Category:Udaipur, Himachal Pradesh

Udaipur, Himachal Pradesh 

A Himalayan town in Lahaul Spiti valley, India
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Instance of	human settlement
Location	Lahaul and Spiti district, Himachal Pradesh, India
32° 43′ 32.7″ N, 76° 39′ 43.7″ E
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Udaipur is small town in northern Himachal Pradesh, in Lahaul & Spiti district. At the confluence of Miyar and Chandrabhaga, its history can be traced from at least the 8th-century as Marul or Margul. In late 17th-century, Raja Udai Singh began public works here and made it an important district – thereafter, this town was named as Udaipur.

Udaipur is a pilgrimage site for Hindus hosting Markula Mata (Mrikula Devi) mandir – an important 10th-century wood temple for Kali and Durga Mahisasuramardini. It has notable early and extensive Hindu artwork in wood of Shaktism, Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Ramayana and Mahabharata in 9th-century Kashmiri style. About 80% of the artwork in this temple is Hindu. The Mrikula Devi temple also has panels of Buddha life story, attesting to the Tibetan influence. One of the worshipped idols has Tibetan Buddhist characteristics and a 16th-century inscription. Thus the same temple complex has also been important pilgrimage site to Buddhists as Garsha Phakmo.

A few kilometers from Udaipur town, in Trilokinath village, there is another Buddhist-Hindu joint temple called the Trilokinath temple. It has an Avlokiteshwara statue with a seated Buddha on the head, a Buddhist prayer wheel and Shiva-linga with Nandi in a mandapa outside. Both Buddhists and Hindus visit and pray at the same time. The temple has a square plan, and a small spire that is a curious mix of Nagara shikhara and Buddhist stupa. Inside in the mandapa is a stepped stupa typically found in interior Tibet.

These two temples in and near Udaipur have inscriptions. The oldest inscriptions are Hindu. The style of Buddhist artwork matches those of later centuries, while the Hindu artwork match the earlier centuries. According to Hutchinson and Vogel – Indologists known for their studies on Himalayan temples, the Udaipur temples were originally Hindu temples but were expanded to include Buddhist iconography given the monks and trade routes that brought Tibetan and regional Buddhists through Udaipur.