Modhera is a village in Becharaji Taluka inMehsana district,Gujarat, India. The town is well known for theSun Temple ofChaulukya era. The town is located on the bank of Pushpavati river.[1]
The town was known as Dharmaranya during Puranic age. It is believed thatRama had performedyagna here to cleanse the sin of killing BrahminRavana. He had builtModherak which was later known as Modhera.[1]
TheSun Temple was built during the reign ofBhima I ofChaulukya dynasty in 1026-1027 (Vikram Samvat 1083).[2][3][1]Modheshwari Temple is located in the village.[4] Gyaneshwari/Dharmeshwari stepwell belongs to 16th-17th century. It has a shrine at the first pavilion of the stepwell instead of usual at the end.[5] Thestepwell of Modhera probably belongs to 11th century with the mandapa belonging to 10th century.[5] Hawa Mahal is a building located on an elevated location. It is a sandstone pavilion with six pilasters and 12 pillars supporting a flat roof. Some pillars havekichaka brackets on their top. There is ajali window on its rear side and an ornamental geometric patterns on the edge of its plinth. It seems that it has been erected from the ruined parts of the earlier structure from theChaulukya era.[6]
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Modhera became the first "solar village" of India. The village meets its complete electricity requirements by a 6MW solar plant with a 15MWhbattery energy storage system on 12 hectares (0.12 km2) land located 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) from the village. A total of 1300 out of the 1600 houses in the village installedrooftop solar systems. The project cost₹65 crore (equivalent to₹73 crore or US$8.6 million in 2023) with half financed by theGovernment of Gujarat and the other half by theGovernment of India.[7][8][9][4]
23°35′N72°08′E / 23.583°N 72.133°E /23.583; 72.133
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