About this temple
Adi Chitragupt Mandir stands in the Naujar Ghat–Diwan Mohalla setting of Patna City by the Ganga. Known also as Kayastha Dham, it is associated with a sixteenth-century black-stone image and the community’s worship of Chitragupta. The riverbank location should not be confused with a generic central-Patna or Kadamkuan address appearing in some tourism summaries. The cover illustration represents Chitragupta symbolically; it is not a photograph of this temple or its installed image.
History
Bihar Tourism assigns the black basalt Chitragupta image to the sixteenth century. Community and temple narratives connect rebuilding with Raja Todar Mal, while an earlier foundation is attributed in tradition to the minister remembered as Mudrarakshasa. Those ancient political stories should not be treated as a proven construction chronology. The institution’s 2018 publication records the image’s return and reinstatement on 10 November 2007 after a long absence. This is a separate modern episode from the claimed early foundation.
Legends & Religious Traditions
The divine recorder
Chitragupta is revered as the keeper of the record of human deeds and their moral consequences. The pen and ledger express that religious role. At this shrine, the tradition supplies the devotional setting for Chitragupta Puja and the community’s reverence for learning and record-keeping.
Mudrarakshasa’s remembered association
The temple’s narrative connects the site with the minister known as Mudrarakshasa and the political world of ancient Magadha. The story is preserved as a community foundation tradition. Its detailed court dialogues and compressed chronology are not presented here as contemporary historical testimony.
Rama’s river crossing
Another local account identifies the ghat with Rama, Lakshmana and Vishvamitra crossing the Ganga on their journey towards Janakpur. It gives the riverbank a place in sacred geography without establishing a date for the Chitragupta temple buildings.
The recovered image
The institution remembers the return of the long-absent image in 2007 as a renewal of the community’s religious life. This modern recovery should not be confused with a second supernatural birth of the deity.
Festivals and Religious Significance
Chitragupta Puja is the principal deity-specific observance highlighted by Bihar Tourism. Its importance at this shrine differs from Rama worship at a nearby or associated ghat.
How to Reach
Ask for Adi Chitragupt Mandir at Naujar Ghat, Diwan Mohalla, Patna City. The temple’s institution places it east of the southern Gandhi Setu approach. Patna Sahib and the old-city road network provide the relevant local setting; this is separate from Mahavir Mandir beside Patna Junction.
Photography and Electronic Devices
The published image is an AI-generated devotional illustration of Chitragupta with pen and ledger. It is not a documentary likeness of the temple’s basalt image, a reconstruction of the building or evidence of its architecture.
Contradictory Accounts and Variations
The ancient minister-foundation tradition, Todar Mal rebuilding association, sixteenth-century image dating and 2007 reinstatement are different claims and events. Some tourism summaries give Kadamkuan while their main text places the shrine at Naujar Ghat; the institution’s Diwan Mohalla riverbank location is followed here. Plans announced on the website are not described as completed buildings.