Temple of the Vedic Planetarium

The colossal blue-and-gold temple slowly rising at the centre of the Mayapur complex, due for full completion in the late 2020s but already substantially open for worship. Designed in a hybrid Western-Vedic style, its central dome will be one of the largest in the world.

The lower halls are already in use for the main daily aartis, the upper levels still under construction. The model rooms describing the planned interior — an immersive depiction of the Vedic cosmos — are open to visitors. A genuinely strange and ambitious project that no architecture-minded traveller in eastern India should miss.

things to do sight temple architecture
A story
When complete, the central dome at 113 metres will be larger than that of St Peter's in Rome. Inside, a vast hanging chandelier-model will represent the Vedic universe as described in the Bhagavata Purana, rotating slowly above the worshippers below.

Other places in Things to Do