Amitabh Bachchan has shared, in his Instagram account, the picture of a Mahavishnu temple, consecrated 134 years ago, in Bandar Abbas, Iran. Even though Big B has been sharing several posts in his social media accounts, the temple in Iran is now a much-talked-about one. The Vishnu temple speaks out the historical relations between Bharat and Iran.
Amitabh Bachchan has also shared the devotional song, along with the visuals of the in temple. The temple was constructed for Hindu merchants, from Bharat, who had been to Bandar Abbas for business and job reasons. Big B said that the devotional song is in Persian.
It is reported that the temple was constructed in 1892 during Qajar dynasty which ruled Iran from 1789 to 1925. It was specifically during the governorship of Mohammad Hassan Sa’d-ol-Malek.
It is believed that the credit goes to the dynasty for unifying Iran though the era was also marked by territorial losses to imperial powers, economic struggles, and eventual reform, culminating in the Constitutional Revolution in 1906.
It was primarily built to serve the spiritual needs of Hindu merchants, traders and labourers from Gujarat, Sindh and Kutch who worked with the British-Indian commercial networks in the region. Though regular worship ceased decades ago as the Indian trading population declined, the temple is officially registered as a national heritage monument by the Iranian government. It now functions as an anthropological museum and cultural site.
The structure is famous for blending traditional Indian elements with local Iranian coastal building techniques. Materials used for the construction are coral stone, mortar, mud and local plaster, making it highly suited for the harsh coastal climate. It has a prominent, central dome that displays independent architectural styling from traditional Iranian prototypical domes. The structure is having a central prayer room surrounded by corridors which were used for pradakshana (circumambulation) by devotees. The inner corridors and walls contain surviving paintings of the Sree Krishna.
The monument did not suffer the fate of the statues of Budha which were demolished in Afghanistan, in March 2001, by the followers of Taliban leader Mulla Muhammad Omar, thanks to the various Iranian regimes during the last one and quarter decades.
