Eran is an ancient town and archaeological site in the Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh, India.

The site has 5th and 6th-century Gupta era temples and monuments, particularly the colossal stone boar with sages and scholars depicted on the body of the sculpture.

[1] The inscription stones found at Eran are important to reconstructing the chronology of Gupta Empire history.

The word erakā probably refers to a tall grass commonly called the Elephant cattail, botanical name Typha elephantina,[4] which grows at Eran in abundance.

At the site, the river makes an inverted "U" turn, surrounding it with water on three sides, which Cunningham stated made it "a very favorite position for Hindu towns".

[9] 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.

In Eran, it is a colossal theriomorphic representation of the Varaha legend, which Catherine Becker calls an "iconographic innovation".

[13][14] 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.

Currently, the boar stands in open, but the foundation and stumps around it confirm that around it were walls and mandapa that formed a complete temple.

The Eran Varaha statue is significant for several reasons:[14] The temple was built by king Dhyana Vishnu.

He found two carved 10 feet high pillars which were "remarkably fine specimens of Hindu decorative art".

[15] The remnants of the entrance, wrote Cunningham, are "lavishly decorated", with the surviving reliefs showing daily life and rites-of-passage scenes.

A large number of antique coins, of different styles, shapes and inscriptions spanning the last few centuries of the 1st millennium BCE through the 7th-century have been discovered here.

[19] Cunningham grouped the found coins in four:[19] The common motifs on the coin include goddess Lakshmi seated with two elephants flanking her as if spraying water, horses, elephants, bull, trees (probably Bodhi), flowers particularly lotus, swastikas, rivers, Buddhist symbols such as dharmachakra and tri-ratna, triangles.

Almost all coins, states Cunningham, show an unusual symbol consisting of a cross with circle in four sections.

Another circular lead piece bearing the name of another ruler "Indragupta", assignable to the same period has been discovered at Eran.

Bronze coin of Eran of the 3rd Century B.C was found at Sulur, in the Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu in one of the excavations.

[23] The Saka (Indo-Scythian) king Sridharavarman, who ruled in Central India circa 339-368 CE, made an inscription of a small pillar at Eran, together with his Naga military commander.

It is carved on the chest of a freestanding 11 feet (3.4 m) high red sandstone boar statue, a zoomorphic iconography of Vishnu avatar, and dated to the 6th century.

Line 7 (Fleet's interpolation): bhakt=anurakta ch priya cha kanta bh[a]r[y]=a[va]lag[n]=anugat=ag[n]ir[a]sim

Fleet's translation (1st edition): and (his) devoted, attached, beloved, and beauteous wife, in close companionship, accompanied (him) onto the funeral pyre.

Fleet's translation (2nd edition): and (his) devoted, attached, beloved, and beauteous wife, clinging (to him), entered into the mass of fire (funeral pyre).

Alexander Cunningham mentioned three inscribed Sati stones in and around the Eran site including villages across the river in his archaeological survey report for 1874–1875.

With inscriptions on them, he dated the first one to the reign of Sultan Mahmud Khilchi of Mandugar-durg and Chanderi, the second to 1664 CE during the reign of Patisahi Sahi Jahan who Cunningham speculated was likely a jagir and noble in court of Shah Jahan, and a third stone he dated to 1774 CE during the rule of Pandit Balwant Rau Govind and Balaji Tuka Deva.