Akshardham Temple: A Place of Education, Experience and Enlightenment

Once you visit India you will find small and big, some centuries old to newly build temples of gods and goddesses. This shows how much Indians believe in and worship god. The century-old temples are not only pilgrimage places for Indians but also regarded as heritage monuments of India, but one of the exceptions is the Akshardham temple in Delhi.

PM Modi and Australian PM Turnbull at Akshardham Temple

Akshardham temple got inaugurated on 6th November 2005 by Pramukh Swami Maharaj and in the presence of the President of India, Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam, and Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh and opposition party leader, Lal Krishna Advani, and more than 2500 guest witnessed this grand opening ceremony.

It is also been listed in the Guinness Book of world records as the World’s Largest Comprehensive Hindu Temple. The whole area is proximately 100 acres of land and the monument is about 141 feet high, 316 feet wide, and 370 feet long. The whole temple is designed according to the Vedic scriptures with the help of Maharishi Sthapatya Shastra and the architectural design and carving of the rocks and stones are a mixture of different styles from all over India – Rajasthan, Orissan, Gujarati, Mughal, and Jain.

The construction style is unique in this temple, no steel or concrete is used to build the structure. The only things used are the pink sandstones from Rajasthan and Italian Carrara marble. The whole monument comprises 234 elaborately carved pillars, nine domes, and 20,000 months. At the base of the temple it is surrounded by elephants of 148 scales sized each and weighing 3000 tons, it’s known to be Gajendra Pith. It’s actually a tribute to the elephants for their significance in Indian culture and history.

Seven thousand carvers and three thousand volunteers worked together to build this beautiful monument. Around 6,000 tons of pink sandstones and more than five million fired bricks were used for the construction. The whole place is situated near the bank of the Yamuna River.

This temple is not only special because of its architectural design but also because it is a combination of ancient stone art and architecture, traditional culture, and modernization and technology.

The whole place is not occupied by the temple, but 90 acres of land consists of:

Hall of Values

Robot Show

It displays a robotic diorama of Swaminarayan life incidents and preaches the value of peace, happiness, harmony, and devotion to god. It also has the world’s smallest animatronics robot of Ghanshyam Maharaj and the chills form of Swaminarayan.

Theater

It is known as Nilkanth Kalyan Yatra. It is Delhi’s largest format screen measuring 85 feet by 65 feet. The theater only displays the yatra the Swaminarayan did during his teenage life for about 7 years of pilgrimage throughout India.

Musical Foundation

Musical Fountain

The fountain is named after the founder of the Hindu organization, Shastriji Maharaj, and is known as Yagnapurush Kund. The fountain is also known to be India’s largest step well as it has 2,870 large steps which come down to traditional Yagna Kund. The fountain measures 300 feet by 300 feet and has 108 small places of worship. In the center of the steps lies the 8 petals lotus shaped Yagna Kund which at night becomes the tourist’s main attraction.

Boat Ride

Boating

The boat ride is designed in order to give a brief history of 10,000 years old India which is about 12 minutes ride. For the ride, an artificial river stream is made, and models of the world’s first university, chemistry laboratory, and bazaar.

Other features are Yogi Hraday Kamal which is a garden designed in a lotus shape, Narayan Sarovar, a lake surrounding the temple, and many more to see.

Just because of so many features and plus the architecture of the monument is attracting tourists from all over India and other countries. Even if the work started in 1998 and finished in 2006, this place is regarded as Indian heritage because of its beatification, carving giving a touch of Indian tradition, art and modernization, and technology.

To reach there is not a problem; it is located near Noida in East Delhi.

Timing

Tuesday – Sunday 9 am to 9 pm is open and on Monday it is closed.

• You may also like to read about Akshardham Temple Gujarat