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Essay name: Temples of Purushottama Kshetra Puri

Author: Ratnakar Mohapatra
Affiliation: Sambalpur University / Department of History

This essay studies the Temples of Purushottama Kshetra (Puri) which is renowned for its historic and religious significance, situated in Orissa (Odisha) by the Bay of Bengal. Purusottama-ksetra is famous for the Lord Jagannatha temple and numerous smaller temples, it showcases the distinctive Kalinga architectural style.

Chapter 3 - Lord Jagannatha Temple

Page:

23 (of 45)


External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)


Download the PDF file of the original publication


Copyright (license):

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)


Warning! Page nr. 23 has not been proofread.

akṣyamāḷ� aksyamälä are the weapons of Yama. Agni sitting on a ram is placed in the south- eastern one; akṣyamāḷ� and kamaṇḍaḷu are the attributes of Agni. Indra, the god of rain with an elephant as his vehicle is seen in the eastern side (direction) of the vimāna. Vajra and ańkusa are the weapons of god Indra. The rekhā-muṇḍi niches of the taḷa jangha of the bhogamaṇḍapa are comfortably housed with aṣṭa- dikpāḷa figures while the piḍhā mundi niches of the upper jangha are housed with female counterparts of the aṣṭa-dikpāḷas. They are installed with usual attributes in hands riding their respective mounts and directions like in the vimāna. Vaisnavite Images: In course of deplastering the frontal walls of all the three nisa shrines, G.C.Chauley has noticed that on the both sides of each doorjamb of the pārsvadevaṭ� shrines, figures of Visṇu, four on either side carved depicting the twenty four forms of Lord Visṇu.74 They are such as Keśava, Mādhava, Dāmodara, Nārāyaṇa, Viṣṇu, Govinda, Madhusudana, Trivikrama, Vāmana, Śrīdhara,Hṛṣikeśa,Padmanabha, Sankarśaṇa, Vāsudeva, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, Adhokṣaja, Purusottama, Narasimha, Acchyuta,Upendra, Janardana, Hari and Kṛṣṇa. 75 The discovery is unique of its kind in the context of Viṣṇu iconography, in Eastern India as so far no where in India all the 24 forms of Lord Visṇu are depicted within any known temples neither in South nor in North India." The upper jāngha of the vimāna has pidhā mundis containing deities including the ten incarnations (avatāras) of Lord Visṇu such as Matsya, Kurma, Varāha, Narasimha, Vāmana, Paraśurāma, Rāma, Baḷarāma, Buddha and Kalki. Each side anuratha paga of the sikhara of the vimāna contains the images of Vaiṣṇavite deities. The surface of the sikhara or gaṇḍi of vimāna are carved with the figures of deities of the Hindu pantheon. The figures of 'trinity' i.e. Jagannātha, Balabhadra and Subhadrã are depicted in northern side rāhāpaga of the gandi of vimāna. About 30 feet further down, the monkey god Hanumāna is seen. Noteworthy is the figure of Narasimha with Lakṣmi flanked by two attendants. Below it is depicted with the composite figure of Hari-Hara provided with eight- hands and flanked by Balarama and Kṛṣṇa with two cowherd boys to the further 104

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