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...
This is the second day of Navaratri. It is said that the first three days are dedicated to Parvati, the next three to Lakshmi, and the final three to Saraswati. Yesterday, I posted about the Kollur MookambikaTemple in Karnataka . For today’s post, I have chosen a temple I have visited often, but never written about. It is a temple I once got lost in, but love visiting again and again. The temple is so huge that I don’t think I can ever see all of it. Each time I visit, I get to see something I have missed on my earlier visits. It’s not just the architecture of this temple, which is brilliant, but the deity herself draws me repeatedly. The first time I visited the temple, I remembering standing outside her shrine, staring at her, and being so caught in the moment, that I didn’t even remember to pray. I vividly remember my mother nudging me, reminding me that this was a temple! Since then, I have visited the temple at least half a dozen times, but the same thing happens to me each a...