Deogarh, Uttar Pradesh

Deogarh, Uttar Pradesh

Deogarh (Hindi: देओगढ़) is a small farming village near the town of Lalitpur in Lalitpur district, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Located at the border with the former princely state of Gwalior, which is now part of Madhya Pradesh, it is known for its Gupta monuments, located on and near the hill fort on the right bank of the Betwa River. A number of ancient monuments of Hindu and Jain origins are found within and outside the walls of the fort.

The Gupta temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu, popularly known as the Dashavatara Temple, is the earliest known Panchyatana temple in North India. It depicts ten incarnations of Vishnu. Special features of this ancient temple, which is mostly in ruins, include carved figurines of river goddesses Ganga and Yamuna on the doorway to the sanctum sanctorum, three large carved panels of Vaishnava mythology related to Gajendra Moksha, the Nar Narayan Tapasya (meditation), and the Anantshayi Vishnu reclining on a serpent. The fort on the hill is dominated by a cluster of Jain temples on its eastern part, the oldest of these dating to the 8th or 9th century. Apart from Jain temples, the wall frescoes of Jain images of "iconographic and the stylistic variety", are special features of the fort. The three ghats (ghat means "flight of stone steps leading to the river"), which provide approach to the Betwa river edge from the fort — the Nahar Ghat, the Rajghat and the ghat with the Siddiki Ghufa (saints cave) — are also of archeological significance.

The Deogarh monuments are protected by the Department of Archaeology of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), and managed through its Northern Circle Office located in Agra. ASI maintain an archaeological museum at the Deogarh site, which is noted for its treasured archaeological sculptures.