Two carved Vishnu temples standing side by side near the eastern edge of Gwalior Fort.
The Sas Bahu temples stand together near the eastern side of Gwalior Fort, a larger shrine and a smaller one built in the same idiom. Both are dedicated in the Vaishnava tradition, to Vishnu. The popular name means mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and is generally explained as a corruption of Sahastrabahu, the thousand-armed form of Vishnu.
The temples are visited for their carving and for their position. The larger one retains an elaborately worked pillared interior, and the ground beyond them falls away to give one of the better views out from the fort.
The bigger of the two keeps its carved pillars and bracketed ceiling, and the interior is more rewarding than the exterior. Look up as well as around, since much of the best work is overhead.
The smaller shrine repeats the design at reduced scale, which makes the pair easy to compare in a single visit. From the edge nearby the land drops away and the view over the city is among the best on the fort.
The temples are inside Gwalior Fort and are normally seen as one stop on a fort circuit.
October to March is the comfortable season for walking the fort. Late afternoon suits this corner particularly, since the view from the edge is at its best as the light drops. The open hilltop is hard going in the summer months.
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