We flew in from our trip to Ranchi in Jharkhand on Sun, Oct 5. We spent Monday, Oct 6 visiting Bhubaneshwar, Jagannath Puri and the sun temple at Konark in the state of Odisha. We started at 9.15 am from Hotel Swosti Premium in Bhubaneshwar at around 9.15 am. We first stopped in the village of Pipili, known for its arts and crafts.
Around 12 noon, we reached Jagannath Puri dedicated to Vishnu. This beautiful temple was built in the 11th century and is famous for its annual Ratha Yatra, or chariot festival to honour the three gods, in which the three principal deities are pulled on huge and elaborately decorated raths, or temple cars. The worship is performed by the Bhil Sabar tribal priests, as well as priests of other communities in the temple. Unlike the stone and metal icons found in most Hindu temples, the image of Jagannath is made of spruce wood, and is ceremoniously replaced every 12 or 19 years by an exact replica. The temple is one of the Char Dham pilgrimage sites. It is also famous because many legends believe that Krishna’s heart was placed here, and the material that it is made from damages the heart, so they have to change it every seven years.
The temple was very crowded and it took some doing to complete the darshan.
After finishing the darshan, we got some nice pictures of the temple from the outside because inside the temple, photos are not allowed.
After finishing the darshan at Puri, we had lunch at a small restaurant where they served us a vegetarian, local Odiya dish. It was delicious. We then proceeded to Konark. On the way, we stopped by at the Konark beach on the Bay of Bengal.
Next stop was at the Sun Temple of Konark built in the 13th century. Dedicated to the Hindu Sun-god Surya, it reflects the pinnacle of Kalingan architecture and artistic excellence, what remains of the temple complex has the appearance of a 100-foot (30 m) high chariot with 24 elaborate wheels and horses, all carved from stone. Also called the Surya Devalaya, it is a classic illustration of the Odisha style of Architecture or Kalinga architecture. Konark Sun Temple is depicted on the reverse side of the Indian currency note of 10 rupees to signify its importance to Indian cultural heritage. No worship is performed in this temple.
We headed back to Bhubaneshwar and reached around 8 pm.
Next day on Tuesday, Oct 7, we took a flight from Bhubaneshwar to Chandigarh for our trek to Buran Ghati.
It was a short but memorable trip to Bhubaneshwar, Jagannath Puri and the Sun Temple of Konark.
