BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, London

Address

Pramukh Swami Rd, Neasden,

London NW10 8HW, United Kingdom

Moolavar

Swaminarayan

Introduction

BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir (also commonly known as the Neasden Temple) is located in Neasden, London, England. Built entirely using traditional methods and materials, the Swaminarayan mandir has been described as being Britain’s first authentic temple. It was also Europe’s first traditional stone temple, as distinct from converted secular buildings. It is a part of the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) organization and was inaugurated in 1995 by Pramukh Swami Maharaj. The temple complex also consists of a permanent exhibition entitled “Understanding Hinduism” and a cultural centre housing an assembly hall, bookshop, and offices.

Puranic Significance

The Mandir and Haveli were built and funded entirely by the community, and the entire project spanned five years, although the construction itself was completed in two-and-a-half years. Building work began in August 1992. On 24 November 1992, the temple recorded the biggest-ever concrete-pour in the UK, when 4,500 tons were laid in 24 hours to create a foundation mat 6 ft (1.8m) thick. The first stone was laid in June 1993; two years later, the building was complete.

The mandir is the focal point of the complex. Designed according to the Shilpa-Shastras a Vedic text that develops architecture to metaphorically represent the different attributes of God, it was constructed almost entirely from Indian marble, Italian marble, Sardinian granite and Bulgarian limestone. No iron or steel was used in the construction, a unique feature for a modern building in the UK.

From the conceptual design and vision of Pramukh Swami, the architect C. B. Sompura and his team only used stone for its construction. It is a shikharbaddha mandir: seven tiered pinnacles topped by golden spires crowd the roofline, complemented by five ribbed domes. The temple is noted for its profusely carved cantilevered central dome, believed to be the only one in Britain that does not use steel or lead. Inside, serpentine ribbons of stone link the columns into arches, creating a sense of levitation

Light cream Vartza limestone from Bulgaria was chosen for the exterior, and for the interior, Italian Carrara marble supplemented by Indian Ambaji marble. The Bulgarian and Italian stone were shipped to the port of Kandla, Gujarat, where most of the carving was eventually completed by over 1,500 craftsmen in a workshop specially set up for the project. More than 26,300 individually numbered stone pieces were shipped back to London, and the building was assembled like a giant three-dimensional jigsaw.

The mandir was inaugurated on 20 August 1995 by Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the spiritual leader of BAPS, the organization behind the temple. The entire mandir complex represents an act of faith and collective effort. The mandir serves as the centre of worship. Directly beneath each of the seven pinnacles seen from the outside is a shrine. Each of these seven shrines houses murtis (sacred images of the Deities) within altars. Each murti is revered like God in person and devoutly attended to each day by the swamis (monks) who live in the temple ashram.