हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Vaital Deula, Bhubaneswar

An 8th-century Devi temple near Bindu Sagar with a vaulted, barrel-shaped roof, the khakhara form, and three small finials along its ridge. Chamunda sits in the dark sanctum.

Built: 8th century CEWhere: Odisha (Khordha district)Deity: Maa Chamunda20.24° N, 85.84° E
  1. 8th century
Photo: Prateek Pattanaik · CC BY-SA 4.0

01The khakhara roof

Most Kalinga temples rise to a curved rekha tower. Vaital Deula does not. Its roof is a long half-cylinder, like an overturned boat or a gourd split lengthwise, which is what khakhara means. The form was kept in Odisha for Devi temples, Shakti shrines of a fiercer kind. The three spires on the ridge give it the local name Tini-mundia Deula, the temple with three heads, and the temple tradition takes them as Mahasaraswati, Mahalakshmi and Mahakali.

02Chamunda in the dark

The sanctum gets almost no daylight, and a lamp is needed to see Chamunda, gaunt and eight-armed, seated on a corpse with an owl and a jackal near her. Around her on the walls are the Saptamatrikas and Bhairava. On the outside the carving is gentler: Surya in his chariot on the eastern face, and a Shiva-Parvati panel. The temple belongs to the age of the Bhaumakara rulers, when Tantric Shakta worship was strong in Odisha.

The life of this place

  1. 8th centuryThe khakhara temple of Chamunda is built near Bindu Sagar.
Visiting

West of Bindu Sagar, a few minutes from Ananta Vasudeva; carry a torch to see the sanctum.

Nearby

Ananta Vasudeva Temple, BhubaneswarStanding
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Ananta Vasudeva Temple, Bhubaneswar

The great Vaishnava temple of Shaiva Bhubaneswar, on the bank of Bindu Sagar, where Krishna, Balarama and Subhadra stand in full stone form. Its kitchen cooks a mahaprasad for thousands each day, as Puri does.

Lingaraja Temple, BhubaneswarStanding
Cholas and the Southern Seas

Lingaraja Temple, Bhubaneswar

The great temple of Ekamra Kshetra, from whose name Tribhuvaneshvara the city of Bhubaneswar takes its own. The swayambhu linga is worshipped as Harihara, Shiva and Vishnu together, with bilva and tulsi both offered.

Parasurameswara Temple, BhubaneswarStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Parasurameswara Temple, Bhubaneswar

The best-preserved of Bhubaneswar’s early temples, raised about 650 CE. It is the first in Odisha with a separate hall, the jagamohana, in front of the sanctum, and the first in the city to show the Saptamatrikas.

Mukteshwar Temple, BhubaneswarStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Mukteshwar Temple, Bhubaneswar

A small sandstone temple, barely 10 metres high, that marks the turn from the early to the mature Kalinga style. Its arched torana is found nowhere else in Odisha.