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...
I first started writing stories when I was in school. Of course, then, I never dreamt of being an author – it was just something I did when I was in the mood. All I was interested in at the time was physics, and all my dreams were of publishing some wonderful scientific articles in the leading journals. All those dreams came to an end when I decided to dump my Ph.D, but then my old pastimes came to my aid and I started writing again – both, travelogues as well as stories. But now the dream raised its head again – of being published, not just on the net, but in print! One part of this dream came true when my travelogue was published in the Sunday Herald (you can see the article here). But the larger dream came true this week when a collection of my stories were published in a book! I was approached a few months back by an organisation named JK Yog . They had read some of my stories for children, and wanted me to re-tell some stories from Indian mythology and folk tales for their boo...