Chausath Yogini Temple, Morena

The Chausath Yogini Temple, Mitaoli is an 11th-century temple in Morena district in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Built during Kachchhapaghata reign, it is one of the well-preserved Yogini temples in India. The temple is formed by a circular wall with 65 chambers, apparently for 64 yoginis and the goddess Devi, and an open mandapa in the centre of a circular courtyard, sacred to Shiva.

The temple is located on a hill about 100 feet (30 m) in height; there are 100 steps to climb up to the entrance. It is circular with a radius of 170 feet (52 m),while inside it has 65 small chambers, each with a mandapa which is open and a facade of pilasters and pillars. The roof of the ring of shrines is flat, as is that of the central shrine to Shiva; the circular courtyard is hypaethral, open to the sky, with an open porch as its entrance. The parliament building of India is said to have been based on this temple.

The entrance of the main structure looks something like this. The picture on the left is the eye level view when one enters the temple through the small entrance shown as in the picture on the right. There is a single opening in the circular structure and it consists of a wooden door affixed at the gate. 

Upon entering it can be seen that it is externally circular in shape with a radius of 170 feet and within its interior part it has 65 small chambers. The outer circle represents the presence of the 65 yoginis out of which 64 are shivlings and the remaining one is of Devi. The inner shrine is also completely circular in structure, all the stone slabs are rectangular in shapes but placed in such a manner that it ultimately appears to be circular.

The 64 chambers look something like this, and most of them are of this structure. These look very identical in appearance, there is also a mention of serial nos. with a chalk probably done by a local or caretaker.

This particular chamber is present at the half of the sphere, and interestingly appears right behind the central shrine. Its design is different from the rest of the chambers but the structure is of exact size, the pillar if noticed has many small engravings designed, this is not found in other chambers. The structures are also broken, probably during the foreign invasions.

The pillars of this temple represent royal elements and their designs, with such pure majesticity it truly brings us back to the 11th century architecture. The structure is purely made of stone and engraved in such a manner that it holds the eye of the viewer. 

Within the main central shrine there are slab coverings which have perforations in them to drain rainwater to a large underground storage. The pipe lines from the roof leading the rain water to the storage are also visible.

This shrine is present exactly at the centre of the whole structure and is magnificently standing, there is a pair of stairs to reach the height of the raised structure. It only holds one main shrine with a wooden door, and is enclosed. According to experts and researchers the main garbhagriha should have been open to the sky but it was seen to be enclosed with a stone slab from the top.

Interestingly at the inner circle there is a shivling exposed open on the raised platform, though it has some cracks at the bottom, this outstands all other shivlings present in this temple, as it appears to be the biggest in size, and also the peculiar location of it makes it more intriguing. On entering the inner circle it appears to be on the right side. 

The main shrine of the temple appears to be inside this main chamber on the inner circle.

There are two shivlings present inside and a raised plinth behind them, the interior is of plain stone slab and does not have any engravings as such.

On the entrance there a wooden door opens into this enclosed chamber, and on the border walls there seems to be something written on ancient texts, but due to rapid changes of weather and many invasions the text appears partial.

It is believed that only a main poojari or a couple enters this shrine and performs the rituals, the size restricts many people from entering together.

Also there should not have been any enclosing from top of this chamber but supposedly the ASI body had kept it that way.

At the hilltop the temple structure appears to be circular, and a raised plinth with a staircase provides the entrance and exit of the temple as one. It is designed in such a way that no one can go behind the structure neither from left nor from right as it stands at the top of the hill. 

Before the entrance there is wide space and at a distance of around 20 metres there is another structure present with a raised platform.

The design of the temple has withstood earthquake shocks, without any damage to its circular structural features, in the past several centuries. The temple is in the Seismic Zone III.
Many of these curious visitors have compared this temple with the Indian parliament building (Sansad Bhawan) as both are circular in style. Many have drawn conclusions that this temple was the inspiration behind the Sansad Bhawan.

The distant structure appears like this, the main circular structure appears behind the raised platform. Thus is a west facing shrine and on the inside it appears to be empty.


The missing deity with ornaments is believed to be present in the ASI museum of Gwalior.

On noticing the doorway of this structure is presented with many small stone cuttings designed beautifully, it appears to be eye pleasing but on the inside as it appears to be empty there is no ritual performed. But the raised structure does not have any boundary or support as it is raised to a certain height and when on top of it certain precautions are to be taken.

The temple at evening has a magnificent view and it just takes away the senses, the beauty of it and the presence of the natural elements and its location all completely serves the purpose of such a powerful temple. 

Though the architecture of the temple appears to be unique, its making serves a greater purpose and not everyone can understand the rituals this temple is capable of. 

  The temple has a great scenic beauty from its hilltop. 

There were no evident caretakers or pandits in the temple, a watchman is seen at the main entrance gate of the hill, the gates close to entry at 5 pm. There are also some lights installed by ASI, but they do not light it up. There is also a local shop opposite the main gate of the temple.

Clash of Civilisations, of Dharma and Adharma

From our epics and mythologies reminiscent of the times immemorial, we have known of the valour of Hindu Gods and Kings. There were always fight between Dharma and Adharma, the Gods and the Ausuras, and between the Kings who remained on the two opposite ends. And we grew up reading the stories of how the Gods and Kings vanquished all the enemies of Dharma.

In Ramayana the young Lord Sriram voices his doubts over killing Tadaka, the demoness that killed many sages and created havoc in life of innocent people. The wise sage Vishwamitra replies that evil has no gender, caste or creed. Lord Sriram went on to liberate the soul of Tadaka from the cursed life she was leading as a demoness.

Another of our mythology tells the story of Lord Shiva vanquishing the three worlds of the Asuras. When the evil permeated the Tripura and Asuras started attacking the Dharmik life from their Abode in Tripura, Lord Siva turned the three cities to ashes.

Fast forward to present, it may seem that Hindus have a lot to learn from mythology as well as history. Our history reveals galore of the kind acts by Hindu Kings that led to their doom along with the Hindu population and Kingdoms they ruled over. Nobody can forget Prithwiraj Chouhan who let Muhammad of Ghor escape only to see the Muslim invader return to torture him to death, the atrocities on Hindu population and the destruction of Hindu temples.

We have to analyse what went wrong with Prithwiraj Chouhan and what went right in the Acts from our mythology like TripuraDahanam. These two are opposite ways of dealing with Adharma and Asuras. PrithwiRaj Chouhan allowed evil and enemies to gather strength outside Hindu Kingdoms, while Lord Shiva as Trupurantaka reduced the source of evil to ashes via TripuraDahanam.

The Bharat of today, unlike what pseudo Hindu nationalists and Dhimmi organisations want you to believe is on a downward spiral to extinction. The extant of Bharatvarsha is only one fourth of what it was 1000 years before. The enemies which once waged war on it from outside now does it from within. The attacks on Pride and Honour of HinduDharma, our temples and our women are more than ever. Though in ancient times, the perpetrators came from outside, the present times has the Ghazis living amongst us on government benefits and aided by ideology and support from beyond our borders. The speed of disintegration has increased in recent times with Sharia zones being established in villages, cities, districts and states across Bharat.

Dhimmi Nationalists have put forward a solution to the war being waged from within, and it is to call the progeny of invaders as Hindus. They pretend to know nothing of the more than one lakh Hindu temples lying in ruins across Bharat and more than 40,000 lying under Muslim occupation. Desperate for votes and stamps of approval from sworn enemies of Hindu Dharma, they have aligned with those Corporate Gurus who make a living by selling HinduDharma. And the result as usual are shameless deals that will deprive Hindus of their Heritage as well was Pride forever and lead HinduDharma to slow suicide and extinction.

HinduSamaj has to understand that the Dhimmis have neither a solution nor the courage to implement any decision to safeguard HinduDharma. So the only solution will be work towards a goal that will free Bharatvarsha from the pestilence that is ravaging since 712 AD when the first Islamic invasion happened.

And HinduSamaj will have to ensure that the generations to come need not worry about Islamic invaders from beyond our borders or within. This will be possible only when we take care of the source of all Jihad in Bharat.

History tells us of the Pagan temple of 108 Gods in Arabia in the place called Mecca. The temple was converted to a Masjid and the idols destroyed by Muhammad. The end of Jihad will happen when the First Act of War is reversed and no longer there is an inspiration for Ghazis around the world to Pray to before they commit genocide on innocents.

And HinduSamaj can show the way by reclaiming all the Hindu temples that were forcible converted to Masjids and also by rebuilding the Hindu temples now left in ruins. This will lead to a demand and actions around the world to revive the indigenous Heritage structures taken over via acts of Jihad and brute force.

HinduDharma is the sole surviving ancient civilisation that has fought and withstood Islamic invaders from Arabia. Whenever the Ghazis came to destroy us, we had men and women who showed them the valour and courage that vanquished all evil. Hindu civilisation thus has a leading role to play in removing the seeds of terror and their ideology from within and beyond our borders and bestow a world of Prosperity and Peace for generations to come.

#ReclaimTemples