Early modern · Hindu · India

Vishnupad Temple

विष्णुपद मंदिर

Gaya, Bihar · 24.7787°, 85.0004°

Vishnu (footprint)Maratha (Holkar)Nagara (grey granite)Shakti Peethadisputed

Contested attributions

This site is counted in the lists below by some sources and not others. We list the claim and the disagreement rather than silently picking a side.

Shakti Peetha · no source located — No source could be confirmed describing the Vishnupad Temple at Gaya as a Shakta pitha - its Wikipedia article makes no such claim and it is absent from Wikipedia's combined Shakta pithas table, while the Gaya pitha is identified in Wikipedia's 18-list with the separate Mangla Gauri temple (as of 2026). source

Sacred since

1000 BCE

Ancient shraddha tirtha on the Falgu river

Standing structure

1787

patron: Ahilyabai Holkar

History & significance

Centre of the ancestral rites of Hinduism: the 40 cm footprint of Vishnu pressed in basalt, ringed by a silver-plated octagon, where crores perform pind-daan for their forebears — above all during Pitru Paksha, when Gaya becomes the city of ancestors. Rebuilt in granite by Ahilyabai Holkar in 1787.

Sthala katha — the legend

Vishnu pinned the pious demon Gayasura beneath his foot with a great rock; granted that whoever offers rites on his body attains liberation, Gayasura's sanctified frame became Gaya — the footprint the seal of that boon.

Reaching there

Gaya has its own international airport, with daily Delhi–Gaya–Varanasi flights and further services to Kolkata, Paro and Bangkok. Gaya Junction lies on the Grand Chord section of East Central Railway, served by four Rajdhani trains and the overnight Mahabodhi Express from Delhi (about 12–17 hours); by road NH-83 covers the 120 km from Patna and the Grand Trunk Road passes 30 km south at Dobhi. The temple is inside Gaya town itself.

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