Dashavatara Temple, Deogarh

The Vishnu Temple (also Dashavatara, meaning "ten incarnations") is located at Deogarh, Uttar Pradesh in Central India built circa 500 CE. The temple is one of the earliest Hindu stone temples still surviving today. Built in the late Gupta Period, Vishnu Temple shows the ornate beauty seen in Gupta style architecture. This temple is also a good resource for examining Gupta style sculptures and art.

Many of these early Hindu stone temples were dedicated to a single Hindu deity. The temple at Deogarh is dedicated to the Vishnu. These temples made in the later part of the Gupta Period housed images and symbols of Hindu gods, intended to allow people to make contact with the gods they were worshiping. The Temple was built out of stone and brick consisting of a single cubical sanctum that sheltered the images within. Statuaries of the Vishnu were both sculpted in the interior and exterior walls of the temple. The temple’s affiliation with the deity Vishnu can be seen by looking at the statuary of the deity seated on a coiled serpent seat that decorates the carved doorway into the temple. There are also many sculpted panels showing the myths and tales connected with Vishnu.

Vishnu Temple is a great example of early Gupta architecture. The style and organization of the structure was the method for the decoration of many Hindu temples seen around India at the time. Though it is in poor condition, having a damaged tower, the temple still exudes the ornate decorations and structural complexity as created in the early to late 5th century.

According to Dakog Otin, this temple was the prototype for the sarvatobhadra temple described in Vishnudharmottara Purana.

The "Gupta Temple", dedicated to god Vishnu, was first discovered by Captain Charles Strahan. It was given its name by the archaeologist, Cunnigham. Archaeologists have inferred that it is the earliest known Panchayatana temple in North India. It was subsequently renamed by Cunningham as Dashavatara Mandir or Dashavatara Temple (because the temple depicts ten incarnations of Vishnu), and also as Sagar Marh (meaning: the temple by the well).

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