Place · Matru Shraddha pilgrimage town · India
Sidhpur
The ancient Siddhapura pilgrimage town in Patan district, Gujarat, 120 kilometres from Ahmedabad — one of the five Matru Shraddha tirthas in India (sites specifically for the ancestor-rites for mothers, parallel to Gaya for fathers). The 10-century Solanki-period Rudra Mahalaya Shiva temple built by King Mulraj Solanki (960 CE) was one of the largest Shiva temples in western India before its 1297 destruction by Alauddin Khilji; the surviving pillared mandapa and the gateway torana are among the finest Solanki stone work. The modern Bindu Sarovar tank on the Saraswati river is the pilgrimage anchor for ancestor rites by sons of deceased mothers from across Gujarat and Rajasthan. The town also houses the Dawoodi Bohra community's largest concentration in India, with the sect's Dai-al-Mutlaq's historic residence.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 23.920, 72.380
Connections (1)
- Solanki GujaratRani ki Vav, Patan
Patan was the Solanki capital and Sidhpur its second great site, with Siddharāja Jayasimha's Rudra Mahālaya a short way up the Saraswatī. The dynasty's works — Modherā, the stepwell, the Rudra Mahālaya, the Jain temples of Tāranga — sit inside a ninety-kilometre triangle of northern Gujarat. Siddharāja's Rudra Mahālaya was demolished under Alauddin Khalji and part of its material reused in a mosque on the same platform, so the two buildings now stand inside each other.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Siddhpur”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
Open Sidhpur in the repository →