Vāsudeva and Saṃkarṣaṇa, and guarded by the 13 meter Garuda pillar. Temples A group of ancient Hindu temples are located to the west of the Eran town. These are not aligned to the east or any cardinal direction, but to 76 degrees, or about 14 degrees off towards north from east. This suggests that they likely date to the Gupta period. According to Cunningham, this deliberate shift for all the temples and some other Gupta era Hindu temple sites may be to match the one nakshatra measure (lunar movement in one day), or one twenty-seventh part of 360 degrees. All the temples have a rectangular or square plan and they are in a row. Pillar Pillar: It is exactly in front of the line of temples. The high monolith pillar stands on a square platform of side. The bottom of the pillar are of square cross-section (2.85 feet side), the next is octagonal. Above it is a capital in the shape of a reeded bell of height and diameter. On top of the capital is an abacus of height, then a cube of and finally double statue of Garuda holding a snake in his hands, with a chakra wheel behind his head. Garuda, the vahana of Vishnu, is depicted as two fused people, sharing the back, each looking over their 180 degree space, one with the temples, the other towards the town. Near the platform, on the side facing the temples, is a Sanskrit inscription. It mentions the year 165 and the Hindu calendar month of Ashadha, and dedication to Vishnu-Janardhana. The Gupta year 165 implies that the pillar was dedicated in 484/485 CE. The pillar is sometimes referred to as the Buddhagupta pillar or Bhima pillar. Varaha temple The most unusual and remarkable temple is dedicated to the Varaha avatar of Vishnu. Typically, Varaha is presented in Hindu temples as a man-boar avatar. In Eran, it is a colossal theriomorphic representation of the Varaha legend, which Catherine Becker calls an "iconographic innovation". The boar is made of stone, but the intricate carving of the surface of its body, a goddess hanging by its right tusk, inscriptions and other details make the statue a symbolic narrative. The Eran site is in ruins, but there is enough remnants that suggest that the site was far more complex and developed. Currently, the boar stands in open, but the foundation and stumps around