Vishnupad Temple (विष्णुपद मंदिर)

Vishnupad stands over a footprint in basalt that tradition holds to be Vishnu’s, and the temple has been a shraddh destination for as long as the Gaya rites have been recorded. The present structure was rebuilt in 1787 under Rani Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore, in the Nagara idiom, its shikhara rising about 30 metres over an octagonal sanctum.

For families across India, Gaya is where the ancestral rites are completed — the city appears in the Vayu Purana’s account of the Gaya-shraddh, and the Falgu ghats a few hundred metres away are where Tarpan is offered before the sankalp inside.

Access to the inner sanctum is regulated by the temple committee. Photography is not permitted inside; the outer prakara and the ghats are open through the day.

Timings

6:00 AM – 7:30 PM

How to reach

Gaya Junction · 3 km

Locality

On the western bank of the Falgu