page_title: Bhojpur, Madhya Pradesh
section_title: Geography and hydrology
hierarchical_section_title: Bhojpur, Madhya Pradesh / Geography and hydrology
caption_attribution_description: English: Bhojpur, Madhya Pradesh, India. Betwā river near the temple, showing fallen dam
context_page_description: Bhojpur is a town of historical and religious importance in Raisen District of Madhya Pradesh, India.
context_section_description: Bhojpur is situated on the Betwā River, 28 km from Bhopal, the state capital of Madhya Pradesh. The site is located on sandstone ridges typical of central India, next to a deep gorge through which the Betwā River flows. Two large dams, constructed of massive hammer-dressed stones, were built in the eleventh century to divert and block the Betwā, so creating a large lake. The approximate size of the lake is shown in the site plan given here.
  The dams were constructed of cyclopean masonry on a massive scale. The dam to the north is preserved, but the one immediately below the temple was knocked down by an exceptional surge in the Monsoon that occurred in the mid-eleventh century. A myth about the Bhojpur dams has emerged thanks to the writing of William Kincaid. He mis-interpreted an account in a Persian chronicle (recording that a dam was opened on the orders of Hoshang Shah of Malwa), as referring to Bhojpur, an idea elaborated by U. N. Day in 1965 and repeated subsequently in the years that followed.  The account, translated by U. N. Day from Persian, states that the king pulled down a dam at the request of local merchants in Bhopal and Vidisha whose caravans were being raided by bandits who would take refuge at an inaccessible spot protected by the lake. This account refers to the Bhojtal at Bhopal where even today an island in the middle of the lake can be seen. The dam at Bhopal was subsequently repaired and further raised when the Kamlapati Palace was constructed in the eighteenth century.
caption: River Betwā at Bhojpur, showing fallen remains of the southern dam.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "E4300", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "E4300v1.5", "Image DateTime": "2004:08:26 11:10:00", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "284", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "4084", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5459", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/184", "EXIF FNumber": "38/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2004:08:26 11:10:00", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2004:08:26 11:10:00", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "8", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2272", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1704", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1026", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "38", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}