LINGARAJA TEMPLE
Why in News?
Recently, the Odisha Government has restricted public entry into the Lingaraj Temple after four sevayats (priests)
tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
On the western banks of Bindusagar, lies the garden of Ekamra Van named after the Hindu mythological texts where Bhubaneswar the capital city of Odisha was referred as Ekamra Van or a forest of a single mango tree.
Other Important Monuments in Odisha:
1. Konark Sun Temple (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
2. Jagannath Temple
3. Tara Tarini Temple
4. Udaygiri and Khandagiri Caves
Kalinga Architecture
The Indian temples are broadly divided into Nagara, Vesara, Dravida and Gadag styles of architecture.
However, the temple architecture of Odisha corresponds to altogether a different category for their unique representations called Kalinga style of temple architecture.
This style broadly comes under the Nagara style.
The Architecture:
In Kalinga Architecture, basically a temple is made in two parts, a tower and a hall. The tower is called deula and the hall is called jagmohan.
The walls of both the deula and the jagmohan are lavishly sculpted with architectural motifs and a profusion of figures.
The most repeated form is the horseshoe shape, which has come from the earliest times, starting with the large windows of the chaitya-grihas.
It is the deula which makes three distinct types of temples in Kalinga Architecture:
1. Rekha Deula.
2. Pidha Deula.
3. Khakhara Deula.
The former two are associated with Vishnu, Surya and Shiva temples while the third is mainly with Chamunda and Durga temples.
The Rekha Deula and Khakhara Deula houses the sanctum sanctorum while the Pidha Deula constitutes outer dancing and offering halls.