After spending an hour at Adalaj Vav in Gandhinagar, I pushed for 90 minutes to reach Modhera Sun Temple & Stepwell (Modhera village at Mehsana, Gujarat).
Well, I was here to expand the collection of Stepwell I am covering in whole India, but I was just stunned by the beauty of the entire complex.
Modhera Sun Temple is a 1000 year structure, built in 11th century by Bhima 1st of the Chaulukya Empire.
The temple is now a tourist attraction, maintained by ASI and I had to pay a small fee of Rs 30 to enter. A tip – Keep your cameras in the bag while entering the temple.
The First Look
Way towards Modhera Sun Temple
Modhera Sun Temple
Upon entering, I saw this beautiful well maintained park on the right and a museum on the left. And just 20 steps away, was this beautiful sandstone temple and to add its beauty, a stepwell (kund) with 100’s of small temple built inside it.
Surya Kund Stepwell
Surya Kund Stepwell
Surya Kund (name of the stepwell) is the first stepwell I have seen which has more than 100 temples built inside (108 in total). Here I saw many temples of popular Hindu gods like Ganesh, Vishnu, Shiva, and many temples of demi-gods.
Remaining tour of Modhera Sun Temple
Modhera Sun Temple
Well, I am interested in stepwells but if will not be fair to exclude this beautiful Sun Temple from this post. As I said above that this temple is more than 1000 year old and the work done on the temple walls, pillars, ceiling and even the preservation of this temple is respectable.
The whole temple complex is divided into three main attractions. First is the Surya Kund stepwell and other two are temples complex named Gudhamandapa and Garbhagriha.
Gudhamandapa and Garbhagriha
Gudhamandapa and Garbhagriha are two complexes in Modhera Sun Temple. The 1st one which is visible from the stepwell is Gudhamandapa & the one behind his is Garbhagriha.
Here is the collection of Images I have for both these temples. Plus in the end, I have shared some common question one have like how to reach here, timings, the yearly festival, etc.
Gudhamandapa complex at Modhera Sun Temple
Ceiling of Gudhamandapa at Modhera Sun Temple
Gudhamandapa Complex
And these are the pics of Garbhagriha Complex of Modhera Sun Temple.
Garbhagriha Complex of Modhera Sun Temple
Garbhagriha Entrance
Garbhagriha Complex (Backview)
Garbhagriha Complex
Wall statues of Modhera Sun Temple
How to reach Modhera Sun Temple
The temple is less than 100 km from Ahmedabad. I hired a cab for the whole day for Rs 3000. One can also catch a bus from Ahmedabad or land at Becharji Railway Station. Check sites like ERail and Irctc for more.
Timings of Modhera Sun Temple
Modhera Sun Temple is an ASI maintained site so naturally, the timings here are from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
And lastly, there is also a Modhera Dance Festival, which I came to know after my trip. Its a three day festival organised by Gujarat Tourism and is celebrated in the month of January. More like the time of Uttarayan (when the position of the Sun changes) or in simple terms, near Lohri :)
More Pictures from Modhera Sun Temple
These are some shots which I took while leaving the Sun Temple. Hope you will like it.
Surya Kund at Modhera Sun Temple
Two Pillars at Modhera Sun Temple
Surya Kund Stepwell
Me at Modhere Sun Temple Stepwell
Modhera Sun Temple direction board
Modhera Sun Temple History details
Very intricate work on the architecture. Fascinating place
Yeah it is :)
Superb Jatin
Pl continue such posts
Useful to us
Thanks Govindarajan. I love to travel between Aug to March and prepare lists of sites to see in ‘between months” :)
If you like Modhera temple, then do check out Konark temple in Orissa. It’s an advanced version of Modhera sun temple.
Beautiful Photographs! Glad to have stumbled upon your webpage while looking information on Modhera.
Still working on how to improve the pics quality.
Hope that by time, I will improve…
:)