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Odisha Part 9 : The Vaital Temple, Bhubaneshwar

The Vaital temple is of the many intriguing temples in Bhubaneshwar. To begin with, the structure itself resembles a South-Indian temple more than the typical Kalingan style that we see everywhere else in Odisha. The temple has been dated to the last quarter of the 8 th century CE. Further , unlike most of the temples in Bhubaneshwar, this temple is not dedicated to Lord Shiva. Inside the sanctum is one of the deities who is very rarely seen in a sanctum – Chamunda, along with the Saptamatrikas. This is evidently a Shakta shrine. However, the presence of Lakulisha on the vimana indicates the connection with the Pasupata sect, which is most prevalent in this region during this time period. Further, the name of the temple – ‘Vaital’, comes from the word ‘ vetala’ , referring to spirits, which were invoked by tantrics to attain siddhis. Thus, this temple is an amalgamation of Pasupata and Shakta philosophy, with a strong emphasis on tantric rituals, and this is reflected in the iconogra...
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Some new additions to our colony

Samhith says he is not afraid of anything...... Anything, except cats and dogs, especially when they enter our building, taking advantage of the grilled door carelessly left open. The frequency of such uninvited visits recently increased, to the extent that a cat tried to gain entry inside one of the houses, leading to a lot of amusement (and of course a lot of shouting and shooing and all kinds of activities). Finally, each visitor to our building was sternly told to make sure that they closed the door and didn't allow the cat to enter. The cat however, was one resourceful female (like all females!) and she gained entry somehow into one of the unoccupied houses on the ground floor, and hid in the cupboard to bring forth a litter of kittens. Now, Samhith is certainly not scared of them. On the contrary, he wants to pay them a visit everyday! I had my camera with me (incidentally, to take pics of our Ganesha leaving) and he insisted that I take pics of the new family.... So, here they are... the resourceful mom and her kittens.....


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Location: Chedda Nagar Rd, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Comments

  1. MridulaSeptember 24, 2010 at 12:52 PM

    Anu I am not sure if my first comment went through. But the cat family makes a pretty picture.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aarti BadamikarSeptember 24, 2010 at 10:16 PM

    the kittens are so kitty :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. ArtiSeptember 25, 2010 at 7:52 AM

    Very cute indeed!

    That lake is in a Ganesh temple in Borivli.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anuradha ShankarSeptember 25, 2010 at 9:33 AM

    @Mridula: thanks...

    @Aarti: nice description :)

    @Arti: thanks.. the immersion was really well organised there....

    ReplyDelete
  5. thiruppathySeptember 2, 2011 at 4:01 PM

    Nice Blog! Well most of your content and image is original and informative. /many thanks for sharing this, cheers.


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