Laxmi Narsimha Temple, Nira Narsingpur

The Shri Laxmi Narsimha Temple, popularly called Nira Narasimha, stands at Nira Narsingpur, where the Bhima and Nira rivers meet in Indapur taluka, at the far south-eastern corner of Pune district. Dedicated to Narasimha, an avatar of Vishnu, it is counted among the oldest temples to him, and its priests are Deshastha Madhva Brahmins of the Uttaradi Math. The riverside ghat was finished in 1527; the present black-stone temple in Peshwa style dates from 1787, raised with help from Sardar Vitthal Shivdev Dani over some twenty years.

Three doors face east, north and west, the western one fortified like Shaniwar Wada and approached by 33 steps. The sanctum holds two Narasimha images, one of sand and one of black stone. Near the west door hangs a bell taken from a Portuguese church at Vasai after Chimaji Appa captured it in 1739. Smaller shrines fill the complex, and Vaisakha Navratri, ending on Narasimha Jayanti, is the main festival.