Kalinga Heritage

Chamunda is a fearsome aspect of Shakti, also known as chamundi, chamundeswari and charchika. She is one of the Saptamatruka or seven divine Goddesses. She is also one of the chief Joginis, a group of sixty-four or eighty-one Tantric goddesses. According to legend, Chamunda appeared from the frown of the benign goddess Parvati to kill demons Chanda and Munda. Here, Chamunda is viewed as a form of Parvati. Matsaya Purana tells a different story of Chamunda’s origins. She with other matrikas was created by Shiva to help him kill the demon Andhakasura, who has an ability — like Raktabija — to generate from his dripping blood. Chamunda with the other matrikas drinks the blood of the demon ultimately helping Shiva kill him. Ratnakara, in his text Haravijaya, also describes this feature of Chamunda, but solely credits Chamunda, not the other matrikas of sipping the blood of Andhaka. Having drunk the blood, Chamunda’s complexion changed to blood-red. The text further says that Chamund...

Basudeba is Lord Krishna, an avataar of Lord Bishnu. The temple of Ananta Basudeba was constructed in the thirteenth century, and the complete murties of Krishna, Balarama and Subhadra are worshipped there. Balarama stands under a seven hooded serpent, Subhadra holds Jewels pot and lotus in her two hands keeping her left foot over another jewel pot, while Krishna holds a mace, chakra, lotus and a conch. Ananta is Balarama and Basudeba is Krishna. Ananta Basudeba temple I will go in detail of this temple but before that want to discuss about the two old temples of Ananta-Basudeba which are not very known to lot of people and still exists near this one. Very few people know that there are actually three Ananta Basudeba temples existed in Bhubaneswar. The first temple was built by Bhaumakaras in 7th century. This was, almost, the initial phase of temple construction in Odisha. The first Ananta Basudeba temple The front view of first Ananta Basudeva tem...