Avantiswami Temple

The Avantiswami Temple stands in ruins on the bank of the Jhelum at Awantipora in Pulwama district, about 16 km northeast of Pulwama town. King Avantivarman, founder of the Utpala dynasty and of the town of Avantipur, built it around 853-855 CE, when Kashmir was a centre of Shaivism and Sanskrit learning. Two temples here are credited to him: Avantiswami, for Vishnu, and Avantishwara, for Shiva.

Avantiswami is the smaller of the pair but follows a plan like that of the earlier Martand Sun Temple, and it shows the stone temple architecture of Kashmir in that period. Like most of the region's early temples, it was abandoned or damaged after the 14th century. The Archaeological Survey of India now protects the site, which local people call Pandav Lari, the house of the Pandavas.