Mahadev Temple

The Mahadev Temple at Deobaloda, near Durg in Chhattisgarh, is a sandstone Shiva shrine raised in the 1200s under the Kalachuris of Ratnapura, a Haihaya dynasty. Local legend holds that it was completed in only six months, giving it the nickname six-month temple.

Facing east, the building pairs a square sanctum with a pillared Navaranga hall, though its Nagara-style spire has not survived. The sanctum keeps a lingam; the temple walls bear divine figures and scenes of hunting and bull-fighting, while a stone Nandi watches before the entrance.

Beside the temple lies a stepped kund, said in folk tale to hide a tunnel to the ancient temple town of Arang. The shrine remained a place of pilgrimage under the later Haihaya rajas, whose kingdom accepted the suzerainty of the Marathas of Nagpur in 1740, and villagers still gather there for the fair of Maha Shivaratri.