Masroor Temples
Kangra district, India
Open to visitors
The interior is normally open, possibly ticketed.
Strollie cannot guarantee access — always check before you travel.
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The Masrur Temples are an early 8th-century complex of rock-cut Hindu temples carved from monolithic rock in the Kangra Valley of Himachal Pradesh, India, designated a Monument of National Importance. Oriented northeast toward the Dhauladhar Himalayas, the temples represent North Indian Nagara architecture and are dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu, Devi, and Saura traditions. The complex features a main sanctum surrounded by smaller temples arranged in a symmetrical mandala pattern on a square grid, each with square floor plans. Equipped with shikhara towers and a sacred pool as prescribed by Hindu architectural texts, the temples display reliefs of Vedic and Puranic deities and narrative friezes from Hindu scriptures. Three of four planned entrances survive, though incomplete; archaeological evidence suggests a far more ambitious original design. Significant sculptural damage, likely from earthquakes, has resulted in substantial losses. First reported to archaeologists by Henry Shuttleworth in 1913 and surveyed by Harold Hargreaves of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1915, the temples exemplify a temple-mountain style of architecture that embodies the surrounding landscape.
Movement
- Type
- Hindu temple
- Heritage
- Monument of National Importance
- Place
- Kangra district, India
This building on
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