List of Swaminarayan temples

Swaminarayan Bhagwan , the founder of the Swaminarayan Sampraday, established temples, known as mandirs (Devnagari: मन्दिर), as part of his philosophy of theism and deity worship. These mandirs are known as Swaminarayan Hindu temples.[1]

He constructed nine temples in the following cities; Ahmedabad, Bhuj, Muli, Vadtal, Junagadh, Dholera, Dholka, Gadhpur & Jetalpur. In these temples he installed images of various Hindu gods, such as NarNarayan Dev, LaxmiNarayan Dev, RadhaKrishna Dev, RadhaRaman Dev, Revti-Baldevji, Madan Mohan Dev etc.[2] Each of these nine original temples fall either under the NarNarayan Dev Gadi, Ahmedabad or the LaxmiNarayan Dev Gadi, Vadtal depending on their geographical location.[3]

One of the most prominent features of the heritage of Swaminarayan Sampradaya is temple architecture. The images in the temples built by Swaminarayan Bhagwan are the evidence of the priority of Swaminarayan Bhagwan . All of the temples constructed during his life show some form of Krishna, and all temples since have such worshipable murtis. In Vadtaldham he as a god concentrated his own life form known as Harikrushna Maharaj. In the temples of the dioceses of Ahmedabad and Vadtal, they are predominantly a central altar or a shrine. Human forms are predominant but for a known exception of a Hanuman temple at Sarangpur, where Hanuman is the central figure.[4] The temples have accommodations for sadhus built next to them. Stones were quarried in far places and carried to the temple sites.[5]

Swaminarayan temples, like other Hindu temples, have walkways around the central shrine to allow worshipers to circumambulate the shrine. These are often decorated with designs and inlaid marble. The main shrine area is divided by railings. One side of the railing is reserved for women, as Swaminarayan propagated that men and women should be separated in temples to allow full concentration on god. Men do a specified number of prostrations (as decided by themselves). In front of the men's section, there is a small section reserved for ascetics and special guests. There is great variety in form and nature of the central images, in front of which are gold- or silver-plated doors that open during darshan.[6]

Today there are over a thousand Swaminarayan temples,[7] spread across five continents, which come under the above two Gadis (seats) of the Swaminarayan Sampraday.[8]

  1. ^ Christopher John Fuller (2004). The camphor flame. Princeton University Press. p. 171. ISBN 978-0-691-12048-5.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Williams29 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Williams 2001, p. 36
  4. ^ Williams 2001, p. 96
  5. ^ Nair 2007, p. 118
  6. ^ Williams 2001, pp. 128, 129
  7. ^ "source lists Swaminarayan temples as around 1000 worldwide". The Times of India. India. 8 January 2002. Archived from the original on 23 October 2012.
  8. ^ Williams, Raymond Brady (4 January 2001). Introduction to Swaminarayan Hinduism, Raymond Brady Williams, 2001. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052165422X.