01A princess and her vow
Chandrika Devi was the daughter of Anangabhima III, the Eastern Ganga king who declared Jagannath the true ruler of Odisha. Widowed young, she built this temple in 1278, in the reign of her brother’s son Bhanudeva I, and recorded the gift on a stone now in the British Museum. The temple copies the Lingaraja plan on a smaller scale, deul, jagamohana, natamandira and bhogamandapa in a line, but the murtis inside are Vaishnava: Balarama under a hood of seven serpents, Krishna holding the chakra and gada, and Subhadra between them.
02The kitchen of Bindu Sagar
Ananta Vasudeva’s kitchen is the busiest in Bhubaneswar. Rice, dal and vegetables are cooked in stacked earthen pots over wood fires, the way Puri cooks for Jagannath, and the bhoga is sold in the temple’s Ananda Bazaar. Pilgrims who come for the Lingaraja darshan often eat here. During the Chandan Yatra and on Ekadashi the courtyard fills before dawn. Entry to the inner temple is for Hindus only, as at Puri.
The life of this place
- 1278 CEChandrika Devi founds the temple and records the gift in an inscription.
On the east bank of Bindu Sagar, a short walk from Lingaraja; non-Hindus may view it from outside.
