Temples of Central and Eastern India
The most revered of the divine occupants are Juggernauth (the Lord of the World), an alias of the many-named Vishnu; Buldeo his brother, and their sister, the saffron-coloured Subhadra. These personages are only twice a year indulged in an airing, which is fortumate, as a team of fifteen hundred men is required to drag each of their carriages."Godfrey Charles Mundy (1829)
As the Ganga meanders her way from the Himalayas towards the sea, she moves through the eastern half of the Indi-Gangetic plain. This is the land of the Buddha and Mahavira, the kingdom of the Mauryas, the Senas and palas. By the time it reaches the delta of Bengal the mighty river divides into innumerable smaller streams that criss cross the land and makes it one of the most fertile in the country. Here they grow rice and jute, extract coal and iron ore from the depths of the earth and fishermen sing on boats as they trawl the rivers with their patched nets. As you travel from the north to the east, from a train window you notice the dramatic change in the colours of the landscape. From ochre and brown the world suddenly turns a verdant, welcoming green.
In the north the land has endless stretches of bare earth with dusty villages surrounded by straggly patches of trees. The fields of what and sugarcane, furrows of mustard and lentils. Now traveling through Bihar and then Bengal, the fields of swaying rice paddy shoots are a deep emerald expanse stretching towards the horizon. The rows of date palm trees, with their sculpted splayed heads of leaves on pillar like stand sentinel against the sky. The village huts have rounded thatched roofs and everywhere big ponds shine like silver in the sun. We are in a tropical land now where the Mother Goddess reigns supreme.
To the south-east, the grey green waters of the bay of Bengal wash the shores of Orissa. In the temple town of Puri the foam tipped breakers rise like fragile hills of water and crash across the sandy beaches and then as they recede, they behind seashells and driftwood, starfish and turtles. Here, at Bhubaneshwar and Puri, the Kalinga kings built some of the most beautiful temples in India. With typical tolerant generosity, dedicating them to every important god and goddess in the Hindu pantheon. And on the seashore at Konarak they created a magnificent stone. Chariot in which every dawn Surya, the sun god rode out of the surf and onto the and, bringing the first light of the day.
Moving inland into central India, in the kingdom of the Chandellas, the kings and nobility covered their capital city of Khajuraho with temples. Designed in a delicate balance of proportions and then richly embellished with sculpture of such amazing beauty that the figures are still vibrant with the joy of life and worship a millennia later. In the eastern states of Bengal they built some of their best temples to the powerful earth mother and warrior-the goddess Durga and Kali. In a land with little stone to build with they used fire baked bricks with extraordinary ligenuity in the temples of Bishnupur and Malda. The goddess is also worshipped in Assam, at the temple of Kamaksha. In Calcutta they still turn to the goddess Kali who reigns at the Kalighat temple and during the Durga puja every village and city locality created its own temple to the worship of the earthen images of Durga as she vanquishes the demon Mahishasura.
In central India the rulers left their imprint in stone, with fine examples of Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and Muslim architecture. Asoka’s mammoth stupa still dominates a hill in Sanchi, the temples of the Chandellas turn forgotten khajuraho into an important tourist destination and then there are the fortresses of Gwalior and Orchha and the delightful pleasure city of the sultans at Mandu.
The region has been part of most of the kingdoms of important dynasties of the north. From the Mauryas and Guptas to the rule of Harshavardhan and the paramaras. With the establishment of the Sultanate in Delhi came the Muslim sultans who ruled from Mandu and later the region was part of the Mughal empire. The most famous temples of Madhya pradesh were built by the chandella kings at their capital city of Khajuraho.
Ancient chronicles call the city khajuravahaka, khajurapura and Khajjinpura. The Rajput Chandella dynasty ruled from Khajuraho from the 9th to the 11th century and their kingdom was called Jejakabhukti. Around the 9th century, the warrior clans of the Rajputs had risen to power in North India and carved out kingdoms. Inspite of not belonging to the higher castes they bewtowed divinity to their dynasties by claiming the sun or the moon as their original ancestor. Thus Chandellas were chandravanshis, of the family of the lunar god Chandra and the story of the shadowy beginnings of the dynasty also echoes many other Rajput legends. It is said that the beautiful daughter of a Brahmin priest named Hemavati was bathing in a moonlit pool where she was seen by Chandra. The two fell in love and the child of this strange union was Chandravarman, the founder of the Chandella dynasty. Many years later Chandravarman saw his mother in a dream and she requested him to build temples and thus began the Chandella tradition of religious architecture that was carried on by his descendents. The dynasty was interest in building and many forts like those at Kalinjar and Ajaygarh, palaces and reservoirs in the region are credited to them.
Most of the temples at Khajurasho were built between 950-1050 AD. The Chandellas were themselves Shaivites but the temples enshrine not just the whole pantheon of Hindu deities but also Jain saints. As Percy Brown writes, it was a time "when religious emotion and unstinted patronage coincided with a flowering of artistic genius to find expression in a group of buildings of the highest aesthetic standared and the utmost significane." It the sculptures on the temples are a true portrayal of life in the kingdom, it was a time of properity and great flowering of the creative arts. Apart from the numerous figures of deities, the walls are also covered with languorous beauties, dancers, musicians, loving couples, parades and festivals. This joyous pageantry of life must have existed in the busy capital city but all that remains of it today are these temples. The rest has to be imagined among the mango groves and palm trees of the village. The rule of the Chandellas came to an end with the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni came to an end with the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni in the 10th century. Later the armies of Sikander Lodi also vandalized the temples. For centuries Khajuraho remained forgoteen till its temples were discovered by the British.
It is said that over eighty temples were built here but a little over twenty remain, some in ruins but others, considering they were built over a thousand years ago are in a surprisingly good state of preservation. The temples have been divided into groups and the Western Group is the largest, with the most important temples in it. Among them are the Chausath Yogini, Kandariya Mahadeo, Vishwanath, Lakshman and Matangeshwara temples. The Eastern Group has a mix of Hindu and Jain temples like Adinath, Parsavanath and javari temples. The Southern Group with the Duladeo and Chaturbhuj temples is at a distance of about two kilometers from these two groups.
The Khajuraho temples were built in the North Indian Nagara style but with some unique variations that make them some of the most beautifully designed temples of the country. The most distinctive architectural touch is the many pinnacled shikhara that portrays the peaks of the Himalayas. The eye moves upwards as the spires rise gradually in height from the porch to the vimana like the peaks of mountain range. These shikharas portray Mount Meru, as these temples like the mountains are the abode of gods. The main shikhara over the garbha griha has smaller spires clustered around it in an elegant design of gradually rising spires.
Unlike most Indian temples the ones at Khajuraho have no enclosing walls or courtyards. Instead they are built on a high platform with subsidiary shrines placed around the main temples. Many have four shrines in the corners of the platform to form the traditional design of the panchayatana. It is the floor plan of the temple that gives these structures their precision and elegance. Most of the bigger temples are laid out like a Latin cross with two arms going crosswise at one end.
A steep staircase going up the high plinth leads to the ardhamandapa which is an open pillared porch that leads into the main assembly hall of the mandapa. The vestibule of the antarala connects it to the sanctum of the garbha griha and some of the temples have the ambulatory path of the pradakshina patha circling the sanctum. The two arms oriel windows that provide light and air and also balance the straight profile of the building. These delightful windows bring in the sunlight that illuminates the sculpture in the interior of the temple while adding a delicate motif of light and shadow across the panels of sculpture on the exterior walls of the temple.
The student of architecture may appreciate the plans of these temples but for most visitors it is the sculpture on the walls that amazes and enchants. Across the exterior surface of the temples, on the soft golden hued sandstone, are two or three horizontal bands of figurative sculpture in a splendid array of themes. Unlike many temples that have decorated exterior and plain inner walls, here even the interiors are profusely decorated with patterns and figures on the walls and ceilings.
The subject of the sculpture covers every aspect of religion and life. From the many depictions of gods and goddesses to celestial maidens- the voluptuous apsaras and surasundaris. Then there are warriors, hunters, acrobats, musicians, dancers, animals and mythical beasts. Here among the nymphs and salabhanjikas you can see some of the most delightful depictions of the female form. These alluring mayikas are in dance-like postures, putting on make up, studying their faces in the mirror or picking a thorn from a foot and even today they capture the sculptor’s joy at their beauty.
Khajuraho caught the attention of the world through the erotic sculptures that adorn the outer walls of the temples. It shocked the Victorian sensibilities of the British colonial rulers who rejected Khajuraho as a decadent product of Hindu art. Though they receive so much attention, the fact is that these maithuna couples form only a small fraction of the sculptures on the walls. Scholars have speculated on the reason for this uninhibited erotica. Some feel it was considered auspicious, to avert disasters. One clever explanation is that temples with erotic art are never struck by lightning. The goddess of lightning is a virgin and is too shocked by the maithuna couples to strike the temple Others say that as the carvings embrace every aspect of the life of thetimes, the sensual formed a natural part of it. In ancient Hindu society there wre no prudish restraints on earthly desires and these sculptures are a depiction of the many faces of love and all the emotions it generates- from jealousy and modesty to fear and happiness. It is amazing how well the sculptors succeeded in capturing these varied emotions in a rigid medium like stone. The oldest temple in Khajuraho is the Chausath Yogini, standing on the west of the Shivsagar Lake. Dedicated to the goddess Kali, the fierce aspect of the Mother Goddess, this temple has a different layout from the other temples. Chausath means 64 and it has that many shrines to Kali’s handmaidens, or yoginis. Unlike the other temples that are built in sandstone this one is in coarse granite and the layout is an open-air plan of cellas. The main shrine to Kali is surrounded by 64 cells which once held figures of the yoginis, out of which about half have survived.
The Kandariya Mahadeo, dedicated to Shiva is the largest and most impressive temple in khajuraho. With its perfectly balanced architectural plan and rich sculpture it is one of the finest temples in India. It is laid out in the panchayatana style with four small shrines on the corners of the platform but these subsidiary shrines are now in ruins. The garbha griha has a marble lingam and both the interior and exterior are profusely carved with figurative and geometric designs.
The entrance arches an undulating sepent-like design with crocodile heads called the makara torana and the ceilings are decorated with scrolls and scallops. The archaeologist Cunningham counter 872 figures carved in this temple and they span every mood from the grotesque to the beautiful. Among the most beautiful carvings are the seven matrikas, the aspects of the Mother goddess placed along the plinth. Here the river goddesses Ganga and Yamuna guard the sanctum, ascetics preach to disciples and along the pradakshina are carved the figures of the ashtadikapalas, the eight guardian gods of Shiva, Indra, Agni, Yama, Nairita, Varuna, Vayu, Kubera and Isana. The soaring many-pinnacled shikhara has 85 smaller spires leading upwards to the main tower. Over 30 metres high it is the loftiest temple in Khajuraho and was built by king Vidhyadhara in the 11th century. The Vishwanath temple is also dedicated to Shiva and has an elaborate Nandi shrine with the figure of Shiva’s celestial bull facing the main entrance. The inscription on a wall states that it was built by King Dhangadeva in 1002 and unlike most Hindu temples the name of the architect is also mentioned. The inscription praises the architect Chhichha who is said to build like the divine architect Vishwakarma. Legend holds that King Dhangadeva established two lingams in the garbha griha, one of emerald and the other of stone. Only the stone lingam remains.
One interior wall has an interesting carving of Lord Brahma and his Consort Saraswati and the niches have Shiva as Andhakantaka, slaying a blind demon, as a dancing Nataraja and as half man and half woman, the Ardhanarishwar. The exterior has some of the prettiest depictions of women- pretty mayikas writing a letter, crading a child or playing music in alluring and at times subtly provocative postures.
The Lakshmana temple, also in the western group, resembles the Vishwanath temple in layout. It was built by King Yashovarman in 950 AD. This temple has all the four smaller shrines still intack unlike those at Kandariya Mahadeo. The lintel over the entrance has a pretty carving of Lakshmi in the company of Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva and a frieze showing the navagrahas, thenine celestial planets. One panel depicts the myth of samudra manthan when the gods and demons churned the oceans for the nectar of immortality. And there are numerous scenes of everyday life-wrestling matches, elephantfights, dances and group of worshippers. Though the temple is named after Lakshman, the brother of Rama, the idol in the sanctum is of Vishnu with four arms and three heads-one a human face and the the other two of his incarnations as the lion and the boar.
Though some of the temples still have deities in their sanctums the only temple where the residing deity is still worshipped in Khajuraho is at the living temple of Matangeshwara. This Shiva temple is said to have been built in the memory of King Dhangadeva who was the greatest Chandella monarch and lived for over a hundred years. The years of his reign had been a time of great prosperity as the kingdom had grown and other kings had ackowledged his supremacy. The floor plan of the temple is a very simple square with a pyramidal roof. There is only one mandapa that is connected to the garbha griha where stands an enormous lingam nearly 3 metres high. It is said to have been brought here by Arjuna and worshipped by Yudhishtira. Puja is performed here twice every day, in the morning and afternoon.
The eastern group that lies closer to the village has three Hindu temples of Brahma, Vamana and Javari and three Jain shrines of Ghantai, Adinath and Parasvanth. The proximity of temples of two different faiths is testimony to the religious tolerance of the Chandellas who encouraged the rich Jain merchants of the city to build temples.
The small but beautifully designed ghantai Temple is partially in ruins. It has slender, carved columns in a colonnaded mandapa. Among the figures are an eight armed Jain goddess riding the mythical bird garuda and an interesting panel that illustrates the sixteen dreams of the mother of the jain saint Mahavira. The Parsvanath temple is the largest Jain temple and is also architecturally the most ambitious. Every available surface, both inside and outside is covered with sculptures, many echoing the themes of the other temples with apsaras, nayikas and deities and what makes them worth a closer study is the high quality of the carving. Inspite of being a Jain temple the majority of the sculptures are an Vaishnava themes. The Sanctum has a carved bull, the symbol of the Jain tirthankara and in the 19th century an icon of Parsvanath was also installed here.
There are only two temples in the southern group the Ghamtai Kain temple and the Duladeo temple.The Duladeo, dedicated to Shiva as the heavenly bridegroom, was probably one of the last temples to be built in Khajuraho and has a simple plan and some interesting sculpture. Further away is the small Chaturbhuj temple with a four armed icon of Vishnu enshrined in the garbha griha and some simple carvings on the walls. Khajuraho, no longer a capital city and temple town still haunts the imagination. As Percy Brown wrote fifty years ago, "In its deserted courts the spirit of the time still seems to linger, not only in its architecture but in the multitude of silent yet moving forms on its temple walls, depicting a race of people who appear to belong to another world- a world of sensuous mystery, where sober reality is unknown."
The ancient city of Gwalior is named after a holy man nanmed Gwalipa who is said to have cured a price named Suraj Sen of leprosy. Gwalipa gave him water from a particular tank to drink and that the tank still exists within the Gwalior Fort and is now called Suraj Kund. When the grateful prince built a city he named it after the sadhu. Gwalipa lived on top of a hill where the present Gwalior Fort stands and since the 9th century many famous kings have ruled from this strategically important fort. In medieval times the Tomar king Mand Singh reigned here and built many of the palaces within the fort. Among them was the Gujar Mahal built for his queen Mrignayani who belonged to the Gujar tribe. Later when Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi at the First Battle of Panipat the king of Gwalior was killed in battle. His family then asked for the protection of Babur and as tribute gave him a fabulous diamond which some claim was the kohinnor. In 1587 Rani Lakshmi Bai fought her last battle here against the British. Gwalior is also the last resting place of the legendary singer Mian Tansen whose mazhaar still attracts musicians and lovers of music.
The two finest temples in Gwalior stand within the fort as do some gaint rock cut Jain carvings of tirthankaras and a shrine of Vishnu. The Chaturbhuj shrine built in the 9th century has a large sculpture of Vishnu carved out of the rock face. One of the oldest temples of the pratihara dynasty is the 8th century Teli Ka Mandir, built by King Yashovarman of Kanauj. Teli Ka Mandir means the ‘oilmans’s temple’ and there is no explanation available for this very odd name. There is no icon in the garbha griha but the carvings around the sanctum door indicate that it was probably dedicated to the Mother Goddess. This temple is an unusual blend of both the Nagara and the Dravidian style with a touch of Buddhist chaitya. It has a soaring 25 metre Dravidian gopura tower superimposed on a Nagara structure, making it the tallest building in the fort. The decorative elements are clearly North Indian but with a chaitya like horseshoe- shaped sun window on top.
The Sas-Bahu temples are literally the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law temples. Percy Brown feels that the name is derived from Sahasrabahu, one of the titles of Vishnu and has nothing to do with two forgotten women. The construction of the temples was started in the 11th century by the Kachhwaha Rajput prince Padmapala and completed by his brother Mahipal. Both are in ruins. The main halls still stand but the shikharas have disappeared. From the outside these halls give the impression of being three storeyed but inside they are just one large chamber with open galleries. The broken wall still show examples of fine decoration, with ceilings, walls and doorways embellished with carvings. Orissa
The state of Orissa curves along the Bay of Bengal with its long shoreline of golden beaches and turbulent seas. The tropical climate makes this a land of palm trees, mango grove, jute and paddy fields. There is a large tribal population in the forests of sal, teak and sandalwood and some of their forest deities have become brahmanised and have been included in the Hindu Pantheon. Here on the seaside, by the groves of bamboo and casuarinas trees they built temples with high curving towers and walls vibrant with sculpture.
Orissa evolved its own school of temple architecture with its local terminology. The style follows the Nagara school of the north but with some beautiful variations. The sanctum with the tower is called the deul or rekha deul. The tower also has a distinctive shape, rising in straight lines from the square sanctum and then curving gently inwards to the apex. At the summit is the wide fluted disk of the amalaka topped by the finial called the kalasa. The shikharas of the orissa temples are among the tallest in the country. The exterior of the temples were profusely decorated with carvings while the interiors, unlike Khajuraho, left severely plain. With the passage of time embellishments became richer and by the time of the last temple of the period at konarak, nearly ostentatious. The mandapa or main assembly hall attached to the sanctum is called the jagamohana. The other mandapas often added in large temples are the bhoga mandir, the hall of offerings and the natya mandir, the hall of dance. These two were at times attached to the main structure and at other times built at a distance. The mandapas of the earlier temples have flat roofs but later they were given a many tiered pyramidal roof, the tiers referred to as pidas. Also, the large temples have an enclosing wall and other structures like subsidiary shrines and kitchens that were placed within the courtyard. The important temples like the Jagannath temple at Puri and Bhubaneswar’s Lingaraj have many enclosing walls and a multitude of structures, creating a complete world within their sprawling courtyards.
The name of the city is derived from Tribhubaneswar, a name of Shiva. As the city is dotted with hundreds of temples it is calledthe Cathedral city of India. Most of the important temples are clustered around the lake called theBindusarovar which is said to have received the waters of every holy lake and river in the country. Legend holds that once seven thousand shrines encircled the lake. Now about five hundred remain. According to the Puranas the land where the lake now stands was once a garden called Ekamrakanan and the goddess Parvati loved to wander here. One day she was accosted by two demons called Kritti and Bas who wanted to marry her. Parvati agreed, on condition that they should first lift her on their shoulders. As they tried to raise her she became so heavy that the demons were crushed and killed by her weight. After this adventure Parvati felt very tired and thirsty and gallant Shiva came to her rescue. He gathered the waters of all the holy rivers and lakes of the land and with them the Bindusarovar was created. Pilgrims always bathe in the lake before going for either puja in the temples.
While the town of Puri is the kingdom of Vishnu as Lord Jagannath, Bhubaneswar is ruled by Shiva. It claims that Shiva chose to come and reside here because he was no longer happy in Varanasi which was being defiled by non-believers. So Shiva began to look for another home and during his search a sage showed him a dense grove of mango trees which was ideal for his meditations. However this grove already belonged to Vishnu and Shiva had to beg for his permission to stay there. Vishnu agreed on condition that Shiva never return to varanasi and Shiva liked the place so much that he agreed. So Vishnu, the sophisticated god went to live in the metropolitan Varanasi while the ascetic. Shiva turned himself into a lingam and settled down in the mango grove. This grove is the present day city of Bhubaneswar and the lingam is the one at the great Lingaraja temple. The foundations of the city are said to have been laid by the Kesari King Yayati, who is also credited which building the Lingaraja temple, though historians date the temple to the 10th century. The lingam in the sanctum is called a swayambhu. Originally the temple deity was called Tribhubaneshwar, the Lord of the Three Worlds of heaven, earth and the netherworld. Now the lingam is called Hari-Hari, that is half Shiva and half Vishnu. This change occurred during the rule of the Ganga kings who were Vaishnavites. They also modified the rituals of the temple.
Even today the Lingaraja temple is a living sanctum and the deity continues to receive the worship of its devotees. Non-Hindus are not allowed to enter the temple but can view the courtyard from a platform that stands outside its walls. This was built during British times so that the Viceroy, Lord Curzon could get a closer look at the temple.
The Lingaraja is the largest temple in Orissa with a mammoth, 45 metre high deul tower which is topped by a gigantic circular amalaks. This stone disk is supported by a series of lions that were the symbol of the Kesari Kings. The courtyard is filled with smaller shrines, many of which are miniatures of the main temple. Among them the most beautiful is a shrine of parvati built by the Ganga kings in the 12th century. The main temple is called the Shri Mandir and the structure possesses all the architectural elements of the Oriya temple layout.
A flight of stairs leads into the hall of the bhog mandir, after which the pilgrim walks through the natya mandir where the devadasis danced. These women, called maharis in Oriya, were the handmaidens of the god and were married to the deity and they danced many times every day during the main puja ceremonies. In the last century their dance fell into disrepute but today their art has been revived as the classical dance of Odissi. After the natya mandir one enters tha main assembly hall of the jagamohan and after that is the sanctum of the deul. Here the huge granite lingam of Shiva is worshipped in a dark, lamp lit, austere and unadorned garbha griha. The tapering tower rises above this sanctum and it is hollow from inside, with two chambers built above the deul and a flight of stairs built into the wall going up the structure.
The outer walls of the Lingaraja have all the ritualistic deities placed in their appointed corners. In the alcoves are the eight dikpalas, guardians of the eight quarters of the globe. Traditionally the dikpalas are Kuber, Indra, Agni, Yama, Niritti, Varuna, Vayu and Ishana. Besides them are chlorite figures of Ganesh, Kartikeya and Parvati, placed in deep niches and decorated with vases and foliage and geometrical motifs. The tiers of the jagamohan roof are interspersed with figures of lions and friezes or military cavalcades.
The small Vaital Deul is an older temple, dated to the 8th century and is an interesting blend of Nagara and Buddhost architectural motifs. There is the unusual rectangular deul with a plain oblong roof that resembles the vaulted roofs of Buddhist chaitya halls. Even the doorways have the traditional Buddhist arch with a meditating figure placed in it in a very Buddha-like posture and there are miniature horseshoe shaped windows placed along the walls. The walls have carvings of apsaras and nayikas in indolent postures, putting on make up or arranging a scarf around their shoulders. Among the deitites there is a well chiseled figure of Surya riding his seven-horse chariot.
The Vaital Deul is dedicated to the Goddess Chamunda, a fierce and terrible aspect of Kali-Durga and as the name suggests it was probably a centre of tantric cults in the region. The icon is of an emaciated woman with sunken eyes, wearing a garland of skulls, seated on a corpse with an owl and a jackal beside her. The icon is eight armed and carries a bow, shield, trident, thunderbolt and arrow. These details of the icon are usually hidden from view behind the elaborate drapery. Unlike other Oriya temples the walls of the garbha griha are carved with scenes of tantric rites and among them is a carving of Shiva as the angry and destructive Bhairava.
The 11th century Raja Rani temple was probably never completed as it has no deity in the sanctum and the name, meaning ‘king and queen’ does not indicate the god who would have been worshipped here. Some feel the name is derived from rajrania, the local name for the reddish sandstone used in the construction of the temple. Others say that the temple was built by Raja Udyata Kesari on the wishes of his queen who wanted a temple in the memory of her mother. It was probably built in the 12th century. The walls have some exquisite sculptures of nayika figures in sensuous poses and the moulding of the figures shows great sophistication and skill. Also, there are the traditional parade of deities, worshippers, animals, flowers and vines. The tower is worth studying as it has many smaller pinnacles that resemble the motif of many peaks of a mountain range that was also used in Khajuraho. The smaller spires cluster around the main tower with their upward movement broken by panels of carvings.
The main structure had been completed but the decoration with carvings was left unfinished and the garbha griha probably never received a deity. In the unfinished antarala the outer walls still show the initial designs of many figures that had been drawn and roughly blocked out for carving but were never completed. History does not tell us why the graceful Raja Rani was left in this unfinished state, why the sculptors left their work half done or why its silent, empty garbha griha remains forever unsanctified.
It is impossible for a visitor to see all the temples in Bhubaneswar. Among those worth visiting are Parashurameshwar and Mukteshwar. The tiny Mukteshwar temple has an exquite arched gateway in a Buddhist torana style and carvings of the Saptamatrikas, the seven aspects of the Mother Goddess. The Parashurameshwar, built with reddish stone, is one of the oldest temples in the city, dating back to the 7th century. Its small size and slightly primitive design and carvings prove its antiquity. The tower is short and squat and the Jagamohan has a simple flat roof. It has panels showing the stories from the Mahabharata and Ramayana and delicate fretwork windows. The puzzling thing is that the temple is dedicated to Shiva but Parashuram was one of the incarnations of Vishnu and so the name refers to Vishnu and not Shiva.
The town of Puri in the District of that name of the sea coast of Orissa is famous throughout the world for the great temple of the god called Purishottama or Jagannatha and identified with Vishnu. Indeed the name of the town is a part of tehfuler name Purushottama- puri or Jagannathapuri meaning ‘the city of the god Purushottama- Jagannathapuri.’ Sometimes it is also called Purushottama which is similarly a part for the fuller name Purushottama- puri or purishottamakshetta. Puri is now regarded as the greatest of the East Indian holy places, although this position wasoriginally enjoyed by Gangasagara at the junctuion of the Bhagirathi and the Bay of Bengal. As I have shown elsewhere (Proc. I.H.C. 1947, pp. 91 ff.), Gangasagara gave place as the greatest tirtha about the eastern border of India to Puri during the reign of the Imperial Gangas of Orissa from the 12th cent- onwares.
It is well known that the Maharajas of Puri, who may be regarded as the modern representatives of the imperial rulers of medieval Orissa, consider themselves servants of the god Purushorttama- Jagannatha, sweeping the floor of the puri temple being one of their prominent duties on the occasion of the Ratha- Yatra fveremony, i.e., the Car Festival of the said god. There is evidence to show that the Hindu emperors holding sway over Orissa during the medieval period considered the god Purushottama- Jagannatha, the ruler of their empire and regarded themselves as mere viceroys of the deity. Such a fiction, in which the real ruler of a country is placed in the position of a subordinate either to a god or to a spiritual guide (whether alive or dead). Is well known in Indian history and not entirely upknown in the annals of other lands. The dedication of one’s landed property in favour of the family deity or the spiritual guide of the family and its administration and enjoyments as a representative of that deity or saint is a well known custom in all parts of India. There are many instances of similar dedication of an entire kingdom in favour of a god or saint in the history of India. The rulers of Travancore regarded the god Padmanabhasvamin as the king of their territories and themselves as the god’s viceroys. The Guhilos of Mewar considered themselves the Dewans (administrators) of the god Ekalinga who was believed to have been the real lord of their dominions. The great Sivaji, founder of the Maratha empire in the latter half of the 17th century, is said to have dedicated his dominions to his spiritual preceptor Ramadasa and to have ruled the country in the saint’s name. The Kalachuri monarch Gangeyadeva Vikramaditya (circa 1015- 40 A.D.), also called Sahasika (Sahasanka), is knownto have dedicated his empire about the present Jubbulpore region in favoure of his spiritual guide, the Saiva saint Vamasambhu or Vamadeva, and from that date for more than two centuries hisdescendants are known to have regarded themselves as the viceroys of the saint. So far as we know, the conception of the god Purushottama- Jagannatha of Puri as the ruler of Orissa originated in the days of the imperial Gangas.
The mighty Ganga monarch Anantavarman Chodaganga (1078- 1147 A.D.) had his capital at Kalingangara, identified with modern Mukhalingam near Srikakulam Chicacole). He is known to have conquered the whole cast coast land up to the Gangetic Delta. He annexed the Puri- Cuttack region to the Ganga empire after having extirpated the rule of the Somavamsi kings in that area. The inscriptions of Choda ganga ‘s descendants assert that it was he who built the great temple of the god Purushotama- Jagannatha on the shore of the sea as the previous rulers of the country had neglected to do it. It may be pointed out that the Somavamsis who held sway over the Puri Cuttack region before Chodaganga’s conquest, were Saivas and apparently not much enthusiastic about the deity regarded as a form of Visnu. Chodaganga also was a Saiva like his ancestors who worshipped Gokarnesvara Siva on the Mahendragiri, in the early years of his reign. But soon after his cinquest of the Puri- Chttack area about the beginning of the twelfth century, we find him inclining gradually more and more towards the worshjip of Vishnu, no doubt in the form of Purushottama- Jagannatha of Puri. In one of his charters, dated 1112 A.D., Chodaganga calls himself both a Saiva and a Vaishnava while in his later documents the claim to being a Saiva is totally given up and the king is represented only as a Vaishnaya.
A tradition recorded in the Utkala- Khanada section of the Skanda Purana shows beyond doubt tht Purishottama- Jagannatha of Puri originally a deity worshiped by the aboriginal Sabara inhabitants of the area and that the worship of the god was adopted by the orthodox Hindus at a later date. Like Minakshi of Madura in South India, Kamakhya of Gauhati in Assam and numerous other gods and goddesses in different parts of India, the aboriginal god of Puri was gradually absorbed in the Brahmanical panteon and was identified with Vishnu. The identification of the god, worshipped originally by the Sabaras of Puri, with Vishnu was certainly well established considerably before the beginning of the twelfth century when Anantavarman Chodaganga conquered the Puri Cuttack region. The fact however that Hiuen tsang, the Chinese Pilgrim who visited Orissa in 638- 39 A.D., does not speak of the god shows that the god was no better than a local deity of limited fame and importance till as late as the seventh century A.D. His position in the religious life of Orissa must have been considerably established before the twelfth century when the conversion of Anantavaraman Chodaganga to Vaishnavism under his influence set him on the way to all- India importance.
The successors of Chodaganga were all devotees of Vishnu in the form of Purushottama- Jagannatha But is was his great grandson Anangabhima III (circa 1211- 38 A.D.) who was responsible for raising the god Purushottama- Jagannatha to an all India figure and Puri to its present position of eminence amongst the places of pilgrimage in India. The rise of Puri must have been facilitated by the obscuration of Gangasagara due to many factors including the Muslim occupation of Bengal and consequent want of royal patronge, obscuration of Viraja (modern Jaipur), the oldest Hindu tirtha in Orissa which enjoyed an eminent position during the age of the Bhauma- Kara emperors (from the ninth to the eleventh century A.D.) who had their capital in that city or its neighbourhood. By the time of Anangabhima III, the Gangas had already transferred their capital from Kalinganagara to Cuttack (Kataka). Anangabhima III issued his charters from Abhinava- Varanasikataka or Varanasi- kataka, i.e. moderen Cuttack. According to a tradition recorded in the Oriya chronicle entitled Madala Panji, a king named Anangabhima who at first had his capital at Chaudvara- kataka, built a new city named Varanasi on tehopposite bank of the Mahanadi and removed his residence there.
The Madala Panji says that a Ganga king named Anangabhima built (or completed the construction of) the temple of Purushottama Jagannatha at Puri. This king is no other than Anangabhima III who may have completed the Puri temple begun by his great- grandfather and is aactually known to have installed a god named Purushottama- Jagannatha to a new teple built by him at his capital at Varanasi kataka (Cuttack). The earliest inscriptions in the Puri temple are four records of the reign of Anangabhima III, which were recently traced by the present writer. According to another tradition in the same work, as I have shown elsewhere (Or. Hist. Res. Journ.,Vol. I, pp. 48 ff), a king named Anangabhima (apparently Anangabhima III) dedicted all his possessions including the empire in favour of the god Purushottama- Jagannatha and began to rule as a Rauta (i.e. feudatory) of the god, and his successors did not perform a formal coronation at the time of their accession as they considered them selves feudatories of the said goe. These tradtitions are remarkably supported by a large number of Ganga inscriptions that I have had occasion to examine.
In many of the inscriptions of king Anangabhima III and his successors, the Ganga ruler is described as a Rauta, Rautta or Ravuta, which is derived from Sanskrit Rajaputra i.e. Prince and is often used as a subordinate title. Several years ago I published an inscription (Ind. Cult., Vol. Vi, pp. 73) from the Lingaraja temple at Bhuvaneswara in the Puri District, which speaks of the dominions of Anangabhima III as Purushottama- samrajya, i.e. the empire belonging to the god Purushottama- Jagannatha.
Jagannath means Lord of the World and it is a name of Vishnu and Puri is called Shri Purushottam Dham or Martya vaikuntha, the home of Vishnu on earth. Puri is also called Nilachal, Nalagiri and Shankha Kshetra. Every leading sage and reformer has visited Puri, including Guru Nanak, Ramanuja and Chaitanya. The great Jagannath temple stands at one end of a broad avenue that has the Gundicha temple at the other end. This avenue is the site of the famous rath Yatra when the idols of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra are taken from the temple in an elaborate procession of three chariots. The deities stay at the Gundicha temple for a week and return in a procession called the Ulta Rath.
The icons in the Jagannath temple are highly unusual. Jagannath, the main deity has with him his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra. In the Mahabharata Lord Krishna had a brother Balarama- Balabhadra and a sister Subhadra who married Arjuna. So Jagannath, the Lord of the World is Krishna, the avatar of Vishnu. However, here Krsihna is worshipped with his siblings instead of with Radha. Moreover Krishna has never been depicted the way he has been in Puri. The icons are made of wood and these are reqularly changed. The figures are blocks of wood primitively carved with short arms, no legs, flat faces with large circular eyes and wide smiling lips. Jagannath is painted black, Balabhadra is white and Subhadra is saffron coloured.
Over the years there has been much speculation about the origin of the Jagannath temple and its extraordinary icons that resemble no other depiction of Krishna anywhere. The site is an ancient one and some historians place the Buddhist site of Dantapuri here. It is said that the tooth of the Buddha was worshipped here before being taken to Sri Lanka. Others, going by the icons, feel that originally the idol was a tribal deity that was included in the pantheon by turning it into an avatar of Vishnu. This is something the pantheistic Hindu faith does quite often as exemplified in the claim that the Buddha also is a Vishnu avatar. The kingdoms of the region have always had a large tribal population and blocks of wood are worshipped by them. Also, members of the Shabar tribe are intimately connected with the rituals of the temple, something not seen at any other temple. The Brahmins have kept their hold on the puja rituals but the Shabars are responsible for searching for the trees from which the idols are made. They still carve the icons and take part in the Rath Yatra. In a region with a large population of tribals, the worship of a powerful tribal god must have been important to a king. When such a god was brought into a Hindu temple it was obvious that the king and the priests had to compromise with the tribals and allow them a role in the rituals. Myths often arise from historical fact and the myth of jagannath indicated the tribal origin of the cult of the Lord of the World. It is said that King Indradyumna ruled over the land of purushottam Kshetra at Puri and once he had a dream in which Vishnu asked him to build a temple dedicated to him. The god said that his icon would be found in a cave in the Nilachal hill. The image was called Nilmadhava, the blue Krishna.
Indradyumna had no idea where he could find the image and sent his men out to search for this mysterious Nilachal hill. One of them, a Brahmin youth named vidyapati found the cave where the Shabar tribals had an icon called Nilmadhava. It was worshipped by the tribal chief Viswavasu and only he knew the location of the cave. Vidyapati married the daughter of the tribal chief and persuaded his wife to convince her father to show him the cave. Then Vidyapati stole the idol and brought it to King Indradyumna.
Viswavasu was devastated and seeing his grief the god chose to return to the cave but before he did so, he reassured Indradyumna that he would return. However, he stipulated that Indradyumna had to bild a temple worthy of him. Once the temple was ready Indradyumna once again prayed to Krishan and he was told to pick up a log floating in the sea. It so happened that the log was so heavy that no one could pick it up and faithful Viswavasu had to be summoned. He picked up the log as if it were a feather and carried it into the new temple. This was called brahmadaru and now an image had to be carved out of it but none of the carves could make even a small cut on it with their chisels. Then Vishwakarama, the architect of the gods appeared before Indradyumna in the guise of an ole man and offered to carve the idol. However, he had one condition. He was going to take 21 days to varve the idol and no one was allowed to watch him work. The old man locked himself in a room with the Brahmadaru and outside everyone could hear the sound of his hammering and chiseling. Then one day there was silence and indradyumna’s wife. Queen Gundicha became apprehensive that the old man had died. An anxious king ignored the advice of his minister and opened the door. He found an empty room as the old man had vanished leaving behind the three incomplete images. That is why Jgannath and Balabhadra have no legs and tiny Subhadra smiling between them has no limbs at all. A penitent royal couple established the unfinished images in the new temple and thus Krishna came to reside in Puri. After a gap of 12 to 19 years the images are made again in a ceremony called Naba Kalebar. The Shabar priests go to a forest of neem trees and look for some specific signs which mark the right trees. Then the wood is brought back to the temple for carving. An elaborate procession wends its way through willages where people come out to worship the Brahmadaru. It is the Shabars again who carve the new images and then hand them over to the Brahmin priests for consecration. The old images are buried at a sacred spot by the these tribal priests.
In the month of June-July the three images are taken out in procession in the most famous chariot festival in the world. The Jagannath Rath Yatra has even given the woed ‘Juggernaut’ to the English language. The Yatra reenacts Krishna’s journey from Gokul to Mathura. The three decorated chariots with brightly coloured canopies are brought before the temple and the images are placed in them.
Even the chariots have names. Jagannath’s vehicle is called Nandighosh, It is the largest, with 18 wheels and has a yellow and red striped canopy. Balabhadra’s chariot with 16 wheels and a red and green top is called Taladhwaja and Subhadra has the 14-wheeled Padmadhwaja with a red and black canopy. Each chariot has two rows of carved wooden horses in front and they are dragged along the main avenue by thousands of devotees puilling at the ropes. Theday long procession ends after 3 kilometres at the Gundicha temple named after King Indradyumna’s queen. Here the idols are worshipped for a week and then Jagannath and his family return to their own temple.
Architecturally the Jagannath temple was modeled on the Lingaraja temple of Bhubaneshwar, though it is much larger. Historians date the temple to the rule of the Ganga dynasty of the 12th century. It was begun by the Ganga king Chedabhima Deva and completed by his son Anangabhima Deva. The layout follows the Lingaraja with a deul, Jagamohan, natya mandir and bhog mandir placed within a walled courtyard. The last two are much later additions, probably built in the 14th century during the reign of the Gajapati dynasty. In the courtyard there are many subsidiary shrines and an immense kitchen. The shikhara is topped by the wheel of Vishnu called Nilachakra. It is made of an alloy of eight metals called ashta dhatu and the flag over the wheel is the pataka. The temple is whitewashed and because of this the European sailors voyaging up the Bay of Bengal who used it as a landmark, called it the ;White pagoda’. Only Hindus are allowed inside the enclosure but, as at Lingaraja, it can be viewed dfrom a platform outside the wall.
The temple itself is not architecturally unique and the quality of the sculpture is quite ordinary. It is the sanctity of the site as a dham and tirtha that draws pilgrims to it. Also, over the years it had been repaired a number of times and the use of cement has obliterated many of the original carvings. The jagamohan is unusual in that it has 16 pillars and the outer walls have the usual complement of religious and secular carvings. A chlorite pillar called the Aruna Sthambha stands at the main gate of the simhadwar, the lion’s gate. On top of the pillar is the figure of Aruna, the god of dawn who drives the seven horse chariot of Surya. This pillar once stood before the sun temple at Konarak and was later shifted here. Another pillar, the Garuda Sthambha stands inside the natya mandir and faces the garbha griha. Lord Chaitanya is said to have stood here nd said his prayers to the deity. In the garbha griha, besides the three main deities there is the sudarshana chakra, the discus of Krishna, images of Lakshmi. Saraswati and Nilmadhava. The ceremonies of the temple have fascinated visitors for centuries. The idols have 21 sets of clothes that are changed according to the phases of the moon. The deities are offered food seven times a day from the temple kitchen. This food, the mahaprasad, has 56 courses and is prepared in the largest kitchen in the world. The mahaprasad is sold to pilgrims outside the temple in the market called Ananda Bazaar
The Gayatri mantra is the supreme mantra of the Vedas. Even today Hindus across the world begin their day with this Iyrical invocation to the sun. And it is these eternal words of praise that inspired the creators of the Surya Deul, the Sun temple at Konarak. It was such a magnificent dream. Every day surya rides out on his seven horse chariot to circle the globe bringing light and life with his beneficent rays. The charioteer is Aruna, the God of Dawn. So at Konarak, as the first rays of dawn lightened the horizon in the east the celestial chariot of Surya would rise from the foam tipped waves of the Bay of Bengal to ride across the land. It was to be a chariot in stone with twenty-four giant wheels fro the hours of the day and drawn by seven prancing horses symbolising the days of the week.
The Surya Deul at Konarak was visualized as a giant ratha of Surya riding out from the sea. Today the sea has receded and the temple is surrounded by sadn. The deul has collapsed, leaving only the jagged remains of the walls of the garbha griha. The natya mandir has lost its roof, its ornate pillars reaching up to the sky in vain. Over the centuries the ruined and forgotten temple had been buried in sand and much of it was excavated only in the early part of the twentieth century. Even in ruins the Surya Deul is a magnificent creation. For centuries sailors voyaging along the shoreline of the Bay of Bengal towards the ports of Calcutta and Chittagong had two landmarks in Orissa. One, the Jagannath temple at Puri which they called the ‘White pagoda’ and the hulking ruined silhouette of the Surya Deul at Konarak which they called the ‘Black Pagoda.’ Konarak is said to be an ancient place of sun worship. The myths say that Krishna’s son Samba earned the anger of his father because he had looke with desire at one of Krishna’s queens. An angry Krishna had cursed Samba with leprosy and the poor young man had wandered the land seeking a cure. Then he came to Konarak where he prayed to Surya for twelve years and was cured. In gratitude Samba built the first sun temple here. The Surya Deul was built by King Narasimha. I of the Ganga dynasty who reigned in the 13th century. As a copper plate grant of his son narasimha II states with great pride, "King Narasimha built at kona-Kona, a place of great renown, a temple for the sun to live in with the other gods." The temple drew visitors for centuries. Abul fazl, Akbar’s royal biographer writes in the Ain-I-Akbari, "Its cost was defrayed by twelve years revenue of the province. Even those whose Judgement is critical and who are different to please stand astonished at its sight".twenty eight temples stand in its vivinity". Each of which has its separate legend." People speculate about the reasons for building a temple at such an isolated place but ancient Konarak was an important port mentioned by Ptolemy. It was also a traditional centre of sun worship. One legend holds that Narasimha’s father King Anangabhimadeva had vowed to rebuild the Purushottam temple at Puri which had fallen into ruins. When he failed to fulfill his row Narasimha built this temple to save his father from sin. Another legend goes that it was an act of gratitude as Narasimha was healed of disease and the sun was considered to be the great healer. Abul Fazl cells the temple a "mighty memorial to posterity" which seems to indicate that it was built to commemorate a victorious war.
The Plan of the temple follows tradition with the main deul, the jagamohan and a natya mandir. Only here, instead of a continous line of mandapas, the natya mandir is separated from the jagamohan by a flight of stairs. A chlorite pillar, the Aruna Sthambha used to stand here but was later shifted to the jagannath temple at Puri. The pillar has the figure of Surya’s charioteer Aruna on top. It is the sanctum and the assembley hall that stand as a unit on the same platform and this was designed as a chariot. By the sides of the platform are carved twenty-four gigantic wheels and seven ruchly caparisoned horses strain at their reins by the flight of stairs leading up to the jagamohan. It is these intricately carved wheels that have become a visual symbol of the Sun temple at Konarak. Each wheel has sixteen spokes radiating from the axle and are covered with carvings of patterns and figures set in the centre. Every sculpture has been placed to blend with thearchitectural plan of the temple. The sides of the platform, the outer walls of the jagamohan and the natya mandir teem with sculpture and even after centuries of sea air has roughened their details they are powerful creations. There are richly decorative floral and geometric patterns and friezes of dancers, musicians, kings, soldiers, animals and romantic couples. Niches show the king making offerings to the god and listening to his guru, practicing archery and taking part infestivals. Reliefs showing the king appear even at the base of the pedestal on which the main icon must have stood in the now ruined garbha griha.
It is these carvings and the free standing sculptures that make Konarak such a unique temple. There are the magnificent chlorite figures ofSurya in various poses, called the Parsva Devata, that are set in the niches of the sanctum wall. Also very impressive aer the large, free standing sculptures of animals that prove that the Indian sculptor was just as good at carving figures in the round as decorating the walls of temples. The most powerful are the springing war horses being held in check by their grooms, rampant elephants and mythical lions. In contrast to their vitality are the alasa kanyas, the indolent maidens striking sensuous poses and the erotic couples, the maithuna figures carved with an absence of prudery that recalls the maithuna sculptures at Khajurajo.
Little remains of the main sanctuary, the deul except for the ruined platform and the bottom portion of the tower. The tower must have been planned like the other Oriya temples with a tall staight middle section curving inwards, topped by the fluted disk of the amalaka and the pot finial of the kalasa. The huge base ofhte tower shows that it would have been the tallest in the region. The garbha griha no longer has a deity but one cam imagine what it may have looked like from the three parsa devatas placed in niches around the farbha griha. These show a benign Surya, weating his boots and rich jewellery, riding on his chariot and in one he is riding a horse. These grey-blue images gleam against the russet stone of the temple and the carvings are so refined as to make it appear that Surya is wearing gossamer thin garments. Even the delicate embroidery on his clothes is clearly visible. These imges are precisely placed to catch the direct rays of the sun t different times of the day. The Jagamohan remains the best preserved of the buildings. It is square with a pyramidal pida roof. The walls are recessed thus creating a larger surface area for the sculptures, interspersed by beautifully proportioned doorways. The interior has been blocked up with sand and rubble to stop the subsidence of the walls. The natya mandir stands before the jagamohan, separated by a flight of stairs. The pillared hall has no roof but the walls have an array of dancers and free standing figures of female musicians inpretty poses carrying drums and playing cymbala and flutes, a panorama that seems to sway to the joyous rhythms of life and love.
There are other buildings within the waled enclosure including a temple to the south-west that isa sanctuary to Maha Gayatri Devi, one of the wives of Surya. Also, the sanctum and porch and carvings of the nine planets of a Vaishnava temple were excavated in the 1950. Most of the temples mentioned by Abul fazl seem to have vanished in the sands.
Kalighat’s goddess is a powerful deity. Kali is the fierce, angry and unforgiving form of the Mother Goddess. She came into being to destroy the terrible demons Shumbha and Nishumba. She fought the demon army and she cut off their heads, she wore them around her neck as a necklace and drank their blood. A maddened Kali rampaged so wildly that the gods feared for the earth and begged Shiva to stop her but she wouldn’t listen to him. So Shiva lay down in her path and Kali stepped on him. This finally made her stop, the realization that she was standing on the chest of her lord, and she stuck out her tongue in shame. The image at Kalighat is of a goddess wearing a necklace of skulls, holding a bloody sword, standing over Shiva. Kali is a dark goddess and here she is made of black stone and she glitters with gold and silver and stands under asilver parasol.
Another important Kali temple is at Dakshineshwar by the Ganga. Dakshineshwar means Lord of the South and one of the forms of Shiva is of Dakshinamurti, Shiva facing the south. This temple is spiritually important because the 19th century philospher-saint Ramakrishan paramhansa was the priest at this temple. It was built in 1855 by the remarkable Rani Rashmoni, an enterprising business woman who belonged to a lower caste but had the courage to build a temple on which she spent a huge sum of nine lakhs. Ramakrishna’s simple room within the temple still attracts visitors today. Here Shiva lies on a sivler lotus with a thousand petals, carrying the rampant Kali on his chest. Around the temple there are twelve smaller shrines to Shiva. Dakshineshwar is one of the few shrines where Kali and Shiva are worshipped together. Gierce and indepandent Kali Usually prefers to have a temple to herself. A number of later temples also draw the worshipper to Dakshineshwar, like Adyapith and the Ramakrishna temples. Across the river is Belur Math built by Ramakrishna’s greatest diciple Vivekananda. In 1989 he carried the ashes of Ramakrishna to Belur where a temple was built. The architecture uses elements of a temple, church and mosque as a symbol of universal brotherhood. The dynamic Vivekananda who had dreamed of this temple did not live to see it completed. His shrine is also within Belur Math, which is the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission.<
Bishnupur was once the capital of the Malla kings and the temples were built in the 16th century. The Malla palaces are in ruins but fortunately their delightful terracotta temples have survived. All the temples are decorated with terracotta tiles that depict not just deities and the stories of the epics but also portray the daily life of the people. The curving bangaldar roofs echo the sloping rush roofs of the Bengali village hut and this elegant shape was even copied in the marble palaces of theMughals and Rajputs. As the Malla kings were Vaishnavas all the temples are dedicated to Krishan and the panels of terracotta relief on the walls depict episodes from the Mahabharata and the life of Krishna. The richest terracotta work can be seen at the Madan Mohan temple and the Shyamraj while the Jorhbangla has an interesting double roof topped with a tower.
The Kamaksha temple stands at the outskirts of Guwahati on top of the Nilachal hill, with a gateway guarded by two stone lions. Kamaksha is another name of Kali. The ancient temple that stood here was destroyed by Muslims, but the sanctity of the place remained and a new temple was built in the 17th century by the Raja of Cooch Behar. This is another of the pitasthanas and the temple is considered a very powerful one and a centre of tantra worship. Devadasis danced the tandave here at a ceremony reserved for women. The simple spired temple reflects the old Ahom architecture, with a honeycomb shaped cave-like structure and a dark eerie garbha griha. Pilgrims to Kamaksha also visit nearby temple dedicated to the goddess Bhuvaneshwari.
As the Ganga meanders her way from the Himalayas towards the sea, she moves through the eastern half of the Indi-Gangetic plain. This is the land of the Buddha and Mahavira, the kingdom of the Mauryas, the Senas and palas. By the time it reaches the delta of Bengal the mighty river divides into innumerable smaller streams that criss cross the land and makes it one of the most fertile in the country. Here they grow rice and jute, extract coal and iron ore from the depths of the earth and fishermen sing on boats as they trawl the rivers with their patched nets. As you travel from the north to the east, from a train window you notice the dramatic change in the colours of the landscape. From ochre and brown the world suddenly turns a verdant, welcoming green.
In the north the land has endless stretches of bare earth with dusty villages surrounded by straggly patches of trees. The fields of what and sugarcane, furrows of mustard and lentils. Now traveling through Bihar and then Bengal, the fields of swaying rice paddy shoots are a deep emerald expanse stretching towards the horizon. The rows of date palm trees, with their sculpted splayed heads of leaves on pillar like stand sentinel against the sky. The village huts have rounded thatched roofs and everywhere big ponds shine like silver in the sun. We are in a tropical land now where the Mother Goddess reigns supreme.
To the south-east, the grey green waters of the bay of Bengal wash the shores of Orissa. In the temple town of Puri the foam tipped breakers rise like fragile hills of water and crash across the sandy beaches and then as they recede, they behind seashells and driftwood, starfish and turtles. Here, at Bhubaneshwar and Puri, the Kalinga kings built some of the most beautiful temples in India. With typical tolerant generosity, dedicating them to every important god and goddess in the Hindu pantheon. And on the seashore at Konarak they created a magnificent stone. Chariot in which every dawn Surya, the sun god rode out of the surf and onto the and, bringing the first light of the day.
Moving inland into central India, in the kingdom of the Chandellas, the kings and nobility covered their capital city of Khajuraho with temples. Designed in a delicate balance of proportions and then richly embellished with sculpture of such amazing beauty that the figures are still vibrant with the joy of life and worship a millennia later. In the eastern states of Bengal they built some of their best temples to the powerful earth mother and warrior-the goddess Durga and Kali. In a land with little stone to build with they used fire baked bricks with extraordinary ligenuity in the temples of Bishnupur and Malda. The goddess is also worshipped in Assam, at the temple of Kamaksha. In Calcutta they still turn to the goddess Kali who reigns at the Kalighat temple and during the Durga puja every village and city locality created its own temple to the worship of the earthen images of Durga as she vanquishes the demon Mahishasura.
Madhya Pradesh
Khajuraho-Gwalior
Madhya pradesh is the heartland of the Indian subcontinent and its history is entwined with the story of the kings of the north. This is an ancient land with many tribes that still live in the forest and, untouched by the Aryan traditions still worshi[ [agan tribal gods. This land had human habitation in prehistoric times, as the paintings on the cave walls of Bhimbetka show. Haunting, minimalist, oddly contemporary looking drawings that go back to 8000 BC.In central India the rulers left their imprint in stone, with fine examples of Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and Muslim architecture. Asoka’s mammoth stupa still dominates a hill in Sanchi, the temples of the Chandellas turn forgotten khajuraho into an important tourist destination and then there are the fortresses of Gwalior and Orchha and the delightful pleasure city of the sultans at Mandu.
The region has been part of most of the kingdoms of important dynasties of the north. From the Mauryas and Guptas to the rule of Harshavardhan and the paramaras. With the establishment of the Sultanate in Delhi came the Muslim sultans who ruled from Mandu and later the region was part of the Mughal empire. The most famous temples of Madhya pradesh were built by the chandella kings at their capital city of Khajuraho.
Khajuraho
At first sight it is a sleepy little village surrounded by fields and palm trees. It is these date palm trees that give the village its name as, khajur is the date palm in Hindi. Going past the village, as you walk on, you see the graceful silhouettes of the stone edifices standing around a lake. Temples and more temples. Some in runis, other still infact an amazing number of exquisite stone creations built in a mellow gold sandstone, their soaring shikharas glowing in the sun. You wonder at the appearance of these temples in such a forgotten corner of the country. It is as if aliens had landed from space, built them at a whim and then vanished never to return. Because there are no other structures nearby to indicate that Khajuraho was once an important city. That it had been the capital of a kingdom where the temples had been part of a cityscape of palaces and mansions. Now they stand in magnificent isolation like mellow, gold ghosts of a glorious past. An unforgettable reminder of a time of prosperity and creative effulgence, when Khajuraho was the magnificent capital of a great kingdom.Ancient chronicles call the city khajuravahaka, khajurapura and Khajjinpura. The Rajput Chandella dynasty ruled from Khajuraho from the 9th to the 11th century and their kingdom was called Jejakabhukti. Around the 9th century, the warrior clans of the Rajputs had risen to power in North India and carved out kingdoms. Inspite of not belonging to the higher castes they bewtowed divinity to their dynasties by claiming the sun or the moon as their original ancestor. Thus Chandellas were chandravanshis, of the family of the lunar god Chandra and the story of the shadowy beginnings of the dynasty also echoes many other Rajput legends. It is said that the beautiful daughter of a Brahmin priest named Hemavati was bathing in a moonlit pool where she was seen by Chandra. The two fell in love and the child of this strange union was Chandravarman, the founder of the Chandella dynasty. Many years later Chandravarman saw his mother in a dream and she requested him to build temples and thus began the Chandella tradition of religious architecture that was carried on by his descendents. The dynasty was interest in building and many forts like those at Kalinjar and Ajaygarh, palaces and reservoirs in the region are credited to them.
Most of the temples at Khajurasho were built between 950-1050 AD. The Chandellas were themselves Shaivites but the temples enshrine not just the whole pantheon of Hindu deities but also Jain saints. As Percy Brown writes, it was a time "when religious emotion and unstinted patronage coincided with a flowering of artistic genius to find expression in a group of buildings of the highest aesthetic standared and the utmost significane." It the sculptures on the temples are a true portrayal of life in the kingdom, it was a time of properity and great flowering of the creative arts. Apart from the numerous figures of deities, the walls are also covered with languorous beauties, dancers, musicians, loving couples, parades and festivals. This joyous pageantry of life must have existed in the busy capital city but all that remains of it today are these temples. The rest has to be imagined among the mango groves and palm trees of the village. The rule of the Chandellas came to an end with the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni came to an end with the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni in the 10th century. Later the armies of Sikander Lodi also vandalized the temples. For centuries Khajuraho remained forgoteen till its temples were discovered by the British.
It is said that over eighty temples were built here but a little over twenty remain, some in ruins but others, considering they were built over a thousand years ago are in a surprisingly good state of preservation. The temples have been divided into groups and the Western Group is the largest, with the most important temples in it. Among them are the Chausath Yogini, Kandariya Mahadeo, Vishwanath, Lakshman and Matangeshwara temples. The Eastern Group has a mix of Hindu and Jain temples like Adinath, Parsavanath and javari temples. The Southern Group with the Duladeo and Chaturbhuj temples is at a distance of about two kilometers from these two groups.
The Khajuraho temples were built in the North Indian Nagara style but with some unique variations that make them some of the most beautifully designed temples of the country. The most distinctive architectural touch is the many pinnacled shikhara that portrays the peaks of the Himalayas. The eye moves upwards as the spires rise gradually in height from the porch to the vimana like the peaks of mountain range. These shikharas portray Mount Meru, as these temples like the mountains are the abode of gods. The main shikhara over the garbha griha has smaller spires clustered around it in an elegant design of gradually rising spires.
Unlike most Indian temples the ones at Khajuraho have no enclosing walls or courtyards. Instead they are built on a high platform with subsidiary shrines placed around the main temples. Many have four shrines in the corners of the platform to form the traditional design of the panchayatana. It is the floor plan of the temple that gives these structures their precision and elegance. Most of the bigger temples are laid out like a Latin cross with two arms going crosswise at one end.
A steep staircase going up the high plinth leads to the ardhamandapa which is an open pillared porch that leads into the main assembly hall of the mandapa. The vestibule of the antarala connects it to the sanctum of the garbha griha and some of the temples have the ambulatory path of the pradakshina patha circling the sanctum. The two arms oriel windows that provide light and air and also balance the straight profile of the building. These delightful windows bring in the sunlight that illuminates the sculpture in the interior of the temple while adding a delicate motif of light and shadow across the panels of sculpture on the exterior walls of the temple.
The student of architecture may appreciate the plans of these temples but for most visitors it is the sculpture on the walls that amazes and enchants. Across the exterior surface of the temples, on the soft golden hued sandstone, are two or three horizontal bands of figurative sculpture in a splendid array of themes. Unlike many temples that have decorated exterior and plain inner walls, here even the interiors are profusely decorated with patterns and figures on the walls and ceilings.
The subject of the sculpture covers every aspect of religion and life. From the many depictions of gods and goddesses to celestial maidens- the voluptuous apsaras and surasundaris. Then there are warriors, hunters, acrobats, musicians, dancers, animals and mythical beasts. Here among the nymphs and salabhanjikas you can see some of the most delightful depictions of the female form. These alluring mayikas are in dance-like postures, putting on make up, studying their faces in the mirror or picking a thorn from a foot and even today they capture the sculptor’s joy at their beauty.
Khajuraho caught the attention of the world through the erotic sculptures that adorn the outer walls of the temples. It shocked the Victorian sensibilities of the British colonial rulers who rejected Khajuraho as a decadent product of Hindu art. Though they receive so much attention, the fact is that these maithuna couples form only a small fraction of the sculptures on the walls. Scholars have speculated on the reason for this uninhibited erotica. Some feel it was considered auspicious, to avert disasters. One clever explanation is that temples with erotic art are never struck by lightning. The goddess of lightning is a virgin and is too shocked by the maithuna couples to strike the temple Others say that as the carvings embrace every aspect of the life of thetimes, the sensual formed a natural part of it. In ancient Hindu society there wre no prudish restraints on earthly desires and these sculptures are a depiction of the many faces of love and all the emotions it generates- from jealousy and modesty to fear and happiness. It is amazing how well the sculptors succeeded in capturing these varied emotions in a rigid medium like stone. The oldest temple in Khajuraho is the Chausath Yogini, standing on the west of the Shivsagar Lake. Dedicated to the goddess Kali, the fierce aspect of the Mother Goddess, this temple has a different layout from the other temples. Chausath means 64 and it has that many shrines to Kali’s handmaidens, or yoginis. Unlike the other temples that are built in sandstone this one is in coarse granite and the layout is an open-air plan of cellas. The main shrine to Kali is surrounded by 64 cells which once held figures of the yoginis, out of which about half have survived.
The Kandariya Mahadeo, dedicated to Shiva is the largest and most impressive temple in khajuraho. With its perfectly balanced architectural plan and rich sculpture it is one of the finest temples in India. It is laid out in the panchayatana style with four small shrines on the corners of the platform but these subsidiary shrines are now in ruins. The garbha griha has a marble lingam and both the interior and exterior are profusely carved with figurative and geometric designs.
The entrance arches an undulating sepent-like design with crocodile heads called the makara torana and the ceilings are decorated with scrolls and scallops. The archaeologist Cunningham counter 872 figures carved in this temple and they span every mood from the grotesque to the beautiful. Among the most beautiful carvings are the seven matrikas, the aspects of the Mother goddess placed along the plinth. Here the river goddesses Ganga and Yamuna guard the sanctum, ascetics preach to disciples and along the pradakshina are carved the figures of the ashtadikapalas, the eight guardian gods of Shiva, Indra, Agni, Yama, Nairita, Varuna, Vayu, Kubera and Isana. The soaring many-pinnacled shikhara has 85 smaller spires leading upwards to the main tower. Over 30 metres high it is the loftiest temple in Khajuraho and was built by king Vidhyadhara in the 11th century. The Vishwanath temple is also dedicated to Shiva and has an elaborate Nandi shrine with the figure of Shiva’s celestial bull facing the main entrance. The inscription on a wall states that it was built by King Dhangadeva in 1002 and unlike most Hindu temples the name of the architect is also mentioned. The inscription praises the architect Chhichha who is said to build like the divine architect Vishwakarma. Legend holds that King Dhangadeva established two lingams in the garbha griha, one of emerald and the other of stone. Only the stone lingam remains.
One interior wall has an interesting carving of Lord Brahma and his Consort Saraswati and the niches have Shiva as Andhakantaka, slaying a blind demon, as a dancing Nataraja and as half man and half woman, the Ardhanarishwar. The exterior has some of the prettiest depictions of women- pretty mayikas writing a letter, crading a child or playing music in alluring and at times subtly provocative postures.
The Lakshmana temple, also in the western group, resembles the Vishwanath temple in layout. It was built by King Yashovarman in 950 AD. This temple has all the four smaller shrines still intack unlike those at Kandariya Mahadeo. The lintel over the entrance has a pretty carving of Lakshmi in the company of Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva and a frieze showing the navagrahas, thenine celestial planets. One panel depicts the myth of samudra manthan when the gods and demons churned the oceans for the nectar of immortality. And there are numerous scenes of everyday life-wrestling matches, elephantfights, dances and group of worshippers. Though the temple is named after Lakshman, the brother of Rama, the idol in the sanctum is of Vishnu with four arms and three heads-one a human face and the the other two of his incarnations as the lion and the boar.
Though some of the temples still have deities in their sanctums the only temple where the residing deity is still worshipped in Khajuraho is at the living temple of Matangeshwara. This Shiva temple is said to have been built in the memory of King Dhangadeva who was the greatest Chandella monarch and lived for over a hundred years. The years of his reign had been a time of great prosperity as the kingdom had grown and other kings had ackowledged his supremacy. The floor plan of the temple is a very simple square with a pyramidal roof. There is only one mandapa that is connected to the garbha griha where stands an enormous lingam nearly 3 metres high. It is said to have been brought here by Arjuna and worshipped by Yudhishtira. Puja is performed here twice every day, in the morning and afternoon.
The eastern group that lies closer to the village has three Hindu temples of Brahma, Vamana and Javari and three Jain shrines of Ghantai, Adinath and Parasvanth. The proximity of temples of two different faiths is testimony to the religious tolerance of the Chandellas who encouraged the rich Jain merchants of the city to build temples.
The small but beautifully designed ghantai Temple is partially in ruins. It has slender, carved columns in a colonnaded mandapa. Among the figures are an eight armed Jain goddess riding the mythical bird garuda and an interesting panel that illustrates the sixteen dreams of the mother of the jain saint Mahavira. The Parsvanath temple is the largest Jain temple and is also architecturally the most ambitious. Every available surface, both inside and outside is covered with sculptures, many echoing the themes of the other temples with apsaras, nayikas and deities and what makes them worth a closer study is the high quality of the carving. Inspite of being a Jain temple the majority of the sculptures are an Vaishnava themes. The Sanctum has a carved bull, the symbol of the Jain tirthankara and in the 19th century an icon of Parsvanath was also installed here.
There are only two temples in the southern group the Ghamtai Kain temple and the Duladeo temple.The Duladeo, dedicated to Shiva as the heavenly bridegroom, was probably one of the last temples to be built in Khajuraho and has a simple plan and some interesting sculpture. Further away is the small Chaturbhuj temple with a four armed icon of Vishnu enshrined in the garbha griha and some simple carvings on the walls. Khajuraho, no longer a capital city and temple town still haunts the imagination. As Percy Brown wrote fifty years ago, "In its deserted courts the spirit of the time still seems to linger, not only in its architecture but in the multitude of silent yet moving forms on its temple walls, depicting a race of people who appear to belong to another world- a world of sensuous mystery, where sober reality is unknown."
Gwalior
The ancient city of Gwalior is named after a holy man nanmed Gwalipa who is said to have cured a price named Suraj Sen of leprosy. Gwalipa gave him water from a particular tank to drink and that the tank still exists within the Gwalior Fort and is now called Suraj Kund. When the grateful prince built a city he named it after the sadhu. Gwalipa lived on top of a hill where the present Gwalior Fort stands and since the 9th century many famous kings have ruled from this strategically important fort. In medieval times the Tomar king Mand Singh reigned here and built many of the palaces within the fort. Among them was the Gujar Mahal built for his queen Mrignayani who belonged to the Gujar tribe. Later when Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi at the First Battle of Panipat the king of Gwalior was killed in battle. His family then asked for the protection of Babur and as tribute gave him a fabulous diamond which some claim was the kohinnor. In 1587 Rani Lakshmi Bai fought her last battle here against the British. Gwalior is also the last resting place of the legendary singer Mian Tansen whose mazhaar still attracts musicians and lovers of music.The two finest temples in Gwalior stand within the fort as do some gaint rock cut Jain carvings of tirthankaras and a shrine of Vishnu. The Chaturbhuj shrine built in the 9th century has a large sculpture of Vishnu carved out of the rock face. One of the oldest temples of the pratihara dynasty is the 8th century Teli Ka Mandir, built by King Yashovarman of Kanauj. Teli Ka Mandir means the ‘oilmans’s temple’ and there is no explanation available for this very odd name. There is no icon in the garbha griha but the carvings around the sanctum door indicate that it was probably dedicated to the Mother Goddess. This temple is an unusual blend of both the Nagara and the Dravidian style with a touch of Buddhist chaitya. It has a soaring 25 metre Dravidian gopura tower superimposed on a Nagara structure, making it the tallest building in the fort. The decorative elements are clearly North Indian but with a chaitya like horseshoe- shaped sun window on top.
The Sas-Bahu temples are literally the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law temples. Percy Brown feels that the name is derived from Sahasrabahu, one of the titles of Vishnu and has nothing to do with two forgotten women. The construction of the temples was started in the 11th century by the Kachhwaha Rajput prince Padmapala and completed by his brother Mahipal. Both are in ruins. The main halls still stand but the shikharas have disappeared. From the outside these halls give the impression of being three storeyed but inside they are just one large chamber with open galleries. The broken wall still show examples of fine decoration, with ceilings, walls and doorways embellished with carvings. Orissa
Bhubaneswar-Puri-Konarak
In ancient times ships used to start from the ports of Orissa, crossing the Bay of Bengal to voyage across the Indian Ocean for the distant lands of Burma and Java. This maritime land was called Kalinga and utkal and its name is indelibly linked to that of the Mauryan king Ashoka. It was his war to conquer kalinga that made Asoka face a moral transformation as he watched the carnage he had caused on the battlefield. A penitent Ashoka gave up wars of aggression and became a Buddhinst and Kalinga too embraced the new religion. On a rock in Dhulla ner Bhubaneswar, Asoka engraved the story of his conversion. Later, with the rule of King Kharavela, one of the greatest Oriya kings, Jainism became the leading religion of the region. With the rule of the kesari Kings Brahmanism returned to Orissa and it was during the rule of the Kesari and Ganga dynasties that the famous temples were built at Bhubaneswar, Puri and Konarak. Orissa evolved a distinct style of religiousarchitecture that carried echoses of its Buddhist and Jain past. Built between the 8th and 12the century, temples like the Lingaraja, Jagannath and the Surya Deul at Konarak are among the greatest architectural creations in the country. In medieval times Orissa saw a time of great confusion with the rule of Afghans followed by the conquest of theMughals and the invasion of the Marathas till the 19th century when it became a part of the British Raj.The state of Orissa curves along the Bay of Bengal with its long shoreline of golden beaches and turbulent seas. The tropical climate makes this a land of palm trees, mango grove, jute and paddy fields. There is a large tribal population in the forests of sal, teak and sandalwood and some of their forest deities have become brahmanised and have been included in the Hindu Pantheon. Here on the seaside, by the groves of bamboo and casuarinas trees they built temples with high curving towers and walls vibrant with sculpture.
Orissa evolved its own school of temple architecture with its local terminology. The style follows the Nagara school of the north but with some beautiful variations. The sanctum with the tower is called the deul or rekha deul. The tower also has a distinctive shape, rising in straight lines from the square sanctum and then curving gently inwards to the apex. At the summit is the wide fluted disk of the amalaka topped by the finial called the kalasa. The shikharas of the orissa temples are among the tallest in the country. The exterior of the temples were profusely decorated with carvings while the interiors, unlike Khajuraho, left severely plain. With the passage of time embellishments became richer and by the time of the last temple of the period at konarak, nearly ostentatious. The mandapa or main assembly hall attached to the sanctum is called the jagamohana. The other mandapas often added in large temples are the bhoga mandir, the hall of offerings and the natya mandir, the hall of dance. These two were at times attached to the main structure and at other times built at a distance. The mandapas of the earlier temples have flat roofs but later they were given a many tiered pyramidal roof, the tiers referred to as pidas. Also, the large temples have an enclosing wall and other structures like subsidiary shrines and kitchens that were placed within the courtyard. The important temples like the Jagannath temple at Puri and Bhubaneswar’s Lingaraj have many enclosing walls and a multitude of structures, creating a complete world within their sprawling courtyards.
Bhubaneswar
The name of the city is derived from Tribhubaneswar, a name of Shiva. As the city is dotted with hundreds of temples it is calledthe Cathedral city of India. Most of the important temples are clustered around the lake called theBindusarovar which is said to have received the waters of every holy lake and river in the country. Legend holds that once seven thousand shrines encircled the lake. Now about five hundred remain. According to the Puranas the land where the lake now stands was once a garden called Ekamrakanan and the goddess Parvati loved to wander here. One day she was accosted by two demons called Kritti and Bas who wanted to marry her. Parvati agreed, on condition that they should first lift her on their shoulders. As they tried to raise her she became so heavy that the demons were crushed and killed by her weight. After this adventure Parvati felt very tired and thirsty and gallant Shiva came to her rescue. He gathered the waters of all the holy rivers and lakes of the land and with them the Bindusarovar was created. Pilgrims always bathe in the lake before going for either puja in the temples.While the town of Puri is the kingdom of Vishnu as Lord Jagannath, Bhubaneswar is ruled by Shiva. It claims that Shiva chose to come and reside here because he was no longer happy in Varanasi which was being defiled by non-believers. So Shiva began to look for another home and during his search a sage showed him a dense grove of mango trees which was ideal for his meditations. However this grove already belonged to Vishnu and Shiva had to beg for his permission to stay there. Vishnu agreed on condition that Shiva never return to varanasi and Shiva liked the place so much that he agreed. So Vishnu, the sophisticated god went to live in the metropolitan Varanasi while the ascetic. Shiva turned himself into a lingam and settled down in the mango grove. This grove is the present day city of Bhubaneswar and the lingam is the one at the great Lingaraja temple. The foundations of the city are said to have been laid by the Kesari King Yayati, who is also credited which building the Lingaraja temple, though historians date the temple to the 10th century. The lingam in the sanctum is called a swayambhu. Originally the temple deity was called Tribhubaneshwar, the Lord of the Three Worlds of heaven, earth and the netherworld. Now the lingam is called Hari-Hari, that is half Shiva and half Vishnu. This change occurred during the rule of the Ganga kings who were Vaishnavites. They also modified the rituals of the temple.
Even today the Lingaraja temple is a living sanctum and the deity continues to receive the worship of its devotees. Non-Hindus are not allowed to enter the temple but can view the courtyard from a platform that stands outside its walls. This was built during British times so that the Viceroy, Lord Curzon could get a closer look at the temple.
The Lingaraja is the largest temple in Orissa with a mammoth, 45 metre high deul tower which is topped by a gigantic circular amalaks. This stone disk is supported by a series of lions that were the symbol of the Kesari Kings. The courtyard is filled with smaller shrines, many of which are miniatures of the main temple. Among them the most beautiful is a shrine of parvati built by the Ganga kings in the 12th century. The main temple is called the Shri Mandir and the structure possesses all the architectural elements of the Oriya temple layout.
A flight of stairs leads into the hall of the bhog mandir, after which the pilgrim walks through the natya mandir where the devadasis danced. These women, called maharis in Oriya, were the handmaidens of the god and were married to the deity and they danced many times every day during the main puja ceremonies. In the last century their dance fell into disrepute but today their art has been revived as the classical dance of Odissi. After the natya mandir one enters tha main assembly hall of the jagamohan and after that is the sanctum of the deul. Here the huge granite lingam of Shiva is worshipped in a dark, lamp lit, austere and unadorned garbha griha. The tapering tower rises above this sanctum and it is hollow from inside, with two chambers built above the deul and a flight of stairs built into the wall going up the structure.The outer walls of the Lingaraja have all the ritualistic deities placed in their appointed corners. In the alcoves are the eight dikpalas, guardians of the eight quarters of the globe. Traditionally the dikpalas are Kuber, Indra, Agni, Yama, Niritti, Varuna, Vayu and Ishana. Besides them are chlorite figures of Ganesh, Kartikeya and Parvati, placed in deep niches and decorated with vases and foliage and geometrical motifs. The tiers of the jagamohan roof are interspersed with figures of lions and friezes or military cavalcades.
The small Vaital Deul is an older temple, dated to the 8th century and is an interesting blend of Nagara and Buddhost architectural motifs. There is the unusual rectangular deul with a plain oblong roof that resembles the vaulted roofs of Buddhist chaitya halls. Even the doorways have the traditional Buddhist arch with a meditating figure placed in it in a very Buddha-like posture and there are miniature horseshoe shaped windows placed along the walls. The walls have carvings of apsaras and nayikas in indolent postures, putting on make up or arranging a scarf around their shoulders. Among the deitites there is a well chiseled figure of Surya riding his seven-horse chariot.
The Vaital Deul is dedicated to the Goddess Chamunda, a fierce and terrible aspect of Kali-Durga and as the name suggests it was probably a centre of tantric cults in the region. The icon is of an emaciated woman with sunken eyes, wearing a garland of skulls, seated on a corpse with an owl and a jackal beside her. The icon is eight armed and carries a bow, shield, trident, thunderbolt and arrow. These details of the icon are usually hidden from view behind the elaborate drapery. Unlike other Oriya temples the walls of the garbha griha are carved with scenes of tantric rites and among them is a carving of Shiva as the angry and destructive Bhairava.
The 11th century Raja Rani temple was probably never completed as it has no deity in the sanctum and the name, meaning ‘king and queen’ does not indicate the god who would have been worshipped here. Some feel the name is derived from rajrania, the local name for the reddish sandstone used in the construction of the temple. Others say that the temple was built by Raja Udyata Kesari on the wishes of his queen who wanted a temple in the memory of her mother. It was probably built in the 12th century. The walls have some exquisite sculptures of nayika figures in sensuous poses and the moulding of the figures shows great sophistication and skill. Also, there are the traditional parade of deities, worshippers, animals, flowers and vines. The tower is worth studying as it has many smaller pinnacles that resemble the motif of many peaks of a mountain range that was also used in Khajuraho. The smaller spires cluster around the main tower with their upward movement broken by panels of carvings.
The main structure had been completed but the decoration with carvings was left unfinished and the garbha griha probably never received a deity. In the unfinished antarala the outer walls still show the initial designs of many figures that had been drawn and roughly blocked out for carving but were never completed. History does not tell us why the graceful Raja Rani was left in this unfinished state, why the sculptors left their work half done or why its silent, empty garbha griha remains forever unsanctified.
It is impossible for a visitor to see all the temples in Bhubaneswar. Among those worth visiting are Parashurameshwar and Mukteshwar. The tiny Mukteshwar temple has an exquite arched gateway in a Buddhist torana style and carvings of the Saptamatrikas, the seven aspects of the Mother Goddess. The Parashurameshwar, built with reddish stone, is one of the oldest temples in the city, dating back to the 7th century. Its small size and slightly primitive design and carvings prove its antiquity. The tower is short and squat and the Jagamohan has a simple flat roof. It has panels showing the stories from the Mahabharata and Ramayana and delicate fretwork windows. The puzzling thing is that the temple is dedicated to Shiva but Parashuram was one of the incarnations of Vishnu and so the name refers to Vishnu and not Shiva.
Puri
The town of Puri in the District of that name of the sea coast of Orissa is famous throughout the world for the great temple of the god called Purishottama or Jagannatha and identified with Vishnu. Indeed the name of the town is a part of tehfuler name Purushottama- puri or Jagannathapuri meaning ‘the city of the god Purushottama- Jagannathapuri.’ Sometimes it is also called Purushottama which is similarly a part for the fuller name Purushottama- puri or purishottamakshetta. Puri is now regarded as the greatest of the East Indian holy places, although this position wasoriginally enjoyed by Gangasagara at the junctuion of the Bhagirathi and the Bay of Bengal. As I have shown elsewhere (Proc. I.H.C. 1947, pp. 91 ff.), Gangasagara gave place as the greatest tirtha about the eastern border of India to Puri during the reign of the Imperial Gangas of Orissa from the 12th cent- onwares.It is well known that the Maharajas of Puri, who may be regarded as the modern representatives of the imperial rulers of medieval Orissa, consider themselves servants of the god Purushorttama- Jagannatha, sweeping the floor of the puri temple being one of their prominent duties on the occasion of the Ratha- Yatra fveremony, i.e., the Car Festival of the said god. There is evidence to show that the Hindu emperors holding sway over Orissa during the medieval period considered the god Purushottama- Jagannatha, the ruler of their empire and regarded themselves as mere viceroys of the deity. Such a fiction, in which the real ruler of a country is placed in the position of a subordinate either to a god or to a spiritual guide (whether alive or dead). Is well known in Indian history and not entirely upknown in the annals of other lands. The dedication of one’s landed property in favour of the family deity or the spiritual guide of the family and its administration and enjoyments as a representative of that deity or saint is a well known custom in all parts of India. There are many instances of similar dedication of an entire kingdom in favour of a god or saint in the history of India. The rulers of Travancore regarded the god Padmanabhasvamin as the king of their territories and themselves as the god’s viceroys. The Guhilos of Mewar considered themselves the Dewans (administrators) of the god Ekalinga who was believed to have been the real lord of their dominions. The great Sivaji, founder of the Maratha empire in the latter half of the 17th century, is said to have dedicated his dominions to his spiritual preceptor Ramadasa and to have ruled the country in the saint’s name. The Kalachuri monarch Gangeyadeva Vikramaditya (circa 1015- 40 A.D.), also called Sahasika (Sahasanka), is knownto have dedicated his empire about the present Jubbulpore region in favoure of his spiritual guide, the Saiva saint Vamasambhu or Vamadeva, and from that date for more than two centuries hisdescendants are known to have regarded themselves as the viceroys of the saint. So far as we know, the conception of the god Purushottama- Jagannatha of Puri as the ruler of Orissa originated in the days of the imperial Gangas.
The mighty Ganga monarch Anantavarman Chodaganga (1078- 1147 A.D.) had his capital at Kalingangara, identified with modern Mukhalingam near Srikakulam Chicacole). He is known to have conquered the whole cast coast land up to the Gangetic Delta. He annexed the Puri- Cuttack region to the Ganga empire after having extirpated the rule of the Somavamsi kings in that area. The inscriptions of Choda ganga ‘s descendants assert that it was he who built the great temple of the god Purushotama- Jagannatha on the shore of the sea as the previous rulers of the country had neglected to do it. It may be pointed out that the Somavamsis who held sway over the Puri Cuttack region before Chodaganga’s conquest, were Saivas and apparently not much enthusiastic about the deity regarded as a form of Visnu. Chodaganga also was a Saiva like his ancestors who worshipped Gokarnesvara Siva on the Mahendragiri, in the early years of his reign. But soon after his cinquest of the Puri- Chttack area about the beginning of the twelfth century, we find him inclining gradually more and more towards the worshjip of Vishnu, no doubt in the form of Purushottama- Jagannatha of Puri. In one of his charters, dated 1112 A.D., Chodaganga calls himself both a Saiva and a Vaishnava while in his later documents the claim to being a Saiva is totally given up and the king is represented only as a Vaishnaya.
A tradition recorded in the Utkala- Khanada section of the Skanda Purana shows beyond doubt tht Purishottama- Jagannatha of Puri originally a deity worshiped by the aboriginal Sabara inhabitants of the area and that the worship of the god was adopted by the orthodox Hindus at a later date. Like Minakshi of Madura in South India, Kamakhya of Gauhati in Assam and numerous other gods and goddesses in different parts of India, the aboriginal god of Puri was gradually absorbed in the Brahmanical panteon and was identified with Vishnu. The identification of the god, worshipped originally by the Sabaras of Puri, with Vishnu was certainly well established considerably before the beginning of the twelfth century when Anantavarman Chodaganga conquered the Puri Cuttack region. The fact however that Hiuen tsang, the Chinese Pilgrim who visited Orissa in 638- 39 A.D., does not speak of the god shows that the god was no better than a local deity of limited fame and importance till as late as the seventh century A.D. His position in the religious life of Orissa must have been considerably established before the twelfth century when the conversion of Anantavaraman Chodaganga to Vaishnavism under his influence set him on the way to all- India importance.
The successors of Chodaganga were all devotees of Vishnu in the form of Purushottama- Jagannatha But is was his great grandson Anangabhima III (circa 1211- 38 A.D.) who was responsible for raising the god Purushottama- Jagannatha to an all India figure and Puri to its present position of eminence amongst the places of pilgrimage in India. The rise of Puri must have been facilitated by the obscuration of Gangasagara due to many factors including the Muslim occupation of Bengal and consequent want of royal patronge, obscuration of Viraja (modern Jaipur), the oldest Hindu tirtha in Orissa which enjoyed an eminent position during the age of the Bhauma- Kara emperors (from the ninth to the eleventh century A.D.) who had their capital in that city or its neighbourhood. By the time of Anangabhima III, the Gangas had already transferred their capital from Kalinganagara to Cuttack (Kataka). Anangabhima III issued his charters from Abhinava- Varanasikataka or Varanasi- kataka, i.e. moderen Cuttack. According to a tradition recorded in the Oriya chronicle entitled Madala Panji, a king named Anangabhima who at first had his capital at Chaudvara- kataka, built a new city named Varanasi on tehopposite bank of the Mahanadi and removed his residence there.
The Madala Panji says that a Ganga king named Anangabhima built (or completed the construction of) the temple of Purushottama Jagannatha at Puri. This king is no other than Anangabhima III who may have completed the Puri temple begun by his great- grandfather and is aactually known to have installed a god named Purushottama- Jagannatha to a new teple built by him at his capital at Varanasi kataka (Cuttack). The earliest inscriptions in the Puri temple are four records of the reign of Anangabhima III, which were recently traced by the present writer. According to another tradition in the same work, as I have shown elsewhere (Or. Hist. Res. Journ.,Vol. I, pp. 48 ff), a king named Anangabhima (apparently Anangabhima III) dedicted all his possessions including the empire in favour of the god Purushottama- Jagannatha and began to rule as a Rauta (i.e. feudatory) of the god, and his successors did not perform a formal coronation at the time of their accession as they considered them selves feudatories of the said goe. These tradtitions are remarkably supported by a large number of Ganga inscriptions that I have had occasion to examine.
In many of the inscriptions of king Anangabhima III and his successors, the Ganga ruler is described as a Rauta, Rautta or Ravuta, which is derived from Sanskrit Rajaputra i.e. Prince and is often used as a subordinate title. Several years ago I published an inscription (Ind. Cult., Vol. Vi, pp. 73) from the Lingaraja temple at Bhuvaneswara in the Puri District, which speaks of the dominions of Anangabhima III as Purushottama- samrajya, i.e. the empire belonging to the god Purushottama- Jagannatha.
Above History of Puri
A srikurmam inscription of 1309 AD. (S.I.I., Vol. V, No. 1214) is stated to have been deted in the reign of Jagannatha when Bhanu II (described as Jiyyana, Oriya Jena, the same as Rajputra or Rautta) was govering, while according to the Puri plates (J.A.S., Vol, XVII, pp. 19 ff), Bhanu II, described as a Rautta, made certain grants in 1313 A.D. during the reign of purushottama. Another inscription (S.I.I., Vol. V, No. 1154- 55) at Srikurmam, dated 1327 A.D., mentions Purushottama as the reigning monarch and omits the name of Bhanu II altogether. In this connection, two of the Simhachalam inscriptions (S.I.I., Vol. VI, Nos. 214, 938) offer valuable evidence. None of these records mentions the name of Bhanu II, although they are dated respectively in 1319 and 1314 AD., both the dates falling in the reign of that Ganga monarch (circa 1305- 27 AD.). It is however interesting to note that the regnal reckoning of Bhanu II has been attributed in the forst of the two records to Devadideva- Jagannatha and in the second to Devadideva Purushottama. There is absolutely no doubt that this Purushottama- Jaganatha, described as Devadideva, i.e. ‘the foremost god amongst all the gods,’ is the deity worshipped in the Puri temple, to whom Bhanu II, like other rulers of te Ganga family since the dedication of the Ganga empire in favour of the god by Anangabhima III, owed fictitious allegiance as a viceroy or subordinate. This seaside town is one of the most important places of pilgrimage in India. It is one of the char dhams placed at the cardinal directions of the country, the others being Badrinath in the north, Dwarka in the west and Rameshwaram in the south. Puri is Shrikshetra, one of the greatest pilgrimages and no true pilgrimage is complete without doing puja at the Jagannath temple here. This temple with its unusual icons also has the most complicated myths and rituals amongst all the important temples in India.Jagannath means Lord of the World and it is a name of Vishnu and Puri is called Shri Purushottam Dham or Martya vaikuntha, the home of Vishnu on earth. Puri is also called Nilachal, Nalagiri and Shankha Kshetra. Every leading sage and reformer has visited Puri, including Guru Nanak, Ramanuja and Chaitanya. The great Jagannath temple stands at one end of a broad avenue that has the Gundicha temple at the other end. This avenue is the site of the famous rath Yatra when the idols of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra are taken from the temple in an elaborate procession of three chariots. The deities stay at the Gundicha temple for a week and return in a procession called the Ulta Rath.
The icons in the Jagannath temple are highly unusual. Jagannath, the main deity has with him his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra. In the Mahabharata Lord Krishna had a brother Balarama- Balabhadra and a sister Subhadra who married Arjuna. So Jagannath, the Lord of the World is Krishna, the avatar of Vishnu. However, here Krsihna is worshipped with his siblings instead of with Radha. Moreover Krishna has never been depicted the way he has been in Puri. The icons are made of wood and these are reqularly changed. The figures are blocks of wood primitively carved with short arms, no legs, flat faces with large circular eyes and wide smiling lips. Jagannath is painted black, Balabhadra is white and Subhadra is saffron coloured.
Over the years there has been much speculation about the origin of the Jagannath temple and its extraordinary icons that resemble no other depiction of Krishna anywhere. The site is an ancient one and some historians place the Buddhist site of Dantapuri here. It is said that the tooth of the Buddha was worshipped here before being taken to Sri Lanka. Others, going by the icons, feel that originally the idol was a tribal deity that was included in the pantheon by turning it into an avatar of Vishnu. This is something the pantheistic Hindu faith does quite often as exemplified in the claim that the Buddha also is a Vishnu avatar. The kingdoms of the region have always had a large tribal population and blocks of wood are worshipped by them. Also, members of the Shabar tribe are intimately connected with the rituals of the temple, something not seen at any other temple. The Brahmins have kept their hold on the puja rituals but the Shabars are responsible for searching for the trees from which the idols are made. They still carve the icons and take part in the Rath Yatra. In a region with a large population of tribals, the worship of a powerful tribal god must have been important to a king. When such a god was brought into a Hindu temple it was obvious that the king and the priests had to compromise with the tribals and allow them a role in the rituals. Myths often arise from historical fact and the myth of jagannath indicated the tribal origin of the cult of the Lord of the World. It is said that King Indradyumna ruled over the land of purushottam Kshetra at Puri and once he had a dream in which Vishnu asked him to build a temple dedicated to him. The god said that his icon would be found in a cave in the Nilachal hill. The image was called Nilmadhava, the blue Krishna.
Indradyumna had no idea where he could find the image and sent his men out to search for this mysterious Nilachal hill. One of them, a Brahmin youth named vidyapati found the cave where the Shabar tribals had an icon called Nilmadhava. It was worshipped by the tribal chief Viswavasu and only he knew the location of the cave. Vidyapati married the daughter of the tribal chief and persuaded his wife to convince her father to show him the cave. Then Vidyapati stole the idol and brought it to King Indradyumna.
Viswavasu was devastated and seeing his grief the god chose to return to the cave but before he did so, he reassured Indradyumna that he would return. However, he stipulated that Indradyumna had to bild a temple worthy of him. Once the temple was ready Indradyumna once again prayed to Krishan and he was told to pick up a log floating in the sea. It so happened that the log was so heavy that no one could pick it up and faithful Viswavasu had to be summoned. He picked up the log as if it were a feather and carried it into the new temple. This was called brahmadaru and now an image had to be carved out of it but none of the carves could make even a small cut on it with their chisels. Then Vishwakarama, the architect of the gods appeared before Indradyumna in the guise of an ole man and offered to carve the idol. However, he had one condition. He was going to take 21 days to varve the idol and no one was allowed to watch him work. The old man locked himself in a room with the Brahmadaru and outside everyone could hear the sound of his hammering and chiseling. Then one day there was silence and indradyumna’s wife. Queen Gundicha became apprehensive that the old man had died. An anxious king ignored the advice of his minister and opened the door. He found an empty room as the old man had vanished leaving behind the three incomplete images. That is why Jgannath and Balabhadra have no legs and tiny Subhadra smiling between them has no limbs at all. A penitent royal couple established the unfinished images in the new temple and thus Krishna came to reside in Puri. After a gap of 12 to 19 years the images are made again in a ceremony called Naba Kalebar. The Shabar priests go to a forest of neem trees and look for some specific signs which mark the right trees. Then the wood is brought back to the temple for carving. An elaborate procession wends its way through willages where people come out to worship the Brahmadaru. It is the Shabars again who carve the new images and then hand them over to the Brahmin priests for consecration. The old images are buried at a sacred spot by the these tribal priests.
In the month of June-July the three images are taken out in procession in the most famous chariot festival in the world. The Jagannath Rath Yatra has even given the woed ‘Juggernaut’ to the English language. The Yatra reenacts Krishna’s journey from Gokul to Mathura. The three decorated chariots with brightly coloured canopies are brought before the temple and the images are placed in them.
Even the chariots have names. Jagannath’s vehicle is called Nandighosh, It is the largest, with 18 wheels and has a yellow and red striped canopy. Balabhadra’s chariot with 16 wheels and a red and green top is called Taladhwaja and Subhadra has the 14-wheeled Padmadhwaja with a red and black canopy. Each chariot has two rows of carved wooden horses in front and they are dragged along the main avenue by thousands of devotees puilling at the ropes. Theday long procession ends after 3 kilometres at the Gundicha temple named after King Indradyumna’s queen. Here the idols are worshipped for a week and then Jagannath and his family return to their own temple.
Architecturally the Jagannath temple was modeled on the Lingaraja temple of Bhubaneshwar, though it is much larger. Historians date the temple to the rule of the Ganga dynasty of the 12th century. It was begun by the Ganga king Chedabhima Deva and completed by his son Anangabhima Deva. The layout follows the Lingaraja with a deul, Jagamohan, natya mandir and bhog mandir placed within a walled courtyard. The last two are much later additions, probably built in the 14th century during the reign of the Gajapati dynasty. In the courtyard there are many subsidiary shrines and an immense kitchen. The shikhara is topped by the wheel of Vishnu called Nilachakra. It is made of an alloy of eight metals called ashta dhatu and the flag over the wheel is the pataka. The temple is whitewashed and because of this the European sailors voyaging up the Bay of Bengal who used it as a landmark, called it the ;White pagoda’. Only Hindus are allowed inside the enclosure but, as at Lingaraja, it can be viewed dfrom a platform outside the wall.
The temple itself is not architecturally unique and the quality of the sculpture is quite ordinary. It is the sanctity of the site as a dham and tirtha that draws pilgrims to it. Also, over the years it had been repaired a number of times and the use of cement has obliterated many of the original carvings. The jagamohan is unusual in that it has 16 pillars and the outer walls have the usual complement of religious and secular carvings. A chlorite pillar called the Aruna Sthambha stands at the main gate of the simhadwar, the lion’s gate. On top of the pillar is the figure of Aruna, the god of dawn who drives the seven horse chariot of Surya. This pillar once stood before the sun temple at Konarak and was later shifted here. Another pillar, the Garuda Sthambha stands inside the natya mandir and faces the garbha griha. Lord Chaitanya is said to have stood here nd said his prayers to the deity. In the garbha griha, besides the three main deities there is the sudarshana chakra, the discus of Krishna, images of Lakshmi. Saraswati and Nilmadhava. The ceremonies of the temple have fascinated visitors for centuries. The idols have 21 sets of clothes that are changed according to the phases of the moon. The deities are offered food seven times a day from the temple kitchen. This food, the mahaprasad, has 56 courses and is prepared in the largest kitchen in the world. The mahaprasad is sold to pilgrims outside the temple in the market called Ananda Bazaar
Konarak
The Gayatri mantra is the supreme mantra of the Vedas. Even today Hindus across the world begin their day with this Iyrical invocation to the sun. And it is these eternal words of praise that inspired the creators of the Surya Deul, the Sun temple at Konarak. It was such a magnificent dream. Every day surya rides out on his seven horse chariot to circle the globe bringing light and life with his beneficent rays. The charioteer is Aruna, the God of Dawn. So at Konarak, as the first rays of dawn lightened the horizon in the east the celestial chariot of Surya would rise from the foam tipped waves of the Bay of Bengal to ride across the land. It was to be a chariot in stone with twenty-four giant wheels fro the hours of the day and drawn by seven prancing horses symbolising the days of the week.The Surya Deul at Konarak was visualized as a giant ratha of Surya riding out from the sea. Today the sea has receded and the temple is surrounded by sadn. The deul has collapsed, leaving only the jagged remains of the walls of the garbha griha. The natya mandir has lost its roof, its ornate pillars reaching up to the sky in vain. Over the centuries the ruined and forgotten temple had been buried in sand and much of it was excavated only in the early part of the twentieth century. Even in ruins the Surya Deul is a magnificent creation. For centuries sailors voyaging along the shoreline of the Bay of Bengal towards the ports of Calcutta and Chittagong had two landmarks in Orissa. One, the Jagannath temple at Puri which they called the ‘White pagoda’ and the hulking ruined silhouette of the Surya Deul at Konarak which they called the ‘Black Pagoda.’ Konarak is said to be an ancient place of sun worship. The myths say that Krishna’s son Samba earned the anger of his father because he had looke with desire at one of Krishna’s queens. An angry Krishna had cursed Samba with leprosy and the poor young man had wandered the land seeking a cure. Then he came to Konarak where he prayed to Surya for twelve years and was cured. In gratitude Samba built the first sun temple here. The Surya Deul was built by King Narasimha. I of the Ganga dynasty who reigned in the 13th century. As a copper plate grant of his son narasimha II states with great pride, "King Narasimha built at kona-Kona, a place of great renown, a temple for the sun to live in with the other gods." The temple drew visitors for centuries. Abul fazl, Akbar’s royal biographer writes in the Ain-I-Akbari, "Its cost was defrayed by twelve years revenue of the province. Even those whose Judgement is critical and who are different to please stand astonished at its sight".twenty eight temples stand in its vivinity". Each of which has its separate legend." People speculate about the reasons for building a temple at such an isolated place but ancient Konarak was an important port mentioned by Ptolemy. It was also a traditional centre of sun worship. One legend holds that Narasimha’s father King Anangabhimadeva had vowed to rebuild the Purushottam temple at Puri which had fallen into ruins. When he failed to fulfill his row Narasimha built this temple to save his father from sin. Another legend goes that it was an act of gratitude as Narasimha was healed of disease and the sun was considered to be the great healer. Abul Fazl cells the temple a "mighty memorial to posterity" which seems to indicate that it was built to commemorate a victorious war.
The Plan of the temple follows tradition with the main deul, the jagamohan and a natya mandir. Only here, instead of a continous line of mandapas, the natya mandir is separated from the jagamohan by a flight of stairs. A chlorite pillar, the Aruna Sthambha used to stand here but was later shifted to the jagannath temple at Puri. The pillar has the figure of Surya’s charioteer Aruna on top. It is the sanctum and the assembley hall that stand as a unit on the same platform and this was designed as a chariot. By the sides of the platform are carved twenty-four gigantic wheels and seven ruchly caparisoned horses strain at their reins by the flight of stairs leading up to the jagamohan. It is these intricately carved wheels that have become a visual symbol of the Sun temple at Konarak. Each wheel has sixteen spokes radiating from the axle and are covered with carvings of patterns and figures set in the centre. Every sculpture has been placed to blend with thearchitectural plan of the temple. The sides of the platform, the outer walls of the jagamohan and the natya mandir teem with sculpture and even after centuries of sea air has roughened their details they are powerful creations. There are richly decorative floral and geometric patterns and friezes of dancers, musicians, kings, soldiers, animals and romantic couples. Niches show the king making offerings to the god and listening to his guru, practicing archery and taking part infestivals. Reliefs showing the king appear even at the base of the pedestal on which the main icon must have stood in the now ruined garbha griha.
It is these carvings and the free standing sculptures that make Konarak such a unique temple. There are the magnificent chlorite figures ofSurya in various poses, called the Parsva Devata, that are set in the niches of the sanctum wall. Also very impressive aer the large, free standing sculptures of animals that prove that the Indian sculptor was just as good at carving figures in the round as decorating the walls of temples. The most powerful are the springing war horses being held in check by their grooms, rampant elephants and mythical lions. In contrast to their vitality are the alasa kanyas, the indolent maidens striking sensuous poses and the erotic couples, the maithuna figures carved with an absence of prudery that recalls the maithuna sculptures at Khajurajo.
Little remains of the main sanctuary, the deul except for the ruined platform and the bottom portion of the tower. The tower must have been planned like the other Oriya temples with a tall staight middle section curving inwards, topped by the fluted disk of the amalaka and the pot finial of the kalasa. The huge base ofhte tower shows that it would have been the tallest in the region. The garbha griha no longer has a deity but one cam imagine what it may have looked like from the three parsa devatas placed in niches around the farbha griha. These show a benign Surya, weating his boots and rich jewellery, riding on his chariot and in one he is riding a horse. These grey-blue images gleam against the russet stone of the temple and the carvings are so refined as to make it appear that Surya is wearing gossamer thin garments. Even the delicate embroidery on his clothes is clearly visible. These imges are precisely placed to catch the direct rays of the sun t different times of the day. The Jagamohan remains the best preserved of the buildings. It is square with a pyramidal pida roof. The walls are recessed thus creating a larger surface area for the sculptures, interspersed by beautifully proportioned doorways. The interior has been blocked up with sand and rubble to stop the subsidence of the walls. The natya mandir stands before the jagamohan, separated by a flight of stairs. The pillared hall has no roof but the walls have an array of dancers and free standing figures of female musicians inpretty poses carrying drums and playing cymbala and flutes, a panorama that seems to sway to the joyous rhythms of life and love.
There are other buildings within the waled enclosure including a temple to the south-west that isa sanctuary to Maha Gayatri Devi, one of the wives of Surya. Also, the sanctum and porch and carvings of the nine planets of a Vaishnava temple were excavated in the 1950. Most of the temples mentioned by Abul fazl seem to have vanished in the sands.
Bengal
Calcutta-Bishnupar The Ganga ends her interminable journey across North India among the paddy fields of Hooghly and the mangrove forests of Sunderbans. At its delta it breaks into many small steams tht weave silver over the green verdant landscape. Here they grow rice and jute, weave intricate muslin and fishermen sing as they spread the nets across the water. In Bengal the Mother Goddess has the hearts of the people. She is worshipped in every form, the benign, smiling warrior Durga, the terrible destructive dark Kali, the intellectual musician Saraswati and the giver of wealth Lakshmi. For the Bengali the Mother Goddess is the embodiment of shakti-the eternal power of every god, without which even magnificent Shiva is incomplete. Bengal has an ancient civilization and its rich agricultural wealth meant it was coveted by all the kings of the north. The region had Buddhist and Hindu kings but from the time of the sultanate dynasties it was ruled by the Muslims. During the rule of the Mughals it was one of the most important of the empire’s provinces. At the decline of the Mughals the Nawabs of Bengal reigned till the fateful battle at Plassey after which Bengal became one of the first provinces of the British Raj. So like the states of the north, engal too saw its stupas and temples destroyed and replaced by mosques. In addition, as many of the temples were built in brick the extremes of weather and frequent flood played a part in their destruction. Today Bengal had temples that are resonant with religious significance but none that can be counted as archiltecturally significant. This alluvial region has few hills and a limited source of good stone so most of the temples are built in brick. Bit the Bengali craftsman has turned these plebeian squares of terracotta into works of art. The brick temples of Vishnupur are unique for the terracotta friezes that portray the complete pageantry of life.Calcutta
They say the city of Calcutta gets its name from the venerable Kali temple-Kalighat. It is one of the fifty one pithastana- the places where parts of Sati’s body fell when it was dismembered by Vishnu. The little toe of her right foot is said to have fallen here. A temple has been in existence here for centuries but the present structure arose in the 19th century. It was built by Shibdev Roy Chaudhuri, the zamindar of Barisa. The temple has abangaldar style curved roof and some fine examples of terracotta tiles but ovr the years it has faced much neglect and hamhanded attempts at repairs.Kalighat’s goddess is a powerful deity. Kali is the fierce, angry and unforgiving form of the Mother Goddess. She came into being to destroy the terrible demons Shumbha and Nishumba. She fought the demon army and she cut off their heads, she wore them around her neck as a necklace and drank their blood. A maddened Kali rampaged so wildly that the gods feared for the earth and begged Shiva to stop her but she wouldn’t listen to him. So Shiva lay down in her path and Kali stepped on him. This finally made her stop, the realization that she was standing on the chest of her lord, and she stuck out her tongue in shame. The image at Kalighat is of a goddess wearing a necklace of skulls, holding a bloody sword, standing over Shiva. Kali is a dark goddess and here she is made of black stone and she glitters with gold and silver and stands under asilver parasol.
Another important Kali temple is at Dakshineshwar by the Ganga. Dakshineshwar means Lord of the South and one of the forms of Shiva is of Dakshinamurti, Shiva facing the south. This temple is spiritually important because the 19th century philospher-saint Ramakrishan paramhansa was the priest at this temple. It was built in 1855 by the remarkable Rani Rashmoni, an enterprising business woman who belonged to a lower caste but had the courage to build a temple on which she spent a huge sum of nine lakhs. Ramakrishna’s simple room within the temple still attracts visitors today. Here Shiva lies on a sivler lotus with a thousand petals, carrying the rampant Kali on his chest. Around the temple there are twelve smaller shrines to Shiva. Dakshineshwar is one of the few shrines where Kali and Shiva are worshipped together. Gierce and indepandent Kali Usually prefers to have a temple to herself. A number of later temples also draw the worshipper to Dakshineshwar, like Adyapith and the Ramakrishna temples. Across the river is Belur Math built by Ramakrishna’s greatest diciple Vivekananda. In 1989 he carried the ashes of Ramakrishna to Belur where a temple was built. The architecture uses elements of a temple, church and mosque as a symbol of universal brotherhood. The dynamic Vivekananda who had dreamed of this temple did not live to see it completed. His shrine is also within Belur Math, which is the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission.<
Bishnupur
Here simple clay has been moulded with lyrical imagination to creat terracotta temples of exquisite beauty. These temples are simple one or two roomed structures without mandapas. Their design echoes the village thatched hut with a rectangular sanctum over a high plinth, without windows and with a curving roof topped by a small tower. Some of these roofs have upto five towers and the walls are covered with terracotta tiles withornat designs. The Bankura region is renowned for its terracotta work and these temples aer the finest examples of the craft.Bishnupur was once the capital of the Malla kings and the temples were built in the 16th century. The Malla palaces are in ruins but fortunately their delightful terracotta temples have survived. All the temples are decorated with terracotta tiles that depict not just deities and the stories of the epics but also portray the daily life of the people. The curving bangaldar roofs echo the sloping rush roofs of the Bengali village hut and this elegant shape was even copied in the marble palaces of theMughals and Rajputs. As the Malla kings were Vaishnavas all the temples are dedicated to Krishan and the panels of terracotta relief on the walls depict episodes from the Mahabharata and the life of Krishna. The richest terracotta work can be seen at the Madan Mohan temple and the Shyamraj while the Jorhbangla has an interesting double roof topped with a tower.
Kamaksha
The hilly land of forests and tea gardens and the surging Brahmaputra, Assam was the ancient kingdom of Ahom. In the puranas it is called Pragjyotishpur and its king fought on the side of the Kauravas at Kurukshetra. It is also called Kamrup because here Kamadeva once disturbed Shiva’s meditation and was burnt to ashes for his termerity. Shiva’s meditation and was burnt to ashes for his termerity. Shiva relented at Kama’s consort Rati’s prayers and once again revived Kama to his origional form. The sage Vashishtha is said to have built his ashram just outside the present city of Guwahati.The Kamaksha temple stands at the outskirts of Guwahati on top of the Nilachal hill, with a gateway guarded by two stone lions. Kamaksha is another name of Kali. The ancient temple that stood here was destroyed by Muslims, but the sanctity of the place remained and a new temple was built in the 17th century by the Raja of Cooch Behar. This is another of the pitasthanas and the temple is considered a very powerful one and a centre of tantra worship. Devadasis danced the tandave here at a ceremony reserved for women. The simple spired temple reflects the old Ahom architecture, with a honeycomb shaped cave-like structure and a dark eerie garbha griha. Pilgrims to Kamaksha also visit nearby temple dedicated to the goddess Bhuvaneshwari.
