The Rajarani Temple in Bhubaneshwar gets its name from the stone used to build it - the red and yellow sandstone used here is locally called Rajarani. This temple was once known as the Indreshwara temple, which is mentioned in the Ekamra Purana, which tells us about the temples of Bhubaneshwar, which was then known as Ekamra Kshetra. Today, the temple stands in a well-maintained lawn, and is the only ticketed monument within the city. The temple is built in the typical Kalinga style, with the tall curvilinear shikara over the garbagruha , and a jagamohana connected to it. The temple is believed to date back to the 11 th century, and is most well known for its sculptures. The entrance to the temple has two pillars with a Naga couple protecting the sanctum, holding garlands in their hands. The base of the pillar shows 3 lions standing over 3 elephants, a typical motif in temples of this region during this period. On the other side of the pillar is a horse and rider, and the two mo...
No matter where you go in India , you come across temples. It was the same in Binsar too. Wherever we went, we passed by numerous temples, and often had to take a call on whether to visit it or not. Usually, we are not ones to bypass temples – most of them have something interesting to offer, but this was a trip for relaxation, not just sightseeing or temple visiting, so we decided to visit just a couple of those which looked interesting, and skipped all the others. Apart from Jageshwar and Patal Bhuvaneshwar, we visited just two other temples this time. Chitai temple or Golu Devta temple , Almora Golu Devta seems to be the local deity of the Almora region, for we passed at least 3 temples dedicated to him, one of them advertising itself as the ‘ Pracheen Golu Devta Mandir’ or the ‘ancient’ temple of the deity! Our driver assured us that this was no older than any of the other temples, but simply had some more dedicated devotees, plus its location on a hill top attracted mor...