About Us

The temple mapping project is undertaken by Tattva Heritage Foundation, a non-profit organisation supporting scholars, artists and institutions working on critical projects relating to Indian cultural traditions. Our goal is to map and undertake preliminary documentation, both textual and pictorial, of all pre-British era temples of India.

While many large temples have been studied and many are under ASI's supervision, during our extensive survey of temples across India, we found that the vast majority were neglected and in disrepair, with no documentation or conservation plans in place. Several of these ancient monuments are haphazardly restored by devotees and, sometimes, old temples are torn down to build new ones without a scientific recording of temple antiquities. Consequently, we felt that comprehensive mapping and documentation of all ancient temples was urgently needed for

• a. Future conservation purposes
• b. Creating an exhaustive repository and record of our built heritage
• c. Bringing relatively unknown, yet important, temples to the attention of devotees and to the wider world

Apart from basic physical documentation, we aim to prepare ground maps and a detailed report for major temples documenting their legends, architectural features, state of conservation, and the current temple ecosystem.

Why Pune

Given the enormity of the undertaking, we have initially planned to focus on Pune District and parts of southern Maharashtra. We chose Pune District for the pilot because it is easily accessible, the city has a large number of trained archaeologists and temple enthusiasts, and there is a large number of temples within the district which are more than 200 years old. So far, we have identified about 210 pre-British era temples in Pune District (there are more). Out of these temples, only a few of them have been documented by previous scholars and only a handful of these temples are under the supervision of archaeological departments.

Our Plans

This website is a digital space where we can showcase these temples along with detailed information on them. We also plan to have a QR code system on the physical temple site where the details of the temples can be accessed by devotees, a Google Maps project for easily locating these temples, a 3D mapping of important sculptures, publication of coffee table books and many other such initiatives. Furthermore, we have identified numerous villages that have clusters of old temples with a lot of art and craft traditions. We will do a cultural mapping of such villages. We also strive to educate the locals about the heritage value and importance of preserving their temples. In multiple cases, we have intervened in temple conservation efforts (for example, Siddheśvar Temple in Talegaon Dhamdhere, Pune). With such initiatives, we hope to raise awareness of the enormous religious heritage of the country and encourage citizens to take ownership of these monuments.

The Government of India has an ambitious cultural mapping project across India, National Mission on Cultural Mapping and Roadmap, launched in 2017. Our initiative on mapping the built religious-cultural heritage augments the Government’s plan and vision. This initial mapping and documentation work is part of our larger plan to build a world-class research centre for the Study and Preservation of Hindu Temples (donations are welcome!).

Current Team

Given the specialized nature of this work, we have a team of research scholars from Deccan College, Pune, working on this project. Vijay Sarde, PhD from Deccan College, a published author and expert on the temples of Maharashtra, heads the temple documentation project of the Pune district. He is ably helped by a number of research scholars. Pranita Harad, PhD in Archaeology from Deccan College, is translating the original Marathi writing into English. Sujay Khalate and Shubham Beldar, both MA in Archaeology from Deccan College, are assisting in field research. Another Deccan College graduate, Poorva Parab, is developing detailed ground plans and sketches for selected temples. In the near future, Yogesh Prabhudesai, PhD from Deccan College and a published author, will join us as a project lead for Kolhapur District. As we progress, we have ambitious plans to expand our team to newer geographies.        

Manish Maheshwari, founder of Tattva Heritage Foundation, is the conceptualizer and editor of this project.