Martand Sun Temple

The Martand Sun Temple is a ruined Hindu shrine dedicated to Surya, called Martanda in Sanskrit, on a plateau above the Kashmir Valley near Anantnag. The chronicler Kalhana records that it was commissioned in the eighth century by Lalitaditya Muktapida, the most powerful king of the Karkota dynasty.

Its colonnaded courtyard was ringed by eighty-four smaller shrines around a central sanctuary that probably carried a pyramidal roof; its carvings blended Gandharan and Gupta forms with influences from China and the Byzantine world.

The sanctuary stood for some six centuries until the reign of Sikandar Shah Miri, from 1389 to 1413, when it was pulled down during his campaign to bring the valley's Brahmanical institutions under state control. Earthquakes later damaged what remained, leaving the broken colonnade overlooking the valley.