VESTIGIA INDICA: BSSS JOURNAL OF HISTORY & ARCHAEOLOGY, E-ISSN - 2583-9470, VOL-2, Issue-I (2024), pp-21-60. 21 AN ENIGMATIC CASE OF A MEDIEVAL TEMPLE AT TALAVRIKSHA, RAJASTHAN Dr VINAY KUMAR GUPTA Superintending Archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India, Jaipur, archaeologist1@gmail.com, 9456053192 Abstract: This paper tries to solve the riddle of an early ninth century temple located at Talavriksha, District Alwar. The temple housing a Sivalingam inside the garbhagriha has figures of Varaha, Nrisimha and Trivikrama in the central rathikas and the placement of the guardian deities does not follow scriptures. The locale of the temple is also important due to its association with the Mahabharata and the presence of other important shrines. Key-words: Talavriksha, Mahabharata, Durga, Ganga, Vishnu, Sivalingam, Varaha, Trivikrama, Nrisimha etc. Introduction: Talavriksha, as per the popular belief referring to the Mahabharata story marks the spot of the tree under which Pandavas had hidden their weapons during the thirteenth year of their vanavasa, the ajnatavasa. The Mahabharata informs that the five Pandava brothers had hidden their weapons inside the crater of a large Sami tree situated near a crematorium amidst the forest and hills before entering Viratanagara (Virataparva, 5 th chapter). The spot is at present identified with the locality Talavriksha which lies midway between Viratanagara (Bairat) and Upaplavya nagara (Alwar) about 25 km north- east of the former, past Narayanpur village (Map 1). The place is situated amongst the forest and fields and is marked by the presence of a Ganga Mata Temple, hot and cold water springs, few late medieval chhatris, kundas and a Siva Temple (Map 2). As has been observed in the entire eastern Rajasthan, the spots of natural water sources are often marked by the presence of religious shrines of Devi since ancient times, this area again reaffirms this view. Similar presence of Devi shrines is observed at Old