Dashavatara Temple lalitpur up

Dashavatara temple

 Dashavatara Temple, Deogarh

 Nara Narayana panel on the eastern wall of the Vishnu templeRight:

 Carved panel of Gajendra Moksha- Vishnu saves Gajendra, the elephant from clutches of crocodile on one of the walls of the Vishnu temple.

The "Gupta Temple", dedicated to god Vishnu, was first discovered by Captain Charles Strahan. It was given its name by the archaeologist, Cunnigham. Archaeologists have inferred that it is the earliest known Panchayatana temple in North India.^[16][17] It was subsequently renamed by Cunningham as  



Dashavatara Mandir or Dashavatara Temple (because the temple depicts ten incarnations of Vishnu), and also as Sagar Marh (meaning: the temple by the well). It was the first North Indian temple with a shikhara or tower, although the shikhara is curtailed and part of it has disappeared.


 The temple has a high plinth and is set with a basement porch. The Dashavatara temple has a "compelling presence" in spite of its dilapidated condition. Sculpted panels are seen on the terraced basement, with carved figurines of river goddesses Ganga and Yamuna flanking the doorway to the sanctum sanctorum. In addition, on the side walls, three large carved panels of Vaishnava mythology related to Gajendra Moksha, ''


the Nara Narayana Tapasya (austerities), and the Sheshashayi Vishnu (reclining on the serpent), are portrayed. A protective wall made of undressed stone was built around the temple after it was first discovered. However, the idol of the sanctum sanctorum of the temple is missing, believed to have been relocated elsewhere.^[7][9][18]


The ancient treatise Vishnudharmottara Purana describes several temples including a "Sarvatobhadra temple", which has been identified by archaeologists and Indologists with the Dashavatara Temple.^[19]