14 Largest Hindu Temples Which You Should Visit

Angkor Wat
Area (m2) : 820,000       Location : Angkor, Cambodia

Angkor Wat

 

Angkor Wat is a temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia, built for the king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation — first Hindu, dedicated to the god Vishnu, then Buddhist. It is the world’s largest religious building.

Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple
Area (m2) : 631,000       Location : Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India

Sri_Ranganathasvamy_temple_in_Tiruchirapalli_

Srirangam temple is often listed as the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world (the still larger Angkor Wat being the largest existing temple). The temple occupies an area of 156 acres (631,000 m²) with a perimeter of 4,116m (10,710 feet) making it the largest temple in India and one of the largest religious complexes in the world. The temple is enclosed by seven concentric walls (termed prakarams (outer courtyard) or mathil suvar) with a total length of 32,592 feet or over six miles. These walls are enclosed by 21 Gopurams. The Ranganathanswamy Temple complex with 49 shrines, all dedicated to Lord Vishnu, is so huge that it is like a city within itself. However, the entire temple is not used for the religious purpose, the first three out of seven concentric walls are used by private commercial establishments such as restaurants, hotels, flower market, and residential homes. Taking this detail into account, still the temple ranks third in the list of large Hindu temples after Thillai Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram and Tiruvannamalai Annamalaiyar Temple.

Akshardham
Area (m2) : 240,000       Location : Delhi, India

Akshardham_Delhi

Akshardham is a Hindu temple complex in Delhi, India. Also referred to as Delhi Akshardham or Swaminarayan Akshardham, the complex displays millennia of traditional Indian and Hindu culture, spirituality, and architecture. The building was inspired and moderated by Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the spiritual head of the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, whose 3,000 volunteers helped 7,000 artisans construct Akshardham.

Thillai Nataraja Temple
Area (m2) : 160,000       Location : Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India

Thillai Nataraja Temple

Belur Math
Area (m2) : 160,000       Location : Kolkata, West Bengal, India

Ramakrishna_Belur_Math,_Howrah

Belūr Maṭh or Belur Mutt is the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, founded by Swami Vivekananda, a chief disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. It is located on the west bank of Hooghly River, Belur, West Bengal, India and is one of the significant institutions in Calcutta. This temple is the heart of the Ramakrishna Movement. The temple is notable for its architecture that fuses Hindu, Christian and Islamic motifs as a symbol of unity of all religions.

Annamalaiyar Temple
Area (m2) : 101,171       Location : Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India

Tiruvannamalai_Temple

Annamalaiyar Temple is a noted Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, and it is the second largest temple (by the area used completely for religious purpose). It has got four stately towers on all the four sides and four high stone walls just like the rampart walls of a fort. The 11-tiered highest (217 feet (66 m)) Eastern Tower is called the Rajagopuram. The fortified walls pierced with four gopura entrances offer a formidable look to this vast complex.

Ekambareswarar Temple
Area (m2) : 92,860       Location : Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, India

Ekambareswarar Temple

Ekambareswarar Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, located in Kanchipuram in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the five major Shiva temples or Pancha Bootha Sthalams (each representing a natural element) representing the element Earth.

Jambukeswarar Temple (Thiruvanaikaval)
Area (m2) : 72,843       Location : Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India

Tiruvannaikkaval

Thiruvanaikaval (also Thiruvanaikal) is a famous Shiva temple in Tiruchirapalli (Trichy), in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The temple was built by Kocengannan (Kochenga Chola), one of the Early Cholas, around 1,800 years ago.

Meenakshi Amman Temple
Area (m2) : 70,050       Location : Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India

meenakshi temple

Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple or Meenakshi Amman Temple is a historic Hindu temple in the holy city of Madurai in India. It is dedicated to Lord Shiva — who is known here as Sundareswarar or Beautiful Lord — and his consort, Parvati who is known as Meenakshi. The temple forms the heart and lifeline of the 2500-year-old city of Madurai. The complex houses 14 magnificent Gopurams or towers including two golden Gopurams for the main deities, that are elaborately sculptured and painted showing the architectural and sculpting skills of the ancient Indian sthapathis.

Vaitheeswaran Koil
Area (m2) : 60,780       Location : Vaitheeswaran Koil, Tamil Nadu, India

Vaitheeswaran_temple

Vaitheeswaran Temple is a Hindu temple located in Tamil Nadu, India, dedicated to the god Shiva. In this temple, Lord Shiva is worshiped as “Vaitheeswaran” or the “God of medicine”; worshipers believe that prayers to Lord Vaitheeswaran can cure diseases.

Tiruvarur Thyagarajaswamy Temple
Area (m2) : 55,080       Location : Tiruvarur, Tamil Nadu, India

Thiruvarur-Temple-Outer-Praharam

The ancient Sri Thyagaraja temple at Tiruvarur is dedicated to the Somaskanda aspect of Shiva. The temple complex has shrines dedicated to Vanmikanathar, Tyagarajar and the Kamalaamba, and covers an area of over 20 acres (81,000 m2). The Kamalalayam temple tank covers around 25 acres (100,000 m2),one of the largest in the country. The temple chariot is the largest of its kind in Tamil Nadu.

Sripuram Golden Temple
Area (m2) : 55,000       Location : Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

Sripuram_Temple_Full_View

The golden temple of Sripuram is a spiritual park situated at the foot of a small range of green hills in a place known as “Malaikodi” in the city of Vellore in Tamil Nadu, India. The temple is at the southern end of the city of Vellore, at Tirumalaikodi.

The salient feature of Sripuram is the Lakshmi Narayani temple or Mahalakshmi temple whose ‘Vimanam’ and ‘Ardha Mandapam’ have been coated with gold both in the interior and exterior.

Jagannath Temple
Area (m2) : 37,000       Location : Puri, Orissa, India

Temple-Jagannath

The Jagannath Temple in Puri is a famous Hindu temple dedicated to Jagannath (Vishnu) in the coastal town of Puri in the state of Orissa, India. The name Jagannath (Lord of the Universe) is a combination of the Sanskrit words Jagat (Universe) and Nath (Lord of).

Birla Mandir
Area (m2) : 30,000      Location : Delhi, India

Birla_Mandir_Delhi

The Laxminarayan Temple (also known as the Birla Mandir) is a Hindu temple dedicated to Laxminarayan in Delhi, India. The temple is built in honour of Lakshmi (Hindu goddess of wealth) and her consort Narayana (Vishnu, Preserver in the Trimurti). The temple was built in 1622 by Vir Singh Deo and renovated by Prithvi Singh in 1793. During 1933-39, Laxmi Narayan Temple was built by Baldeo Das Birla of Birla family. Thus, the temple is also known as Birla Mandir. The famous temple is accredited to have been inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi in 1939. At that time, Gandhi kept a condition that the temple would not be restricted to the Hindus and people from every caste would be allowed inside. Since then, funds for further renovations and support have come from the Birla family.

Source : Wikipedia

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