India used to be a colony, and it left behind churches, cantonments, and government buildings. But history took a strange turn in Agar Malwa, Madhya Pradesh. In the late 1800s, a British army officer and his wife fixed up a Shiva temple. It wasn’t a local king or trader who did it.
The temple in question is the Baijnath Mahadev Temple, which is near Ujjain and on the banks of the Banganga River. The building itself is from the early 1600s, but the story of how it was fixed up in the 1880s is very interesting.
How a British woman got into a Sai temple
Lt Col Martin of the British Army was sent to the front lines of the war in Afghanistan. His wife lived in the Agar Malwa cantonment and used to get letters from him every day until they stopped. Weeks went by. We didn’t hear anything from the fighting, so Mrs. Martin thought the worst.
She started going on long horse rides through the area to calm down. During one of these rides, she went by the Baijnath Mahadev Temple, which was in bad shape at the time. The sound of conches and chants made her stop when evening prayers started. She went into the temple and saw the aarti going on. When the priests saw that she was upset, they asked her what was wrong. She told them about her position and her worst fears.
They told her that Lord Shiva hears all prayers, no matter who says them. A priest told her to pray for her husband’s safe return by chanting “Om Namah Shivaya” for 11 days. In a promise, Mrs. Martin said that if her husband came back alive, she would fix up the temple.
Someone brought her a letter from Afghanistan on the tenth day of her prayers. It was written by Lt. Col. Martin that his unit was trapped, and it looked like they were going to lose. He talked about seeing a yogi in the chaos who had long hair, wore tiger skin, and held a trident. He charged at the enemy, but they ran away, leaving the colonel alive! The yogi told him not to worry, and that he had come because his wife’s prayers made him happy, he wrote.
Mrs. Martin chose to keep her promise now that she felt better. When Lt Col Martin came back safely, the couple gave ₹15,000, which was a lot of money at the time, to fix up the temple. This gift, made in 1883, is written on a stone inside the Baijnath Mahadev Temple. People say that the Martins built a Shiva shrine in their own home and will worship Lord Shiva until the end of their lives.
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About Baijnath Mahadev Temple
The Baijnath Mahadev Temple is on Susner Road, which is next to National Highway 27. It is said that the first work on it began in 1528 and was finished in 1536. The shikhara of the temple stands about 50 feet high and is now a popular tourist spot in the Agar Malwa area. It is thought to be the only Shiva temple in India that was fixed up by the British.
Follow these steps to get to Baijnath Mahadev Temple:
- By Air: The Devi Ahilyabai Holkar International Airport is about 126 km away and has flights to most of the big towns in India.
- By Train: Ujjain is the nearest train stop, which is about 68 km away from Agar Malwa.
- By Road: Agar Malwa is easy to get to by road. From Ujjain, Indore, Bhopal, and Kota, you can take regular buses and cabs.
