Place · Krishna temple · India
Sanwaliya Seth, Chittorgarh
Also known as Chittorgarh, Sanwaliya Seth, Sanwaliya Seth (Shyam)
The Sanwaliya Seth Krishna temple at Mandaphiya village in Chittorgarh district, Rajasthan, 100 kilometres from Udaipur — the Krishna shrine particularly revered by Marwari traders as a 'business-partner deity'. The temple's foundation legend holds that the deity (a black-marble Krishna with 1,000-pound gold ornaments) was discovered by a milkmaid Bhola Dangi in 1840 while her cow spontaneously poured milk at a spot in the field. The temple is one of three principal 'Sanwaliya' (dark-complexioned Krishna) temples in Rajasthan. The temple's unique Marwari trader tradition involves offering a 10% commission on business profits (ravadi) as prasad; the temple's annual trader-offerings are over ₹100 crore. The temple's October Diwali festival draws over 1 million pilgrims. The temple is managed by the Sanwaliya Seth Mandir Trust.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 24.700, 74.750
Connections (2)
- Devotional corpus onMīrābāī
Sānwaliyā Sheth near Chittorgarh belongs to Mīrābāī's tradition, as does much of the Mewar Krishna landscape. She was married into the Sisodia house at Chittor and left it; the shrines that claim her are scattered across the country her in-laws ruled, which is a quiet reversal. Traders still write a share of their business into the god's name here, so the donation box functions as a silent partner's account and has made it one of India's richest shrines.
- Site withinChittorgarh
The Sanwaliya Seth Krishna temple sits within Chittorgarh district, Rajasthan, at Mandaphiya village 60 kilometres from Chittorgarh fort. The Krishna shrine particularly revered by Marwari traders as a 'business-partner deity' lies in the broader Mewar cultural landscape anchored by the Chittorgarh fort and its sacred-geographical dependencies. The 1840 cowherd-discovery legend and the 'ravadi' commission tradition place it in the modern Chittorgarh pilgrimage circuit.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Chittorgarh”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
Open Sanwaliya Seth, Chittorgarh in the repository →