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Prahladpuri Temple

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Prahladpuri Temple

Prahladpuri Temple (Urdu: پرَہْلادْپُورِی مندر) is a Hindu temple located in Multan city of Punjab province in Pakistan, adjacent to the Shrine of Bahauddin Zakariya. Named after Prahlada, it is dedicated to the Hindu deity Narasimha. Like many Hindu temples in Pakistan, the temple was razed to ruin by a Muslim mob. The site is currently owned by Evacuee Trust Property Board.

The temple is located on top of a raised platform (mandapa) at the southern tip of the Fort of Multan, adjacent to the mausoleum of Baha’ul Haq Zakariya.

According to History, Prahlada — son of Hiranyakashipu, the Asur-king of Multan — built the temple in honor of Narasimha, an incarnation of Vishnu, who had appeared out of a pillar in the royal court to disembowel the oppressive King and reward his devoutness. The temple was constructed around the pillar and thus, the festival of Holika Dahan commenced.

The temple stands on the ruins of pre-Muslim structures. There appear to have been older temples on the site which were subject to cycles of razing and re-construction during the medieval era; however, the precise details are hazy in light of conflicting legends.

Oral legends assert that a temple — with columns and roof made of gold — used to exist at the site c. 15th century before being dismantled by Sher Shah Suri to construct a mosque; the current temple was constructed when this mosque fell. Another account published in Calcutta Review (1891) reproduces the same narrative except that the pre-existing temple had sunk of "unknown causes."

In 1810, the temple's height was raised (or, was the temple rebuilt - ?), which led to tensions with the Muslim community. In 1831, Alexander Burnes noted the temple as a low-height structure, supported by wooden pillars and having Hanuman and Ganesha as the portal guardians; he was denied entrance to what was "the only place of Hindu worship in Multan". An annual festival was held on the temple's premises on the anniversary of Narasimha's appearance.

During the Siege of Multan in 1848, a shell fired by forces of the East India Company fell on a gunpowder store within the fort and blew away the temple's roof. Post-siege, the East India Company retained total control of the fort and all adjacent areas — including the temple and the mausoleum — for a couple of years before returning the shrines to native communities in July 1852. A month later, the Company prohibited approaching the temple via precincts of the mausoleum in lieu of allowing a request from local Hindus to refurbish the temple. In 1854, Alexander Cunningham found the temple to be a roofless "square brick building with some very finely carved wooden pillars", and the only Hindu shrine in Multan alongside Suraj Kund.

In 1859, local Hindus and Muslims agreed to not incorporate conspicuous additions to the temple or the mausoleum. In 1861, the Chief Mahant of the temple, Baba Ram Das, had raised about Rs.11,000 by way of public donation to refurbish the temple. In the early 1870s, his successor, Baba Narayan Das, proposed to increase the height of the temple spire to 45 ft — more than that of the mausoleum — but was opposed by local Muslims as a breach of the 1859 agreement, fomenting an acrimonious dispute. Eventually, the local administration decided the issue in favor of the Muslims; an agreement enacted on 14 April 1876 restricted the height to 33 ft. However, the Hindus were not content and sought to overturn it.

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