Place · Sisodiya clan-deity temple · India
Eklingji, Udaipur
Also known as Eklingji, Eklingji (Shiva), Udaipur
The 8-century Eklingji Shiva temple at Kailashpuri in Udaipur district, Rajasthan, 22 kilometres from Udaipur — the kuladeva (clan deity) of the Mewar royal house of the Sisodiya Rajput dynasty from the time of Bappa Rawal (c.734-753) onward. The Mewar kings style themselves as 'diwans of Eklingji' — i.e., the god is the actual sovereign and the king merely his earthly administrator — making Eklingji the ritual sovereign of Mewar for 1,250 years. The temple's foundation is 8-century Guhila; major rebuilds under Rana Mokal (1428), Rana Kumbha (1442) and Maharana Pratap's son Amar Singh (1600) created the current four-faced black marble Shiva deity in a 108-foot-tall pyramid shikhara. The temple is one of the largest Shaiva temple complexes in Rajasthan with 108 shrines. The Mewar royal family still performs ritual worship.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 24.693, 73.728
Connections (1)
- Site withinUdaipur
Eklingji, Udaipur sits inside Udaipur and forms one piece of its layered sacred, royal or civic landscape. The city carries this entry as one of the sites that make its urban fabric legible — a shrine, monument, institution or craft tradition specifically anchored at this location — and the city's broader history reads better when the stop is seen in its context rather than in isolation. The surrounding streets, markets and other heritage ensembles around it belong to the same single city.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Eklingji”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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