Orchha Temple
Orchha temple or Chaturbhuj temple is located in Orchha in Madhya Pradesh of India. This temple is devoted to Lord Vishnu. The word ‘Chaturbhuj’ is a combination of 2 words i.e. ‘chatur’ meaning ‘four’ and ‘bhuj’ meaning ‘arms’ which is translated as ‘one who has 4 arms’ which refers to Lord Rama, an Avatar of Lord Vishnu. Actually, this temple is the best blend of architectural features of the temple, fort, and palace which has a complex multi-storied structural view where we can experience history, spirituality, and natural beauty.
In this Chaturbhuj temple, Lord Vishnu is worshipped in the form of both Lord Rama and Lord Krishna. This is the only temple where Lord Rama is considered as both God and King.
Orchha temple was built by the Bundela Rajputs of the kingdom of Orchha. The construction work was begun by Madhukar Shah and later it was completed by his son, Vir Singh Deo in the 16th century. The Madhukar Shah built this temple for his wife, Rani Ganeshkuwari.
This temple is situated just outside the limits of the Orchha Fort complex to the south of the Rama Raja Temple in the Orchha town. We can reach Orchha via air from Gwalior airport which has a distance of 119 km and there are regular flights from Delhi and Bhopal. It is accessible via road from diversion from Jhansi-Khajuraho highway. The nearest railway station is in Jhansi with a distance of 16 km. The Orchha bus station is 15 km away.
According to local legends, once the queen of Orchha had a ‘dream visiting’ by Lord Rama and he directed her to construct a temple devoting to him. While King Madhukar Shah was devoted to Lord Krishna but his wife was devoted to Lord Rama. The queen went to Ayodhya to obtain the image of Lord Rama which will be enshrined in the Orchha temple.
Initially, when she came back from Ayodhya she kept the image of Lord Rama in her palace called Rani Mahal because the temple was still under construction. She was unaware of the fact that she cannot keep the deified image in the palace so when finally the image was moved for the installation of the image at the temple (construction was completed), it refused to move from the palace.
Thus, Lord Rama’s idol remained in the palace instead of the Chaturbhuj temple and whereas the Orchha temple remained without any idol. The palace was converted into the Rama Raja Temple because Lord Rama was worshiped in a palace. Later, an idol of Lord Radha Krishna was installed in the Chaturbhuj temple. This temple has the tallest Vimana standing at 344 feet among all the Hindu temples in the world.