Which of the following statements about the main features of the 'Jagadambi Temple' in Khajuraho is false?

Question

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Correct — C, and it is the false statement, which is what the question asks for. The colossal image enshrined in the sanctum of the Devi Jagadamba (Jagadambi) temple is of the Devi — Parvati, worshipped today as Jagadamba — not of Lakshmi. The temple takes its very name from that image, so misnaming the goddess is the one clear error in the list. The other three statements describe the temple correctly, which is why they cannot be the answer.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) A true statement about this temple, and therefore not the answer. Devi Jagadamba follows the simpler Khajuraho plan: it has no separate maha-mandapa with lateral transepts, so the ardha-mandapa (entrance porch) and the hall behind it run together as one continuous space.  (b) True — Devi Jagadamba is a nirandhara temple: there is no pradakshina passage wrapped around the sanctum. Its neighbours on the same platform, the Kandariya Mahadeva and the Lakshmana, are sandhara temples and do have that passage. This contrast is the single most examinable fact about the building.  (d) True — the lalata-bimba, the central block on the lintel of the sanctum doorway, carries an image of Vishnu. That is precisely why art historians hold that the shrine was originally a Vishnu temple, with the Devi image installed later; the statement records real evidence, not an error.

Concept: The Devi Jagadamba is one of the three temples standing on the great shared platform of the Western Group at Khajuraho, alongside the Kandariya Mahadeva and the small Mahadeva shrine, built under the Chandelas around the late tenth to early eleventh century. Khajuraho temples are classic Nagara work: a high jagati platform, a graded series of halls leading to the garbhagriha, and a shikhara built up from clustered miniature spires (urushringas). They divide by plan into sandhara temples, which have an ambulatory passage around the sanctum, and nirandhara temples, which do not. Devi Jagadamba is nirandhara, and its Vishnu image on the sanctum lintel points to an original Vaishnava dedication later overtaken by Devi worship.

State PCS 2026 Q94 — Madhya Pradesh GK PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2026 Q94 — Madhya Pradesh GK PYQ with Answer