Odisha Part 5: Two less visited temples

Anuradha Shankar
Jan 18
5 min read

My quest for ancient temples often takes me to hidden corners of the country, often less visited by regular tourists. More often than not, my drivers are completely unaware of these temples, and we often get lost looking for them, despite the ease that Google Maps has provided. On my recent visit to Odisha, I had only two such less visited temples on my list – the Varahi temple at Chaurasi, and the Gangeshwari temple.

collage of varahi and gangeshwari temple front view

Varahi Temple, Chaurasi

I had heard and read about the Varahi temple at Chaurasi, and was eager to go see her. The form of Varahi has always fascinated me, and this particular temple was said to have an exceptionally beautiful idol of the deity. Persuading my driver wasn’t an easy feat – he was reluctant (to say the least) about going in search of temples he had never heard of, but my persistence paid off.

The Varahi temple dates back to the 9^th century, and the architecture is unusual, as compared to the other temples of Odisha. The temple is closest in style to the Vaitala temple in Bhubaneshwar, though there are differences among the two. By a slight stretch of imagination, one can almost visualize an influence of the south Indian style of architecture.

The temple is a small one with a single sanctum, housing the goddess Varahi as described in the Tantric texts. She has the face of a boar, and the body of a woman, with two arms, one holding a fish and the other a Kapala or bowl made from a skull. Her foot rests on her vehicle, a buffalo. I am sharing an image of the idol from the IGNCA website, to show you just how gorgeous she is.

This is the image I went expecting to see, but as it turned out, this is what we saw….

The gorgeous goddess has been so covered with clothes and vermillion, that it was difficult even to see her, at first, in the dim lighting of the sanctum. While I do understand the sentiments involved in prayers, I consider this a gross desecration of the beautiful goddess. Varahi, from what I have read, appears in the Devi Mahatmyam, when the goddess splits into seven forms, so that she can destroy the demons. In every form, she has her own strengths, and every single one of them is raw and untamed, sheer, pure energy, which is why she is Shakti. Dressing her in clothes we deem appropriate, and covering her from head to toe, appears to me, to attempt to tame her, and hide her powers, an injustice to her in every sense of the word. Seeing her the way we did turned my mood black, and not even the architectural beauty of the temple could bring back my enthusiasm. This is reflected in my photos of the temple, which are among the worst I have taken through the entire trip. There were a few sculptures that drew my attention, but nothing could detract from my disappointment. For better pictures, and more about the temple, head over to Kevin Standage's blog.

*Male figure with club and noose, with an animal by his side... probably a dikpala*

*One corner of the temple, to give you an idea of the detail*

*One of the mithuna sculptures.... the once broken sculpture has been misaligned during restoration*

*A gorgeous Surya, one of the highlights of this temple. (Apologies for the bad photo)*

*A female figure holding a bow and arrow.. probably a matrika? Vaishnavi?*

*Another female figure holding what appears to be a spear.. another matrika, probably Kaumari?*

*Yet another female figure, holding a trishul... Maheshwari?*

***One of the side walls... look at the detail***

Gangeshwari Temple

The second temple on my list was the Gangeshwari temple, dating to the 13^th century.

The goddess here, Gangeshwari, is said to have been the family deity of the rulers of the time. Local lore tells us that the main architect of Konark belonged to this village, and this is where the artisans and craftsmen stayed while the temple at Konark was being built. This is also quite an interesting temple, built in the typical style of the region. There are a variety of interesting sculptures here, including the dikpalas and Matrikas, as well as sculptures which show the royal family, similar to the ones seen at Konark.

*Gajalakshmi on the lintel with the Navagrahas above*

*The seated figure appears to be a dikpala... probably Varuna..*

*Another seated figure who also looks like a Dikpala*

*Yet another seated figure... a dikpala? Since he has a beard, could he be Agni?*

*Male figure on elephant... either Kubera or Indra? Probably Indra since the thing in his right hand could be a Vajra*

*Seated female figure holding weapons and a kamandalu... probably a matrika?*

*Seated female figure on elephant... Aindri or Indrani?*

*A courtly scene, reminding us of the ones seen at Konark*

*A view of one of the side walls... see the details and the placement of the sculptures*

There is a gorgeous Varahi here as well, but once again, we found her, covered to her chin in clothes.

*closer view of Varahi... notice her tongue which is out? and just look at those curls!*

There are way better images of her available on the net, so to see her, go see Kevin Standage’s post on this temple.

There is also a beautiful Ganesha, but he too has been covered up.

I visited these temples with Samhith, and the plan was to spend the whole day just at these two temples. However, the tendency to cover up our gorgeous deities had given me a bad mood, and a stomach ache as well, and we returned far earlier than planned. It has now been months since we returned, and this has been the hardest post to write so far…. I originally intended to devote separate posts to these temples, but I was unhappy with my photos, and what I did have reminded me of the sacrilegious treatment of our beautiful deities, and neither of the posts got written…. Which is why the Chilika post came before this one. Eventually, I decided that I had to get these temples out of my system, no matter what turn the posts took, and thus, here we are.

If you have come this far, reading this post, do tell me what you think… I would love to hear your thoughts.

Information

The Varahi temple is located at Chaurasi, around 30 Km from the Sun temple at Konark.

The Gangeshwari Temple is located at Bayalish Bati, near Gop, around 14 Km from the Sun temple at Konark.

Both temples can easily be covered in a few hours from Konark.

We drove to both temples from Ramchandi beach, which is where we were staying. The entire trip took us around 5 hours, including the time spent at the temples.

Other posts on Odisha -