Bhilsa

Bhilsa stands near the confluence of the Betwa and Bes rivers in eastern Malwa. The ancient city of Vidisha was an important centre of trade, known to early Buddhist texts and associated with Ashoka, who governed it before becoming emperor. Nearby stands the Heliodorus pillar, dedicated to Vasudeva by an ambassador of the Indo-Greek king Antialcidas. The Buddhist monuments of Sanchi lie a short distance to the south.

In the Middle Ages Bhilsa was renowned for its temple to the sun god Bhillasvamin, destroyed by Iltutmish in 1233–1234. Alauddin Khalji sacked the city in 1293, while he was a general of the Delhi Sultanate. Bahadur Shah of Gujarat attacked it in 1532, and the city later passed under the Mughals and the Scindias. The remains of the great Paramara temple called Bijamandal and a mosque built upon its platform speak to the city's successive patrons and rulers.