Meerabai Temple at Chittorgarh
Meerabai Temple: This temple was built during the reign of Maharana Kumbha and later given to Mira Bai when she needed a place to worship Lord Krishna, the main subject of her poems. It is a good example of Rajput architecture, designed in North Indian style on a raised plinth, with a conical roof over the inner sanctum. The dome is carved in a circle of five human bodies with one head that symbolises belief that the people of the four castes (Varnas), as well as the fifth caste Harijans, can all realise God. Within the sanctum are paintings of Lord Krishna and of Mira Bai in devotion (bhakti) to the god. The open colonnade around the sanctum has four small pavilions. A small chhatri stands in the temple’s forecourt, said to have been built in memory of Mira’s saintly guru, Rai Das (Swami Ravidas) of Varanasi, a Harijan. The saint’s footprints are marked on the floor of this small shrine.