Kasar Devi Temple, Almora — the ridge village above the town
temple · 4.6 km away
temple44 min from Almora
Katarmal Sun (Surya) Temple, Almora — Bara Aditya and its 44 shrines
The Katarmal Sun Temple, called Bara Aditya, is an ASI-protected stone temple with 44 smaller shrines, 44 minutes from Almora. Sources differ on its age.
What it is
The Katarmal Sun Temple, which the Archaeological Survey of India calls Bara Aditya, "the great Sun God", is a large stone temple to Surya on a hillside at Katarmal village, above the Kosi valley. Around the main tower, on a raised platform entered by a flight of steps from the east, stand 44 smaller shrines. The Survey lists the temple as a protected monument, and Wikidata records it as a Monument of National Importance.
Photos: Aeroshanks2016 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Harshit.S.R (CC BY-SA 4.0) — via Wikimedia Commons, resized.
Getting there
About 19 km and 44 minutes by road from Almora, by our routing. Wikipedia places the village 12 km from the district centre and about 1.5 km from Kosi village, at 2,116 m. We have not measured the walk from the road to the platform, so leave margin, and ask locally about the road before you go in rain.
What you see
The main shrine faces east, with a three-part sanctum and a later gabled-roof porch in front of it. Inside are many carved stone images of Brahmanical deities, including a stone image of the Sun, and the Survey notes a wooden image, almost disintegrated, that seems to have been worshipped before the present temple. The 44 subsidiary shrines show building continuing at the site into later centuries.
The temple's carved wooden beam is no longer here: the Survey says it is displayed in the National Museum in New Delhi, and Wikipedia adds that carved wooden doors and panels were taken there after a 10th-century image was stolen. The Survey reads that beam, and the brickbats still at the site, as evidence that the first temple was brick and wood, and replaced in stone in the 12th or 13th century. Wikipedia instead gives the 9th century and the Katyuri king Katarmalla. The two accounts can both be partly right if a first building was later rebuilt, but we cannot settle it here.
When to go
We found no published opening times or entry rules for the site, so we give none. The best-time guide sets out what is published about the seasons, and a hill road in the monsoon is worth checking first.
Around it
Kasar Devi pairs with Katarmal on the first day of the two-day plan, and the Jageshwar temples take the second. Things to do in Almora lists every stop with distances.
Plans that include this
All 1 plans that stop here →Nearby places
Questions people ask
What is the Katarmal Sun Temple?
A large stone temple to the Sun at Katarmal village, locally called Bara Aditya, with 44 smaller shrines on a raised platform around it. The Archaeological Survey of India protects it. The main shrine faces east and holds many carved stone images, including a stone image of the Sun.
How old is the Katarmal Sun Temple?
The sources differ. Wikipedia says the Katyuri king Katarmalla built it in the 9th century, while the Archaeological Survey of India says the stone temple replaced an earlier brick-and-wood one in the 12th or 13th century. Wikidata gives 9th to 13th century, and we use that range.
How far is Katarmal from Almora?
About 19 km and 44 minutes by road from our reference point in Almora, by our routing. Wikipedia says 12 km from the district centre, which is probably the straight-line gap. We have not measured the walk from the road to the temple, so ask locally before you go.