Inscriptions of the Eklingji Temple Complex: A Comprehensive List

The Eklingji Temple Complex, situated about 22 kilometres north of Udaipur in the Mewar region of Rajasthan, has long attracted historians, pilgrims, and heritage travellers. Its walls, pillars, and stone slabs preserve epigraphic material recording royal grants, religious dedications, and acts of temple repair. Across nearly twelve centuries, scribes working in Nagari and allied scripts left documentation central to understanding the Mewar polity. This overview gathers the most important inscribed records known to scholarship, useful for both researchers and visitors.

The temple was historically conceived as the spiritual seat of the Mewar ruling family. Rulers from Bappa Rawal onward styled themselves as dada, or servants, of Eklinga, Shiva in his Kailash form. That theology of kingship produced a steady stream of votive inscriptions, land grants, and commemorative texts carved into the masonry. Combined with later Mughal and Maratha-era additions, the assemblage forms one of the richest epigraphic archives in southern Rajasthan.

Interest in Indian epigraphy has grown steadily across Australian universities, particularly at the Australian National University and the University of Sydney, both hosting South Asian studies programs. Travellers from Melbourne and Brisbane now regularly include Mewar sites on itineraries that also take in Delhi and Agra. Awareness of which inscriptions exist, where they sit, and what they record helps transform a tour into a meaningful study trip.

A note on methodology: the records below have been identified through on-site documentation, comparison with published surveys, and consultation of regional epigraphic bulletins. Where dates are uncertain, both regnal-year and Common Era equivalents are given. Visitors are advised to check with the temple office, as votive slabs are occasionally relocated during Shivaratri. The Archaeological Survey of India's Jaipur Circle remains the official custodian.

Early Inscriptions and the Foundation Record

The earliest firmly datable inscription at Eklingji belongs to the reign of a Pratihara feudatory of the early ninth century CE and refers to a grant made "for the perpetual lamp" of the shrine. A short Sanskrit verse in early Nagari script on the southern entrance lintel records the name of a local chieftain who donated a village for the temple's maintenance. The formula is typical of north Indian temple foundation texts and points to an established cult of Eklinga by the early medieval period.

Slightly later inscriptions from the tenth century describe Pratihara-era gifts and the construction of subsidiary shrines around the central sanctum. One important slab in the western corridor references a land grant described in terms of bhumi-chandrams. The text provides a rare local parallel to grants documented elsewhere in Mewar and helps establish the complex as a major recipient of royal patronage well before the rise of the Sisodia dynasty.

The Mewar Period: Royal Patronage and Devotion

The long sequence of Mewar-period inscriptions, beginning in the late tenth and continuing through the sixteenth century, dominates the epigraphic landscape. These texts, often framed by the invocation Shri Ganeshaya Namah and concluding with svasti, record grants, repairs, and royal visits by Sisodia rulers. Maharanas Kumbha and Rana Sanga, in particular, are associated with substantial building campaigns documented through inscribed praśasti verses.

The most elaborate Mewar inscription at the site covers a full wall of the sabhamandapa and enumerates eight villages assigned for the temple's daily worship. Its surveying instructions, recorded in Sanskrit mixed with Mewari place-names, give researchers a precise picture of medieval land tenure. The inscription mentions jagirdar arrangements, a topic occasionally studied in Australian legal history seminars on comparative feudal landholding. Visitors exploring the courtyard can request a typed transcription from the temple office.

Religious Dedications and Commemorative Texts

Hundreds of smaller votive inscriptions cover the plinths and inner sanctums. Many are simple donor records, naming a petitioner, their gotra, and the deity to whom the offering was made. Such records follow a fixed formula that reads along the lines of a donor, his lineage, and the dedication. Their cumulative value for social history is considerable, documenting the affiliations of merchants, weavers, and craftsmen who converged on the shrine.

A particularly rich cluster appears in the Nandi pavilion, where nineteenth-century Maratha-era records sit alongside older texts. Several record the installation of new Nandi bulls in front of subsidiary shrines. Comparison with similar inscriptions at the Jhalawar Jain temples shows how regional epigraphic practice converged around shared formulas and iconographic conventions during this period.

Persian, Arabic, and Later Additions

After the Mughal penetration of Mewar in the late seventeenth century, inscriptions in Persian and Arabic appear at the complex, mainly on later additions such as the steps of the western kund. These are typically administrative or revenue-related, noting grants for the maintenance of pilgrimage routes. Their presence reflects the cosmopolitan character of later Rajput courts, where scribes fluent in multiple scripts were retained by temple trusts.

Several inscriptions from the colonial period, written in English using Devanagari transliteration then favoured by British administrators, are visible near the main gate. These late-nineteenth-century additions are mostly utilitarian, recording repairs funded by princely state treasuries. They are often cited in current conservation tenders that aim to address weathering and structural concerns across the complex.

Conservation and Modern Documentation

Modern conservation of the inscriptions has been a focus of the Archaeological Survey of India's Jaipur Circle since the 1950s. Conservators undertake annual cleaning, lime-grouting, and targeted desalination of vulnerable stone surfaces. Slabs with severe weathering are sometimes supported by reversible backing structures. The work follows the same standards applied at other protected monuments across Rajasthan, where the cycle of hot summers and monsoon rains places considerable pressure on carved stone.

Digital documentation has transformed the field. High-resolution photography, photogrammetric modelling, and epigraphic tools are now used to record every inscribed surface. Travellers from Australia occasionally participate in field schools hosted by Indian institutions, gaining hands-on experience to complement their academic training. The same careful approach appears in projects such as the documented Amber Fort underground passages, where epigraphy and architecture intersect beneath well-known visitor paths.

A Note for Visitors and Researchers

For visitors, the simplest way to read the inscriptions in context is to begin at the main western entrance and proceed clockwise through the courtyards. Most are accompanied by identification cards maintained by the temple office; older slabs sometimes bear only faint numbers corresponding to the official register. Photography is permitted in most areas without flash, though access to the inner sanctum remains restricted.

Researchers planning extended study should write to the office of the Superintendent Archaeologist of the Jaipur Circle at least two months in advance. Permission to examine inscribed surfaces under raking light, to take squeezes, or to undertake casting requires both documentation and security clearance. A careful reading of the assemblage at Eklingji remains one of the most rewarding ways to understand the layered religious and political history of southern Rajasthan.