bhubaneshwar - the temple city

Bhubaneshwar has more than 500 temples of historical interest. I was in the city for less than 24 hours - on route to visit a dear friend at Chilika - so I checked out some of the temples. Now if you're into tracing changes in temple architecture over time, then I'm told Bhubaneshwar is the place. But I'm not really into that so won't say much about it.

Reached Bhubaneshwar in the afternoon and headed out to the Khandagiri and Udaygiri caves. These caves were built around the 2nd century BC as cells for Jain ascetics. There were lots of people and it was too hot so I didn't notice what I was supposed to. On reading about the caves later on, I realized that I was supposed to have appreciated the elaborate carving on their facades. Instead, for some reason I spent the afternoon there looking mainly at three things:

love messages scratched out on the 18th century Jain temple that is situated at the top of the hill at Khandagiri...




the group of school-girls who had come on a school-trip to the caves


and a tree at Udaygiri where people have tied all manner of cloth and paper bits as their vows to a deity.



From the caves I went to the Lingaraj temple, the most well-known and visited temple in Bhubaneshwar. Since they don't allow cameras inside the temple compound, and I wasn't sure whether to leave my camera outside, I decided to give the temple a skip for the moment and stroll in the direction of some other smaller temples I'd seen on the way.

One of these temples was in a narrow lane opposite the Lingaraj temple.

The Lingaraj temple from the lane...

Another small temple...


Boys playing cricket in the compound of one of the smaller temples...

A house along the way...


A priest and others playing cards in one of the temple compounds... a sight I saw at a number of the smaller temples...


The next morning I headed out to see some of the more well-known temples.

The Parashurameshvara temple is from the 7th century and is the earliest temple still standing in Bhubaneshwar. The temple shows the early stages of development of the two main Orissan temple components: the beehive-shaped tower (usually called the deul) and the porch in front of the tower (called the Jagamohan).




The nearby Mukteshwar temple which is from the 10th century...



It is dedicated to Lord Shiva.

In a side niche in the temple are the idols of Lord Jagannath, his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra.


One of the smaller temples within the Mukteshwar temple compound...


It is dedicated to 50 years of Indian Independence :-)


Carvings on the main Mukteshwar temple...


From here, I walked to the Lingaraj temple, passing the Bindu Saagar on the way.


I put my camera and sandals for safe-keeping, and managed to get past the hordes of priests who were offering tourists their services as priest-for-darshan-and-guide-to-temple. Roamed about the compound which is scattered with many other smaller temples around the main temple. Maybe having a guide would have been a good idea to understand its history and carvings, but the late-morning sun was beginning to beat down on me... and I had enjoyed the smaller temples so much that here I was only keen to finish "seeing" the Lingaraj temple so that I could return to my hotel and head out to Puri.