The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi dedicated Phase I of the Mahakal Lok Project to the nation at Shri Mahakal Lok in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh on October 11, 2022.
About Mahakal Lok project
- The Prime Minister went on to unveil the plaque to mark the dedication of Shri Mahakal Lok. Phase I of the Mahakal Lok project will help in enriching the experience of pilgrims visiting the temple by providing them with world-class modern amenities.
- The project aims to decongest the entire area and also put special emphasis on the conservation and restoration of heritage structures. Under the project, the temple precinct will be expanded nearly seven times.
- The total cost of the entire project is around Rs 850 crores. The existing footfall of the temple, which is currently around 1.5 crore per annum, is expected to be doubled.
- The development of the project has been planned under two phases.
- The Mahakal Path contains 108 stambhs (pillars) which depict Anand Tandav Swaroop (Dance form) of Lord Shiva.
- Many religious sculptures depicting the life of Lord Shiva are installed along the Mahakal Path.
- The mural wall along the path is based on stories about the act of creation, the birth of Ganesha, story of Sati and Daksha among others from Shiva Purana.
- The area of plaza is spread over 2.5 hectares and is surrounded by a lotus pond which contains the statue of Shiva along with water fountains.
- The entire premise will be monitored 24×7 by Integrated Command and Control Centre with the help of artificial intelligence and surveillance cameras.
About Mahakal temple
- After Vishwanath temple in Varanasi and the Kedarnath shrine in Uttarakhand, Mahakal temple is the third ‘jyotirlinga’ site to see a major upliftment exercise.
- There are 12 jyotirlinga sites in India, considered a manifestation of Shiva. Besides Mahakal, these include Somnath and Nageshwar in Gujarat, Mallikarjuna in Andhra Pradesh, Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh, Kedarnath in Uttarakhand, Bhimashankar, Triyambakeshwar and Grishneshwar in Maharashtra, Viswanath at Varanasi, Baidyanath in Jharkhand, and Rameshwar in Tamil Nadu.
- Mahakal is the only jyotirlinga facing the south, while all the other jyotirlingas face east. This is because the direction of death is believed to be the south.
- Ppeople worship Mahakaleshwar to prevent an untimely death.
- In the early part of the Meghadutam (Purva Megha) composed in the 4th century, Kalidasa gives a description of the Mahakal temple. It is described as one with a stone foundation, with the ceiling on wooden pillars. There would be no shikharas or spires on the temples prior to the Gupta period.
Ujjain and Mahakal
- The city of Ujjain was called Avantika in the 6th and 7th centuries BC.
- Later, astronomers and mathematicians such as Brahmagupta and Bhaskaracharya made Ujjain their home.
- As per the Surya Siddhanta, one of the earliest available texts on Indian astronomy dating back to the 4th century, Ujjain is geographically situated at a spot where the zero meridian of longitude and the Tropic of Cancer intersect.
- Many of Ujjain temples are in some way connected to time and space, including Mahakal, the lord of time.
- In the 18th century, Maharaja Jai Singh II built an observatory was built here, which was known as the Vedh Shala or Jantar Mantar, comprising 13 architectural instruments to measure astronomical phenomena.
- In the 13th century, the temple complex was destroyed by Turk ruler Shams-ud-din Iltutmish during his raid on Ujjain.
- The present five-storeyed structure was built by the Maratha general Ranoji Shinde in1734, in the Bhumija, Chalukya and Maratha styles of architecture.
- Its marble walkways were restored by the Scindias.
(Sources: PIB and Indian Express)
