Nagda

The Sahastra Bahu temple complex in Nagda, popularly known as Saas - Bahu temples (Saas is 'Mother-in-law and Bahu is Daughter-in-law) are a pair of late 10th-century temples dedicated to Lord Virabhadra. While the term ‘Sahastra Bahu’ essentially means ‘One with thousand arms’, a form of Lord Vishnu, interestingly in some scriptures ‘Sahastra Bahu’ is ‘Virabhadra’ an incarnation of Lord Shiva. The main ‘Saas’ temple with having an ornate ‘toran’ (sacred-arched gateway) has a front space to keep the idol on display for festivals and has three doors in three different directions, where the ‘Bahu’ temple which is slightly smaller in size has an engraved wall depicting the stories of the epic Ramayana. The temple has two separate platforms where we see carved images Lord Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu on one platform and images of Lord Rama, Balarama and Parashurama on the other one.