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Temples of Orissa

Temples of Orissa
Nestling on the eastern coast along the blue waters of the Bay of Bengal, the unique State of Orissa offers a `tourism capsule` comprising of glorious temples, luminous beaches, colourful wild life, traditional tribal culture and an affluent heritage .To her credit, it has housed the important pilgrimage centre for the Hindus - Puri, the 13th century magic carved on sand stone - the Sun Temple, the largest brackish water lake of the continent - Chilika, the wonder green land of the white tigers - Nandankanan, and several caves, Chaityas, Stupas, temples, forts and palaces. Statistics indicate that most visitors regular this place for Lord Jagannath and the blue bay. The land of Orissa constellated with a large number of temples, conforms to the Indo Aryan Nagara style of architecture, with distinctive features specific to the region. Exhibiting a majestic splendor, an Orissan temple (deul) usually consists of a sanctum, one or several front porches (jagamohana) usually with pyramidal roofs, a dancing hall (nata mandir) and a hall of offerings (bhog mandir).

The temple sculptures are of two broad categories, namely the cult image and the decorative motifs. The primary category comprises such images as Ganesh, Kartikeya and Durga on the external walls of a Siva temple Varaha, Trivikra Nrusimha and the ten avataras on the outer walls on a Vishnu temple the Dikpalas, each in its specified corner, the digacharinis and vetalas in the prescribed places, the eight or nine planets (astagrahas or navagrahas) in a panel with gajalakshmi above the panel in case of all temples. There are also gods and goddesses, and representation of religious episodes to create a religious atmosphere. Although the cult images in a temple are the largest in number, they require to be confined to the cult alone. Religious amalgamation is reflected through the images of Ardanarisvara and Hari-Hara (as at Gandharadi). The sculptors were highly imaginative, for instance; all forms of Bhairavas and Durga images of conceivable types are witnessed in the temples.

Svarnajaleswar Temple:The Svarnajaleswar Temple is situated a little south of Parsurameswar Temple and consists of fine-looking depictions from the epic Ramayana.

Yameswar Temple: The Yameswara temple is a reasonably large-sized temple situated on the left side of the road to the Khandagiri. It bears all peculiarities of a Ganga monument, stands on a high pedestal and consisted of side structures in facing the niche consisting side deities. It demonstrates advanced architectural features, Sapta-ratha in plan, having corbelled arch and iron beams and seven pilasters.

Bhaskareswar Temple:The Bhaskareswar temple stands about a quarter mile to the west of the Megeswar. The temple consists of a colossal Siva lingam, about 9 feet high and 12 feet & 5 inches in circumference, which has been characteristically described in the local sacred texts as Vrihalingam.

Siva Temple: The Siva temple at Baudha belongs to the early period of the Somavamsi ascendancy. The superior implementation of the temple with its splendid proportion and exquisite finish of the sculptures and other decorations indicate a resurgent movement linked up probably with the advent of the Somavamsi dynasty.

Remuna Temple: The temple of Kshirachora Gopinatha standing here at a distance of about eight miles from Balasore district is contemporary in nature, but the image of Gopinatha is certainly much older than the time of Srichaitanya who visited it, as evidenced by the Gaudiya Vaisnav literature. The idol originally did not have an image of Radha associated with it.

Singanatha Temple: The Singanatha Temple is positioned in a rocky island in the Mahanadi River and is easily approachable from the Gopinathpur village in the Cuttack district. It is also one of the earliest standing temples of Orissa that exhibits close affinities both in art and architecture with the earliest group of standing temples.

Leaning Temple Huma: Huma is the home to the famous leaning temple dedicated to Lord Bimaleswar. Situated about 32 km from Sambalpur, on the bank of the Mahanadi river, it offers tourists a magnificent view of the surrounding environs. Kudo fishes are found enormously in the river. One can look but cannot touch, since popular belief has it that the fishes belong to Lord Bimaleswar.

Simhanath Temple:Situated on an island in the Mahanadi River, about 10 kms. from Badamba in Cuttack District, the Simhanath temple (c. 9th century) is renowned for its images of Shiva, Shakta, and Vaishnava cults of Hinduism. The jagmohana (porch) appears to be influenced by the Vaital Deul temple in Bhubaneswar.

The Simhanath temple combines older features with new and energetic experiments. This can be seen in the elongation of the Paga images crowning the niches, and in the addition of a third terrace to the roof of the jagmohana.

Pataleswar Temple:Budhikomna in Nawapara district, 115 km from Bhawanipatna houses the famous temple of Pataleswar, made entirely of brick in Trirath style. The architectural design is quite appealing to art-lovers and general visitors alike.

Baladevajew Temple:Known to the pilgrims as ` Tulasi Kshetra`, Kendrapara houses the temple of Lord Baladeva. The rites and rituals of Lord Jagannath at Puri are generally followed here, which make Kendrapara equally attractive. It is 95 km from Bhubaneswar.

Jagganath Temple- Deogaon:With the multiplicity of Baisnavism in Dhenkanal, Jagannath Temples were built in different parts of the District. This Jagannath Temple is located at Deogaon, at the foot of the Kapilas Mountain. Gajapati Prataprudra Deva had constructed the temple. The gateway of this temple is higher than the temple itself. Every year the temple management in collaberation with Debottor Dept., Dhenkanal, organizes the Rathayatra.

Sarankul temple: The Shrine of Lord Ladukeswar, known popularly as Ladu Baba is situated 100 kms from Bhubaneswar on the Nayagrah- Aska Road and 13 kms from Nayagarh town. The city is regarded as Hari (Vishnu) and Hara (Shiva). This is another major Shaivite Shrine. There is always a throng of people here waiting to see the Lord. People from all over Orissa come here to celebrate the major festival Mahasivaratri. So the place radiates on the occasion of Mahashivaratri.

Biraja temple:The most important temple of the Jajpur district is that of Birajadevi(biraja mandir). Mounted on a lion she carries a spear with one arm and holds the tail of Mahishasur with the other. Festivals are held at Durga Puja & Kali Puja. Car festival is also seen here during Durga Puja.

Siva Temple of Baudha:The Shiva temple at Baudha belongs to the early period of the Somavamsi supremacy. The fine execution of the temple with its splendid proportion and exquisite finish of sculptures and other decorations indicate a resurgent movement linked probably with the advent of the Somavamsi dynasty.

Badagaon Temple - Bhanjanagar, Ganjam:Badagaon is small village situated 5 miles from Bhanjanagar of the Ganjam district. A stone Siva temple, which is to be found there, is a close prototype of the Parasurameswar. In plan & elevation, in the scheme of decoration, in height & dimension, it shows such remarkable affinities with the Parasurameswar that a conclusion becomes unavoidable to regard them as close contemporaries.

Sureswar & Gouri Temple - BhubaneshwarThere are two other temples at Bhubaneswar, which may be regarded as close contemporaries of the Mukteshwar temple. One of them is the Sureswar, a very small structure which stands near the Kotitirtheswar temple in the close
neighbourhood of the Swarnajaleswar temple and the other is the Gouri temple situated in the compound of the Kedareswar temple.

Sri Budheswar: Situated near Bhuban on the bank of river Brahmani .It is related to the mythology that Lord Kartikeya after taking holy bath in the river had the darshan of Lord Shiva.

LaxminarayanTemple:Famous Laxminarayan Temple situated at IMFA Factory, Therubali. The deities Laxminarayan, Hanuman, Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra and Lord Siva sre also worshiped by thousands devotees.

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