Mattan, Anantnag, Jammu & Kashmir · 33.7458°, 75.2199°
The grandest ruin of ancient Kashmir: Lalitaditya's colonnaded sun temple on a plateau over the Valley, blending Gandharan, Gupta and even Hellenistic-echoing forms into the unique Kashmiri style. Systematically demolished by Sultan Sikandar Shah Miri around 1400, its broken peristyle of 84 columns remains among the subcontinent's most haunting sights.
Martanda is the eighth, still-born Aditya cast off and reshaped as the sun; Kashmiri tradition set his great shrine here above the springs of Mattan, where pilgrims still feed sacred fish and offer shraddha.
coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-26 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Karkota