English: This is a JPEG format plan and architectural drawing of a historic Indian temple or monument. An alternate SVG format (scalable vector graphics) version of this file – for web graphics, design studies, print, dynamic and interactive applications – has also been uploaded to wikimedia commons.

The drawing:

• Khedbrahma is a small town in north Gujarat near the Rajasthan border, about 140 kilometers northeast from Ahmedabad and east of Dharoi Reservoir, on the banks of Harnav river (Haran), Kausambi river and Bhima Sankari river confluence. Though small now, it must have been a much larger ancient city because of numerous Hindu and Jain temples and sculptures discovered here over the last 150 years, many dated between the 4th and 10th-centuries. Much is mutilated and excavations to build homes and infrastructure have yielded broken ruins, randomly mixed, and piled up in what appear like mass graves.

• The town gets it name from Hindu Puranic legends, which state that Brahma helped dig up and clear the forest here with a golden plough. This mention in Hindu texts attests to this site being an ancient one. The oldest items discovered here include the 4th century ekamukhashivalinga, a 5th century live size anthropomorphic image of Shiva (scholars Susan Mishra and Himanshu Ray in The Archaeology of Sacred Spaces say it may be 4th century), Jaina images from the 6th century, a Nataraja (Tandava-Shiva) from 7th century, and numerous more items from 8th to 10th century, some possibly 11th to 12th century. Khedbrahma is a group of temples, set in clusters, with the Jain monuments and Hindu temples including this Brahma temple in one cluster.

• This is the floor plan of the Brahma temple at Khedbrahma.

• The plan is relatively simple. The outer walls of the sanctum are notable and intricately carved (though mutilated through beheading and chopping of the faces). The statue of Brahma inside is 4-faced and from the 6th-century. The temple itself is likely 8th-century.

• India has many Brahma temples, including the more famous one in Pushkar, this at Khedbrahma, and others in many states. Compared to Vaishnava, Shiva and Shakti deities, Brahma temples are relatively uncommon.

• The Brahma temple at Khed-Brahma's architectural plan follows the square and circle principle found in historic Sanskrit texts.

• GPS location of the monument:

24° 02′ 17.8″ N, 73° 02′ 53.6″ E

View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap

24.038278; 73.048222

• The relative scale and relative dimensions in this architectural drawing are close to the actual but neither exact nor complete. The plan illustrates the design and layout, but some intricate details or parts of the temple may not be shown. In cases where exact measurements were not feasible, the drawing uses best approximations and rounds the best measurements feasible.

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