Tigawa Temple

Tigawa, also spelt Tigowa or Tigwan, is a village in Katni district about 4 km north of Bahuriband, between Katni and Jabalpur, with the ruins of some 36 Hindu temples. Many were badly damaged in colonial times, when a railway contractor dug them up for building stone. The best preserved is the small Kankali Devi Temple of the Gupta period, usually dated to about 400–425 CE and among the oldest surviving Hindu temples.

It shows an early stage of north Indian temple design: a flat-roofed sanctum and an open porch on four pillars, much like Temple 17 at Sanchi, with the porch sides later walled in with panels. Despite its name it was probably built for Vishnu; an image of Narasimha is inside the sanctum, the porch has the reclining Vishnu and Chamunda, or Kankali Devi, and a later relief of a seated Vishnu under a serpent hood projects from the front. The site sits on a plateau near the Kaimur hills, among old rainwater reservoirs.