The outer wall of Lord Jagannath Temple has gates openings for the devotees in the four direction. These four gates are represented by the four animals. In the east there is lion and hence called lion’s gate or sinhadwar. In the west there is tiger hence tiger’s gate or Vyaghradwar. In the north, there is elephant and hence called as elephant’s gate or Hastidwar. In the south, there is horse and hence horse’s gate or ashvadwar. Eastern Gate/Lion’s Gate/Simha Dwara
The two lions statues are there in this gate in the crouching position. The lion is a symbolic representation of MOKSHYA. Hence is is popularly said that if you enter in the temple through this gate, you will get mokshya. The deities present in simhadwar are Kasi Biswanath, Goudia Nrusimha and Bhagya Hanumaan. Southern Gate/Horse Gate/Aswa Dwara
The horses symbolically represent the KAMA or lust. There are two galloping horses with Jagannath and Balabhadra on their back in the martial glory. The images of Lokanath, Isanesvara, Parsunath, Dhabalesvara, Laxmi-Nrusimha amd Tapasvi Hanumaan are present here.
You have to sacrifice the feeling of lust while entering through this gate.
Western Gate/Tiger Gate/Vyaghra Dwara
Tiger is the symbol of DHARMA. The Dharma is an important philosophy in the Hindu Religion. In each and every moment to have to adhere with your Dharma.The deities present here are Ramesvara, Nisa Nrusimha and Birabikram Hanumaan.
Northern Gate/Elephant Gate/Hasti Dwara
The Hastidwara or the Elephant Gate had on each side a colossal figure of elephant, which is said to have been disfigured during the Muslim inroads.Subsequently, these figures were repaired and plastered with mortar and placed at the northern gate of the inner enclosure (Kurma Bedha). The images of Lokanath, Isanesvara, Parsunath, Dhabalesvara, Laxmi-Nrusimha amd Tapasvi Hanumaan are present here.
These are the four ways by which one can reach The Lord of Universe. The doors are names after the animals because of their symbolic representation at the door.
It feels really very exciting when you make reading and travelling your hobby. And believe me then only you will be able to co relate the things. One fine day, I was reading a pdf file of Odisha Govt. and I came to know about a place called Kuruma, an ancient Buddhist site. I decided to go to that place to explore more. This site is located 8.6 kms to the south-east of the famous Sun Temple at Konark in the district of Puri, Odisha. First, you have to go to famous Sun Temple Konarka. From there you just move on to Balidokan, which is just 7.3 km on Konarka-Kakatpur road. From Balidokan square, just turn left to go to Kuruma, which is 1.3 km from there. The Dharma Pokhari or the Pond of Dharma is located nearby the site. Prior to this excavation, a stone slab containing the beautiful figure of Buddha was lying on the bank of this tank. Later on, this image was replaced and enshrined in a newly built shed. Besides the Buddha image, other two images were...
GANGESVARI TEMPLE, VILLAGE-BAYALISBATI, GOP, PURI, ODISHA, INDIA It was a perfect sunny day to start this much awaited long drive. I started at 6:30am from Uttara Square, Bhubaneswar (Odisha). From where I reached to Gop at 7:30am. I took my breakfast at local tiffin center and suddenly I get delighted by seeing this board of dept of culture. Last year when I visited this place, board was not there and it took me near about two hrs to reach that place. Odisha state archeology was repairing and renovating this temple at that time and this time all repairing work was completed. Gangeshvari temple, which was, a model temple for the Sun temple Konarka, situated in Bayalisbati, the temple of Goddess GangesVari, who was the Ishtadevi of kings of Ganga Vamsa , like, ChodGanga Dev, Narusingh Dev , etc. is a beautifully carved temple. According to the legends, near about 1200 artisans stay at that place and they travel with big logs keeping stones on t...
I was researching on this topic around two years back, when I came to know about some specific Matrikas. Later on, I got to know about sapta matrikas and ashta matrikas. Matrika is a sanskrit word, whose meaning is mother. We can also see a relation between words likes Mati-Matara-Murtika-Matruka-Matrika-Murti . But we will keep these words for later research. Let us concentrate on Matrikas. Matrikas are usually depicted as a heptad, they are called Saptamatrika. The names are as follows: Brahmani, Vaishnavi, Maheswari, Indrani, Kaumari, Varahi, Chamunda and Narasimhi. However, they may sometimes be eight, Ashtamatrika or "eight mothers".Whereas in India, Saptamatrika worship is prevalent, the Ashtamatrika are venerated in Nepal. We will, here, discuss mainly SaptaMatrika. Their description in ancient Puranas, such as Varaha Purana, Matsya Purana, Markandeya Purana etc refers to their antiquity. Each of the mother goddesses (except for Chamunda) had come to take ...
Northern Gate/Elephant Gate/Hasti Dwara represents like _____?
ReplyDeleteJust like DHARMA ,KAMA,MOKSHYA.