The Modhera Sun Temple in Gujarat Is Dated to About 1026 to 1027 CE, Faces East Over a Stepped Surya Kund of 176 by 120 Feet and Has Been on India's UNESCO Tentative List Since 2022

The Modhera Sun Temple stands on the left bank of the Pushpavati river in Mehsana district, north Gujarat, about 26 km from Mehsana town and roughly 100 km from Ahmedabad. The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture, says it was probably built in 1026 to 1027 CE, in the reign of the Solanki king Bhimadeva I, who ruled from 1022 to 1063. India submitted it to UNESCO’s Tentative List on 13 December 2022 under criteria (i) and (iv).

It is three structures on one east-west line: a shrine with a closed hall, a separate open pillared hall in front of it, and a terraced tank in front of both. The sources do not all word its date the same way, so this guide says who writes what.

Three buildings on one axis

The UNESCO submission, written by India, gives the shrine and its hall as one block of 15.78 m by 7.83 m, split almost evenly between sanctum and hall. The sanctum is 3.35 m square inside, with a walkway around it. The open hall, called the Sabhamandapa, is a distinct building placed a little way in front. The submission calls the style Maru-Gurjara, the temple idiom of Solanki-period Gujarat and Rajasthan, and describes the stone as bright yellow sandstone. Henry Cousens of the Archaeological Survey, writing in 1926, called it red sandstone, so the colour depends on who is looking and when.

The tower over the sanctum is gone. UNESCO’s text says no remains are left to judge its shape. What survives is the sculpture. The submission counts twelve figures of the sun god Surya, the twelve Adityas, arranged around the western part of the sanctum, each standing on a pedestal of seven horses with the charioteer Aruna between his boot tips. Four ceilings in the open hall carry scenes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

Dr Advaitavadini Kaul of IGNCA adds the tradition attached to the village. Modha Brahmans are said to have been given Modhera on the occasion of the marriage of Rama and Sita, and the Skanda Purana, she writes, tells that Rama settled at a village called Modherak in Dharmaranya and performed a yajna there.

A date cut upside down on one block

The firmest piece of evidence is a few characters of writing. James Burgess’s 1903 survey volume records that Cousens found, on one of the blocks forming the back wall in the shrine, a date reading Vikrama Samvat 1083, which Burgess converts to 1026 to 1027 CE. The block was set upside down. Burgess says the style of the lettering, shown in a facsimile in his book, “may be regarded as supporting this date”, and he reads it as evidence that the temple was begun within two years of Mahmud of Ghazni’s raid on Gujarat and the Somnath temple. Cousens, in 1926, puts that raid in 1025.

Burgess first dates the temple from its style to about the eleventh century and the reign of Bhimadeva I, and compares it with the Jain temple built at Mount Abu by Vimala Sa in 1032. A footnote in the same passage cites a copper-plate grant of Bhimadeva dated Vikrama Samvat 1086, three years after the block’s date. Another footnote records a suggestion that the temple might be one raised by King Karna around 1070, which Burgess answers by noting that one of the two candidates, the Karnameru, stood at Patan.

The UNESCO submission gives no calendar year at all. It says the age of the temple “may be inferred from its style” to the reign of Bhimadeva I. The official tourism pages, by contrast, are firmer, and differ among themselves. The Tourism Corporation of Gujarat says that, as per the Archaeological Survey of India, the temple was built in 1026 to 1027 CE during Bhima I’s reign. The Ministry of Tourism’s festival page says it was built after 1026 to 1027. An IANS report of 22 September 2026, marking a thousand years since construction, states 1026 to 1027 as the year it was built. IGNCA writes “probably”.

Burgess does not say why the block is upside down, and none of the other pages addresses it. Whether the figure marks the start of the temple or is a mark on a reused or reset stone is therefore open in the sources read here. What they share is that the style belongs to Bhimadeva I’s reign and that a date of 1026 to 1027 is attached to the shrine wall.

The equinox line

Burgess wrote that the temple stands on a mound facing due east, so that the rising sun at the equinoxes would shine straight through the Sabhamandapa doors into the shrine. The UNESCO submission repeats the sentence nearly word for word and presents it as evidence of planning around the sun’s movement. It adds that this feature is less prominent in earlier Sun temples in India. The Ministry of Tourism’s page says it is said that the equinox rays once lit the sanctum directly. None of these pages describes a measurement taken on the day, and the original image of Surya no longer survives.

The Surya Kund

The tank in front of the temple, called the Surya Kund and now also the Rama Kund, is what UNESCO’s submission singles out as distinctive about the site. Burgess measured it at 176 feet north to south and 120 feet east to west, about 54 m by 37 m. The UNESCO submission gives 175 by 120 feet. Its sides descend to the water in terraces, linked by small flights of steps with a low semicircular step on each landing, and small shrines stand on the terraces and at the corners. The submission says only this temple, among the Martand temple in Kashmir and the Konark temple in Odisha, has a kund of this kind in front of it.

The Tourism Corporation of Gujarat and the IANS report both put the number of shrines around the kund at 108. Burgess, who drew the plan, describes the shrines by position and does not give a total, so 108 is the current figure from these two pages. Three main shrines face the tank on three sides, dedicated to Ganesha and Vishnu, with an image of Shiva dancing. Burgess found the water brackish in 1903 and reports that Hindu visitors still bathed in it for religious merit. Two pillars at the head of the steps are what remains of a ceremonial arch called a kirttistambha, which Burgess compares with those at Vadnagar, Siddhapur and Kapadvanj.

What the early surveyors saw

Burgess reports that Colonel Monier Williams visited about 1809 and wrote that it was one of the finest specimens of ancient Hindu architecture he had seen, and that the temple stayed almost unknown for more than forty years afterwards. Burgess and Cousens both record a local account that the shrine’s floor and upper cell were blown up with gunpowder; neither gives a date. Clearing the debris, the surveyors found the seat of the image in a sunken lower cell with the seven horses carved on its front, and no image.

The Archaeological Survey of India protects and manages the complex. The UNESCO submission says the protected area includes land that may hold unexplored remains, and that conservation follows the Survey’s 2014 national policy.

Lit by the sun in 2022

On 9 October 2022 the Prime Minister inaugurated heritage lighting at the temple, which the Prime Minister’s Office described as making it the first heritage site in India powered solely by solar energy. He also inaugurated a 3D projection mapping of the temple, watched a cultural programme on its history, and declared Modhera the country’s first 24x7 solar-powered village. The Tourism Corporation of Gujarat calls the solar-powered projection show and lighting a one-of-a-kind experience. Show timings are not on the pages opened for this guide, so they are left out.

Visiting, as checked on 29 October 2026

The details below come from the Ministry of Tourism and Tourism Corporation of Gujarat pages opened on 29 October 2026. Hours and fees change, so confirm them before travelling.

• Hours. The Tourism Corporation of Gujarat lists visiting hours of 7.00 am to 6.00 pm. I did not find an official ticket price on a page I could open, so it is not given here.
• Getting there. Mehsana town is 26 km away on both pages. The nearest station is Mehsana Junction, which the state page puts at about 28 km and 40 minutes. Ahmedabad has the nearest airport, 99 km by the state page and 101 km by the Ministry’s.
• Season. The Ministry of Tourism calls October to March the most pleasant, and early morning the best light on the carving.
• Worship. The Ministry’s festival page says no worship is offered now and the temple is a protected monument.
• Nearby. The state page lists Rani ki Vav at Patan, the stepwell covered in our guide to Rani ki Vav, and the Bahuchar Mata temple at Becharaji.
• January festival. The Ministry of Tourism lists a Modhera Heritage Festival at the Sun Temple in January 2027, with evening performances, folk and classical music and heritage films; no dates are given. The IANS report calls the January event of recent years the Uttarardh Mahotsav, organised by the Gujarat government.

UNESCO’s comparison names two other Sun temples, the eighth century Martand temple in Kashmir and the thirteenth century temple at Konark. Our articles on the Martand temple of Lalitaditya and on Konark cover those two, and Modhera sits between them in date.