Bhadra Maruti Temple

The Bhadra Maruti Temple is a Hindu temple in Khuldabad, Maharashtra, India. The deity of the temple is lord Hanuman.

It is located on the distance of 4 km from the Ellora Caves.

At the temple, the murti of Hanuman is portrayed in a reclining or sleeping posture. It is one of only three places where Hanuman is represented in a sleeping posture. The second noted place is a temple on the banks of Ganga at sangam in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh and the third is at Jam Sawali, Madhya Pradesh.

The Bhadra Maruti Temple is one of the famous tourist attraction and pilgrimage centre in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district. Annually on the auspicious occasions of Hanuman Jayanti and Ram Navami lakhs of devotees arrive at the mandir and people from Aurangabad and nearby villages walk to the temple to take darshan and do puja–aarti of lord Bajrangbali. Also Devotees visit it on Saturdays in the Hindu calendar month of "Shraavana" Usually there is rush and lots of crowd during Saturdays and Tuesdays in the mandir every week.

History
In medieval times when the region where this mandir is situated was won by Mughal, the mandir was destroyed. It is said that however the Murti was saved and some people successfully kept it hidden for lots of years. In 1960's some people started the movement to relocate the Murti at its original location. They built a mandir made up of marbal stones.

Folklore
According to a folklore, in ancient times the Khuldabad was known as Bhadravati and the ruler was a noble king named Bhadrasena, who was an ardent devotee of Rama and used to sing songs in His praise. One day Hanumanji descended in the place, listening to the devotional songs sung in praise of Rama. He was mesmerized and without his knowledge took a reclining posture – called 'Bhava-samadhi' (Bhava samadhi is a yogic posture). King Bhadrasen, when he had finished his song, was astonished to find Hanuman in Samadhi before him. He requested Hanuman to reside there forever and bless his and Lord Rama's devotees.