Sipra Ghats at Ujjain

Photograph of the temples and ghats along the bank of the sacred River Shipra at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, taken by Deen Dayal in 1882, from the Lee-Warner Collection: 'Scenes and Sculptures of Central India, Photographed by Lala Deen Diyal, Indore.' Ujjain is one of the seven sacred Hindu cities. It is an ancient pilgrimage centre built on the banks of the Shipra river with its characteristic stepped ghats. Every twelve yers, in occasion of the Kumbha Mela festival, a large number of devotees come to bathe in the purifing waters of the river. Ujjain was an important place since the early third century BC during the Maurya period when Ashoka was emperor there. The town became an important centre under the Gupta dynasty in the 4th-5th centuries and was later the capital of the Paramara kings. It was sacked by the Muslims in 1235.