{"id":107858,"date":"2026-06-12T12:55:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T07:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=107858"},"modified":"2026-06-12T13:49:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:19:16","slug":"masroor-rock-cut-temples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/masroor-rock-cut-temples\/","title":{"rendered":"Masroor Rock-Cut Temples"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Masroor Rock-Cut Temples Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tucked away in the hills of Himachal Pradesh\u2019s Kangra Valley lies Masroor Rock-Cut Temples, an extraordinary piece of Indian heritage that is mostly ignored. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Masroor Rock-Cut Temples<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Masroor Rock-Cut Temples, also referred to as <\/span><b>Masroor Temples<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, is an <\/span><b>early 8th-century complex of rock-cut Hindu temples <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the <\/span><b>Kangra Valley of the Beas River in Himachal Pradesh.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are often referred to as the <\/span><b>Ellora of Himachal and the Himalayan pyramid.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Masroor Rock-Cut Temples <\/b><b>History<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Archaeological surveys say that they have been <\/span><b>built around the 8th century <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014 almost 1200 years ago \u2014 due to their <\/span><b>resemblance to the \u201cGupta style<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of architecture\u201d from the same period.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, there is <\/span><b>no mention<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the temple in any of the<\/span><b> scriptures or historical records.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The temple complex was <\/span><b>first reported by Henry Shuttleworth in 1913,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> bringing it to the attention of archaeologists.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They were <\/span><b>independently surveyed by Harold Hargreaves <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/archaeological-survey-of-india\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Archaeological Survey of India <\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in <\/span><b>1915.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Masroor Rock-Cut Temples <\/b><b>Architecture<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>15-monument temple complex<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> resembles the <\/span><b>North Indian Nagara architecture style <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and is <\/span><b>dedicated to Lord Shiva<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>Lord Ram, Goddess Sita, and Lord Lakshmana.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unlike other Hindu temples in the country that face the east, this one<\/span><b> faces northeast towards<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the <\/span><b>Dhauladhar mountains.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The temples were<\/span><b> carved out of monolithic rock with a shikhara<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and provided with a sacred <\/span><b>pool <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of water.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The temple complex follows a <\/span><b>symmetrically laid-out square grid.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The<\/span><b> main temple<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with a <\/span><b>square plan<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, is <\/span><b>surrounded by smaller temples<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> arranged in a <\/span><b>mandala pattern.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Three entrances<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> adorn the temple, facing northeast, southeast, and northwest. Interestingly, evidence points towards a planned but unfinished fourth entrance, often overlooked in historical records.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Masrur Temples display elaborate <\/span><b>reliefs portraying <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">significant <\/span><b>Vedic and Puranic deities.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These reliefs are <\/span><b>accompanied by captivating friezes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that narrate <\/span><b>ancient tales <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">from Hindu texts.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Much of the Masroor temple\u2019s <\/span><b>sculpture and reliefs <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">have been lost.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They were also quite <\/span><b>damaged, most likely from earthquakes. <\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/life-style\/travel\/destinations\/the-ellora-of-the-himalayas-this-forgotten-temple-complex-is-himachals-best-kept-secret\/photostory\/131653913.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>TOI<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Masroor Rock-Cut Temples is an early 8th-century complex of rock-cut Hindu temples in the Kangra Valley of the Beas River in Himachal Pradesh. Read more about Masroor Rock-Cut Temples, Location, History, Architecture, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":107827,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8090,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-107858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-masroor-rock-cut-temples","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107858"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107879,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107858\/revisions\/107879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}