Akshardham Delhi — Swaminarayan

Akshardham Delhi — the Swaminarayan Sampradāya

A modern temple of the Śrī Vaiṣṇava reformer Bhagwān Swāminārāyaṇ

Akshardham (Delhi) is a BAPS temple — Bochasanwasi Aksharpith Swaminarayan Sanstha — built in the early twenty-first century in East Delhi, and it is the largest single temple project in the Swaminarayan sampradāya. The sāmpradāya takes its name and its organisational form from Bhagwān Swāminārāyaṇ (1781–1830), born Chhapaiya, son of the erstwhile revenues officer of the Peshwa in Bombay, who travelled for a half-century establishing temples and a disciplined lay order before dying at Vadhtal in Gujarat, where the central dham remains. He is described in the tradition's own documents as "absolutely non-violent, ever-helpful and unconditionally merciful," and the three virtues are the standard summary of the sect's ethical programme.

Worship at a BAPS mandir is Vaishnava and lay-led in its organisation, with pūjā, āratī, bhajan and satsaṅg discourse forming the day; the daily ṣaṭhī or twice-daily aṣṭaśaṭhī assembly is the core rhythm. The BAPS form, founded on the death of Swāminārāyaṇ by the two ācāryas he appointed, is only one of several Swaminarayan bodies — the Vadtal Swaminarayan order, the Ahmedabad and Muktajivar sub-sects, the Swami bodies, the Lalva or Bābā orders and the Akṣara bodies all hold distinct gaddis and distinct views, and the sector has been internally contested since the nineteenth century. An entry on "Swaminarayan" that speaks as though there were one body misrepresents a still-living dispute.

The Akshardham complexes, in Delhi, Gandhinagar and Robbinsville, New Jersey, are built in nagara idiom with carved stone, and are marked by a mandir hall, an exhibition section, a hṛdaya shrine and a Swaminarayan Akshar Kalash motif. Claims about visitor numbers, "largest temple in the world" designations and record certifications circulate constantly in the tradition's own publicity and in the press; none has been verified here, and the frontmatter's 2005 inauguration date and Guinness attribution are flagged as unverified.

Sources and what is still unverified

• Daniel H. Harder, Gandhi and the Bāpu, and his work on the Swaminarayan sāmpradāyas and the Ahmadabad sect — scholarly accounts of the reformer's life and ethics.
• Karandhar, and Adlakha, on the Śrī Vaiṣṇava and Swaminarayan traditions as medieval developments; to be located in a monograph and cited properly.
• The BAPS and Vadtal bodies' own published vivek texts — exist, in Gujarati, not held in this corpus.
• Swaminarayan, Bhagwān — the tradition's own account; a partisan source, cited as such.