste-inclusive access to a major Hindu temple in the capital. The main sanctum enshrines Lakshmi and Narayana (Vishnu) worshipped together as Lakshmi-Narayana, while subsidiary shrines within the same complex honor Shiva, Ganesha, Hanuman, the Buddha, and Durga — a multi-deity layout reflecting the ecumenical, pan-Hindu character the Birla family favored across the several “Birla Mandir” temples they funded in different Indian cities.