Wagh Mahal Complex, Morbi, Gujarat
Also known as the Mani Mandir Complex, the Wagh Mahal is a stunning piece of architecture built in the early 1922 by Thakore Saheb Waghji II Ravaji of the Jadeja Rajput Dynasty of Morbi. It also houses the famous Mani Mandir within its courtyard, now synonymous with the Wagh Mahal. The Mani Mandir was constructed to immortalize Waghji II Ravaji's love for his first wife Manibai, however upon his death in 1922 the temple was completed by his son Maharaja Shri Sir Lakhdhirji Waghji Bahadur in 1935. The building is a symbol of love that stands as a testimony to excellent workmanship of that era and serves as Morbi's most distinctive landmark, quite appropriately with its epithet of the "Taj Mahal of Saurashtra".
The Mani Mandir Temple enshrines the images of varous deities such as Lakshmi-Narayan, Goddess Kali, Lord Ram, Radha-Krishna and Lord Shiva. The temple, built in Dhrangadhra Stone is of a massive 200m by 200m square plan and a height of 25m. It adorned with exquisitely classial elements of Rajput architecture such as arches, brackets, jails, chhatris, jharokhas and shikharas all of them carved intricately. The complex was also designed as a secret hideout, as it is said that no one to this date has been able to count the total number of crypts in the building. In 1948, it was transformed into a government building and rechristened as the Wellington Secretariat, however after surviving an earthquake in 1956 and a Dam Breach in 1979 it was finally abandoned after when it took severe damages in the 2001 Gujarat Earthquake.
The city of Morbi that was founded in 1698 by Thakore Saheb Kanyaji Ravaji on the banks of River Machchhu is imprinted with the legacy of Jadejas and buildings like the Mani Mandir/Wagh Mahal serve as visible reminders of the city's glittering royal past.
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