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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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Lavasa Trip Part 3 -The Nature Trail

The nature trail at Ekaant is one of the big attractions at Lavasa, and is open for all visitors to Lavasa. The trail takes over 2 hours to cover, which is why we planned to start early, so that we could be back in time for breakfast. Unfortunately, due to matters beyond our control, we were delayed and had to give the trail a skip. However, the trail exit was where we rushed to take photographs of the rising sun (see my earlier post), and couldn’t resisit taking a sneak peek into the trail itself. While all of us ventured in a little bit to indulge in a photo shoot, Nisha and I, being enthusiastic travel bloggers, took a short detour inside to take even more photographs!


The trail itself has been created in a very interesting manner, taming the wild topography of the mountainside and the foliage into a semblance of order by means of well paved pathways. This makes the whole walk quite an easy affair for the tourists, instead of the brisk trek it would have been otherwise. Instead of wasting more words, let me take you along with me through my photographs…..


This is supposed to be the exit, but we entered the trail here…..



And the first thing I see is a birdhouse!


There is a canopy over this part of the trail… I wonder why…..


Here are some sections of the path...



And this looks like a tiny postbox, but is actually a holder for a board, which seems to have disappeared!



The beautiful view seen through the stalks….


Look at the view from here…


The sun peeking from amidst the leaves…


The path curves downwards…. See how well steps have been laid in…



Fungi are all over…..




And so are spider webs – these seem to be the only things I see when I walk on nature trails!


One portion has been declared as the butterfly garden….


There is a concrete bench to sit on, here…..


As well as a board mentioning the difference between butterflies and moths......


And lots of flowering plants (to attract the butterflies, I suppose!)





We did see lots of butterflies…. But not in the butterfly garden! You can’t enclose the butterflies can you?









There is another place to sit here…. With a thatched canopy this time….



And the area around a lone termite mound has been cleared and labeled….




There is a board here too, for people who like to learn on a vacation!



There's even a board pointing out the service exit, which reminds us that it’s time to go back……


I was rather disappointed that in the 2 hours that we had been awake, we hadn’t seen a single bird! Not even in the nature trail! But as we waited for the car to go back to the Waterfront Shaw, I heard some bird sounds and went to investigate. It just turned out to be a pair of bulbuls which I see all the time at home, but since they were posing so prettily, I couldn’t help take some pics…. So here they are…..




This was just one short section of the nature trail, which took us about 10 minutes to cover, even with all the photography. The whole trail would surely have taken us 2 to 2 ½ hours, but it would surely be worth it, so if any of you go to Lavasa, don’t forget to wake up early and visit the nature trail!

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