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Odisha Part 10: Bhubaneshwar – the city of temples

Bhubaneshwar is often called the city of temples . It is impossible to know exactly how many temples there are, but it has been estimated that there might be over 700 temples in the city. This number, while impressive, is just a fraction of the original number, which, sometime in the 13 th century, would have been about 7000. Wikipedia has a page dedicated to the Hindu temples of Bhubaneshwar , where 93 temples are listed. All these are ancient temples, built between the 7 th and 13 th centuries CE. Bhubaneshwar was once known as Ekamra Kshetra , the sacred mango grove. We know this name from an inscription at the Ananta Vasudeva temple, which mentions the name of the place, and the main temple (that we now know as the Lingaraja temple) in the mango grove. Ananta Vasudeva Temple, with a sculpture of Trivikrama in the niche It is extremely interesting to note that the Ananta Vasudeva temple is the only temple to Lord Vishnu in this city. Varaha, Ananta Vasudeva Temple Located v...
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White Browed Wagtail

Udaipur, being a city of lakes, naturally attracts a lot of birds. However, considering that we were visiting the city in peak summer, I had little hope of seeing any birds. We might have missed the rarer ones, but there was no dearth of birds, even in the scorching summer heat, thanks to all the water in the lakes! Here is the first in the series of birds we saw on our summer vacation to Mount Abu and Udaipur.....



The White Browed Wagtail.....

The Fateh Sagar Lake at Udaipur had groups of them all over the place, though we couldn't get nearer....


At the Nakki Lake at Mount Abu, there were a couple we managed to approach without scaring them away!





Thanks to the close look we managed, we now know how to distinguish between the White Browed Wagtail and the Oriental Magpie Robin! But more about that in another post!!

Did you know that the zoological name for this bird is Motacilla Maderasapatensis - and that the name comes from the city of Madras? 


More Bird-related posts from my blog...
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