Sheetaleshwar Mahadev Mandir/Chandrabhaga Temple Jhalrapatan, Rajasthan

The first dated temple of Rajasthan is the temple of Sheetaleshwar Mahadev which is situated in Jhalrapatan (Jhalawar). The date of its construction is 689 AD. This is a post-Gupta period temple. The pillars and lower part of this temple are of early construction, the rest of the upper part has been renovated later.

Sheetaleshwar and other temples of Chandravati:- The ancient city named Chandravati is situated on the banks of Chandrabhaga river at a distance of 2 kilometers to the south of Jhalrapatan city. This city was established by Voppak in 681 AD during the reign of Durggan. At the same time, construction work on buildings like temples etc. must have taken place in this city. In the name of Jhala Jalim Singh who established it in 1781 AD. The name of this city was Jhalrapatan. The remains of many statues and temples of the ancient Chandrabhaga city are still found on the banks of the Chandrabhaga river.

Among the many temples built on the banks of Chandrabhaga river, the temple of Sheetaleshwar Mahadev appears to be the largest and oldest. In the inscriptions found near the temple, there is mention of a Chandrashekhar Shiva temple and in which Shiva is worshiped in the form of Vishwamurti. In Sheetaleshwar temple, Lakulish form of Shiva was worshiped as the main presiding deity, who was the originator of Pashupat sect. This is the most ancient temple of Shiva in Rajasthan. The statue of Lakulish with two arms is engraved on the headstone of the entrance gate. The popularity of the Lakulish sect can be estimated from the mention of the worship of Lakulish by Pashupat Acharya in the inscription of the post of Varaha idol obtained from here. Apart from the Sheetaleshwar temple, there are also two other small temples, one of which is dedicated to Shiva and the other to Vishnu, as is evident from the weapons of the gatekeepers of the state gate. Very excellent quality carving style is found at the entrances of these temples. Another inscription obtained from Jhalrapatan mentions the construction of Shivayatar by some Janna during the reign of Udayaditya Parmar in Vikram Samvat 1143 (1086 AD). On the basis of this inscription, it can be inferred that there were some other Shiva temples on the banks of Chandrabhaga (modern Jhalrapatan), of which no trace is available now. Another important temple, known as the Navadurga Temple, confirms the Dakini temple mentioned in the inscription of Gangadhar (423 AD) and the fact that this region was the center of Shakti worship and tantric rituals. Chamunda and other goddess idols are preserved in this temple, nudity is clearly depicted in these idols. The size and basement of this temple is so small and the size of the statues preserved inside is so large that it is easy to assume that all these statues cannot be a part of this temple, but have been brought from somewhere else and collected here. Therefore, it is natural to assume that there might have been another big temple on the banks of Chandrabhaga, whose idols were collected here later. Sheetaleshwar Temple, Jhalrapatan, situated on the banks of Chandrabhaga river in Jhalrapatan in Jhalawar district, is the oldest (689 AD) dated temple of Rajasthan. In the ruins of this temple, only the sanctum sanctorum and a roofless gap are found.