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...
Samhith's fascination for snails is well known to all those who read this blog! This monsoon was no different, though the enthusiasm has worn off a bit for me, and I refused to take pics of every snail we saw! He, of course, continues to look for them, and at last count, we had at least 20 big ones living among the bushes opposite our building, and numerous small ones (babies). The last time he tried to count them, he managed to go till about 80 before the bus arrived and he was forced to stop! That will give you an idea about how prolific the snails are at reproduction!! and also why they are considered pests!!! He has even started thinking of them as his pets, but which he leaves free to roam around, since he doesn't want to put them in a cage!! We have a variety of snails, ranging from huge ones about 10cm long, to tiny ones less than a centimeter in length! Here are some of them!! These are the most common snails we see. The shell alone is about 5 c...