हिंदीOn this day
Rebuilt

Kichakeswari Temple, Khiching

The guardian Devi of the Bhanja kings at Khiching, their old capital in the forests of Mayurbhanj. Her temple of dark chlorite fell and was raised again, stone by stone, in the 20th century.

Built: Old shrine of the Bhanja capital Khijjinga Kotta; rebuilt in the 1930s with its own fallen stonesWhere: Odisha (Mayurbhanj district)Deity: Maa Kichakeswari (Chamunda)21.93° N, 85.83° E
  1. c. 10th–11th century
  2. 1930s
Photo: Dishabhagat07 · CC BY-SA 4.0

01Khijjinga Kotta

Copper plates of the early Bhanja rulers were issued from Khijjinga Kotta, and the mounds around the modern village hide a city of temples. Kichakeswari was its presiding Devi, a gaunt Chamunda, and the Bhanjas, who ruled Mayurbhanj until 1949, kept her as their family goddess. The name comes from Kichaka of the Mahabharata, and the local tradition links the area with the Virata kingdom where the Pandavas spent their year in hiding.

02Raised again

By the early 20th century the temple had collapsed into a heap of carved blocks. The Mayurbhanj state had the stones numbered and the temple rebuilt on its old plinth in the 1930s, one of the earliest full rebuildings of a fallen temple in eastern India. The dark green-black chlorite takes a polish, so the restored walls with their scrollwork shine in the forest light. A small museum beside it holds sculptures found in the Khiching mounds.

The life of this place

  1. c. 10th–11th centuryKhiching flourishes as the capital of the early Bhanja rulers.
  2. 1930sThe fallen temple is rebuilt by the Mayurbhanj state.
Visiting

Khiching is about 150 km from Baripada and 20 km from Karanjia; the museum is closed on Mondays.

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