Vishnupad Temple

Rebuilt in 1787 by the Holkar queen Ahilyabai Holkar, patron of temple reconstruction across India after successive iconoclastic destructions, the Vishnupad Temple houses in its octagonal sanctum a stone slab bearing what is venerated as Vishnu's footprint, an aniconic focus of worship distinct from most Vishnu temples' anthropomorphic images. Its 30-metre Nagara shikhara in solid grey granite reflects Ahilyabai's characteristic late 18th-century rebuilding style, seen also at Kashi Vishwanath and Somnath. Sited on the banks of the Falgu River, the temple is the ritual centre of Gaya's role as India's principal site for Pitru Paksha, the annual fortnight of ancestor-veneration rites (Pind Daan) performed by Hindus from across the subcontinent, giving it a devotional significance measured in ancestral duty rather than iconographic art.