हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Alarnath Temple, Brahmagiri

The temple 23 km from Puri where pilgrims go during Anavasara, the fortnight after the Snana Yatra when Jagannath is hidden from view; for those days, devotees hold, the Lord gives darshan as Alarnath.

Built: Old Vaishnava kshetra; present temple of the Gajapati eraWhere: Odisha (Puri district)Deity: Bhagwan Vishnu as Alarnath, with Shridevi and Bhudevi19.79° N, 85.65° E
  1. early 16th century
Photo: Kamalakanta777 · CC BY-SA 3.0

01Darshan in Anavasara

After the great bath of the Snana Purnima, Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra fall ill with fever, the Puri servitors say, and are kept in a sick room for about fifteen days, out of sight. Pilgrims who have walked to Puri do not go home without darshan. They go south to Brahmagiri, where Vishnu stands four-armed in black stone as Alarnath, and take his darshan as Jagannath’s own. Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came here in Anavasara, and a stone on which he fell in ecstasy, said to bear the print of his body, is shown in the temple.

02Kheer of Alarnath

The temple’s prasad is a thick rice kheer, and pilgrims carry it home in clay pots. The name Alarnath is taken by the temple tradition to come from the Alvars, the Tamil Vaishnava saints, and the kshetra is counted among the Vaishnava abhimana sthalas. Brahmagiri itself is said to be where Brahma worshipped Vishnu.

The life of this place

  1. early 16th centuryShri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu stays at Alarnath during the Anavasara.
Visiting

Brahmagiri is 23 km south-west of Puri; the crowds come in the Anavasara fortnight in Jyeshtha–Ashadh.

Nearby

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Govardhan Matha, Puri

The eastern (Purvamnaya) seat of Adi Shankaracharya’s four mathas, at Puri close to the Jagannath temple. It holds the Rigveda and the mahavakya Prajnanam Brahma; its first acharya was Padmapada.

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Shri Jagannath Temple, Puri

Purushottama Kshetra, the eastern dham of the Char Dham, where Bhagwan Jagannath, his elder brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra sit in wooden forms renewed in the Navakalevara rite. The present temple rose under the Eastern Gangas and survived repeated raids because the priests carried the deities away and brought them back.

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Gundicha Temple, Puri

The garden temple at the far end of Puri’s Bada Danda, where Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra ride in their chariots every Ashadh and stay for seven days. For the rest of the year it stands empty, its altar waiting.

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Sakshi Gopal Temple, Satyabadi

The temple of Gopal who, in the katha told in the Chaitanya Charitamrita, walked from Vrindavan to bear witness for a poor brahmin’s promise. Pilgrims to Puri stop here so that Gopal may witness their pilgrimage.