UJJAIN, INDIA, September 11, 2026: A temple of Hanuman in Ujjain has been making headlines after it was demolished as part of a road-widening process, but the statue within the temple is simply not moving even though there have been several attempts to move it. Khade Hanuman temple is in an area where a road widening project prior to the 2028 Kumbha Mela here is requiring it to be moved. The temple is said to be 170 years old but may be much older.
According to plans by the municipal corporation and the district administration of Ujjain, the statue was to be relocated with the permission of local residents and the priests to a different place near Tanki Chowk in conjunction with the construction work on the road. Despite the demolition of most of the building around it, the statue still stands firmly where it originally stood. Four attempts have been made using machinery to remove and relocate it, and all of them have been unsuccessful.
Authorities are now looking at using scanning technology to examine the murthi’s base and surrounding structure before deciding on the next course of action. In older temples the main murthi was sometimes interlocked with the underlying stones in a manner which would make its removal quite difficult.