BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Temple

In the early 1980’s, a handful of Swaminarayan devotees in the Atlanta area began meeting at each other’s homes on a weekly basis to hold religious gatherings. As the number of devotees and the Indian community in the surrounding area steadily increased, a special place of worship was needed. With the help of devotees from around the southeastern states, a skating rink was purchased in 1988. Even then, a large BAPS volunteer force completely transformed the old rink into a mandir in Clarkston, GA.

Since 1988, the converted rink has served as a mandir and all that a mandir stands for. Over the years, however, it was evident that a traditional mandir was needed in Atlanta—one that would be able to help Hindus in America of all ages to strengthen their roots. With this desire, and through the inspiration of Pramukh Swami Maharaj, a decision to build a traditional shikharbaddh (spired) mandir in Atlanta was made.

With the blessings of Pramukh Swami Maharaj, in February of 2000, a twenty-nine acre plot of land at the intersection of Rockbridge Road and Lawrenceville Highway was purchased in Lilburn, GA, a quiet suburban town of Atlanta. A puja was also performed this same year by Pramukh Swami Maharaj to sanctify the land so that construction may begin. BAPS broke ground on the mandir project in September 2005, with land being cleared and ready for the main foundation pouring just four months later in January of 2006.

In March 2006, a crane was assembled just in time to install the first of what is now a monument with over 106,000 cubic feet of Italian Carrara. Over 34,000 hand-carved pieces were shipped from India in a total of 346 containers to Atlanta.

The 32,000-square-foot (3,000 m2) temple, officially called the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, sits on 30 acres (120,000 m2). With hand-carved stone spires that tower 75 feet (23 m), it is the tallest building in Lilburn, Georgia, dominating the intersection of Rockbridge Road and Lawrenceville Highway. More than 1,300 craftsmen and 900 volunteers dedicated their time in putting this 34,450-piece stone building together. More than 4,500 tons of Italian Carrara marble, 4,300 tons of Turkish limestone, and 3,500 tons of Indian pink sandstone was quarried and shipped to the craftsmen in India. Then, all of the nearly 35,000 pieces were shipped to the United States. It serves members of the Swaminarayan branch of Hinduism, which originated in India more than 200 years ago. The traditional design features custom-carved stonework, a wraparound veranda and five prominent pinnacles reminiscent of the Himalayan hills.

The Lilburn location is the largest temple in North America for BAPS which was built at an estimated cost of $19 million, the temple complex (Atlanta based Newport Design Group served as Lead Consulting Architects) is only the third of its kind in the country, surpassing BAPS temples in Houston and Chicago. It also surpassed the BAPS temple in Toronto, Canada to become the largest Hindu temple outside India.