BIRLA MANDIR

The Lakshmi Narayana Temple is located on the Arera Hills which is near about 6 km from the Bhopal railway station. The Temple is famously known as the Birla Temple because the Birlas, one of leading industrial families of India, have built it. The Temple is at high altitude and therefore it creates a magnificent view of Bhopal. The temple is built in honour of Lakshmi, the Hindu Goddess of Wealth, and her divine consort, Vishnu, the Preserver of the Universe, who is also known as Narayana.
Apart from idols of Goddess Lakshmi and Narayana, the temple also has a resplendent idol of reclining Shiva with his wife, Parvati. Attached to the temple is the Birla Museum that houses a collection of sculptures from the Mandsaur, Shahdol, Sehore and Raisen districts of Madhya Pradesh.

The collection dates back to the 12th century era of the Paramaras when art and culture flourished in the state.
The sandy-yellowish temple has an old-worldly charm about it, with a huge turret on one side of the building. You enter the temple through a magnificent archway, and the sprawling lawns that surround the complex lend it a picturesque appeal.