Mala Devi temple Gyaraspur: ASI to dismantle, rebuild 1,100-year-old shrine

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has begun work on a plan to take apart and rebuild the Mala Devi temple at Gyaraspur in Madhya Pradesh's Vidisha district, a partly rock-cut shrine thought to be about 1,100 years old. Reports dated Tuesday, 3 November 2026 say the ASI found the temple's foundation weak and brittle, with a real chance of collapse. Instead of patching it in place, the agency plans to dismantle the structure, lay a new platform beneath the original base and put the temple back together stone by stone. The temple has not yet been taken down; the ASI is first recording every stone and carving.

Mala Devi is one of the most unusual temples of central India. It is not a free-standing building in the usual sense. Part of it is cut into the hillside, and its roof, sanctum and rear wall merge with the natural rock, while the front and the decorated spire are built of carved stone. That mix is what gives it its striking look on the slope above Gyaraspur, and it is also what makes it hard to save. When a building rests partly on living rock and partly on a built platform, any weakness in the platform puts strain on the whole structure.

The temple also carries a layered religious history. Its sanctum holds Jain images, and it is generally described as a Jain temple. Yet figures of goddesses on the outer door-frame, and the name Mala Devi itself, have led scholars to suggest it may first have been a Brahmanical shrine that later passed into Jain worship. That shift makes it an important record of how sacred spaces in the Vidisha region were shared and reused across centuries.

Dismantling and rebuilding a monument is one of the most serious steps a conservator can take. It is chosen when repairs in place cannot stop a collapse. The method only works if the original position of each piece is known exactly, which is why the ASI is starting with a complete inventory. Each carved block has to return to the same spot, facing the same way, so that the temple that stands again is the same temple and not a copy. A local commentator quoted in reports said that if the ASI succeeds in rebuilding it faithfully in its original style, it could become a historic achievement for Indian archaeology.

Peepals timeline: a temple about 1,100 years old in 2026 dates back to roughly the 920s (2026 − 1,100 = 926), which sits inside the 9th–10th century period historians give for Mala Devi. On 3 November 2026 the ASI's plan to dismantle and rebuild it was reported, with documentation of the stones under way. With the work expected to take more than two years, the restored temple is not likely to be complete before late 2028. Our calculation from the reported figures.

Short-term: the documentation phase comes first, so the temple will look much the same for now. Once dismantling starts, visitors to Gyaraspur should expect the monument and its surroundings to be a work site, and access may be limited.

Long-term: if the rebuild succeeds, one of Vidisha district's best-known monuments will stand on a sound foundation for generations. The project will also be closely watched as a test of how the ASI handles partly rock-cut temples, a type found across central and western India.

Who is affected: pilgrims and Jain devotees who visit the shrine, heritage tourists on the Vidisha, Sanchi and Udayagiri circuit, the people of Gyaraspur, and students and researchers of early medieval temple architecture.

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