Chausath Yogini Temple, Mitaoli

One of the few surviving Yogini temples in India built to the tradition's distinctive circular, roofless plan, Mitaoli's temple consists of 64 individual shrine cells arranged around an open courtyard, at the centre of which sits a freestanding Shiva shrine, itself open to the sky. Built under the regional Kachchhapaghata dynasty around the 9th or 10th century, it belongs to a small, scattered group of Yogini temples associated with esoteric tantric goddess worship, most of which have been lost or badly ruined; Mitaoli survives in unusually complete condition atop an isolated hill in the Chambal region. Its geometry, a perfect circle of cells with a central pavilion, is often cited in popular accounts as an influence on the circular plan of India's Parliament building in New Delhi, a claim architectural historians treat as unverified folklore rather than documented fact. The remoteness of the Chambal ravine country has helped preserve both the temple and its unusual plan largely undisturbed.