Jagat Shiromani Temple

400 year old temple in Jaipur, India

By Grant Cameron

January 29^th, 2019

The Temple

Located in Amer, Jaipur, in the Indian state of Rajasthan, the Jagat Shiromani Temple is a magnificent structure dedicated to Lord Vishnu, Krishna, and Meera Bai, a Hindu mystic poet, who considered herself the wife of Lord Krishna.

The temple is also known as the Krishna Meera temple, and it is by this name it can be found on Google maps.

The Temple Name

The temple was constructed between 1599-1608 AD by Queen Kanakwati, wife of King Man Singh the First, and in the loving memory of their son Jagat Singh.

The name Jagat Shiromani, given by the Queen, means Head Jewel of the idol of Lord Vishnu.

Architecture

The temple, constructed of three different stones found in the region, red sandstone, black sandstone, and white marble, is considered one of the most spectacular carved stone temples of Jaipur, and the best specimen of an early 17th century Mahameru prasad.

The three storey Garbhagriha (the main inner Sanctum of a Hindu temple) is crowned by Sikhara or Shikar (spire) which is adorned with successive rows of urusringas and karansringas (smaller subsidiary towers).

The Temple's two-layered Mandapam (platform for religious ceremonies) focuses on the depiction of animals, including horses, elephants and scenes and characters from the Hindu scriptures.

You may have noticed the old woman hard at work in several of the images, and you can see the forecourt has been immaculately swept. Not so towards the rear of the temple, though perhaps she'd get there eventually, which was messy with bird droppings and monkey poo!

The detail in the stone carving, after more than 400 years, is just simply incredible.

It is said that the statue of Lord Krishna in this temple is the same statue that Meera Bai used to worship in the state of Mewar, 200 years earlier than the temple's construction, in all, over 600 years ago.

The statue was apparently saved from destruction by the rulers of Amer during a Mughal war with Mewar state, and brought safely to Amer.

The Ornamental Arch

The entrance to the Temple, atop a long flight of stone stairs, is a beautiful marble arch or Torana (arched gateway), intricately carved with idols and Gods, and flanked by two marble elephants.

These last few images were taken as I was leaving the temple, and the old cleaning lady was still hard at work, still yet to get to the back of the temple and all that poo!

Getting There

My other blog posts are generally in Thailand, and you may know that I normally give brief details of how to get to the subject of the post, along with a map and directions. In this case, however, one must first fly to India!

For my Taj Mahal post I showed a map of the famous "golden triangle", and explained it is in Agra, about 230 kms (three and a half hours) from Delhi, along with its GPS coordinates. The Jagat Shiromani temple is in Jaipur, at the next corner of the "triangle" but I've given a much more detailed map showing the temple, in Amer, just north of the Amber Palace of Jaipur.