LINGARAJA TEMPLE
Presiding Deities : Lord Shiva
Dates Back : 11th Century
Architectural Style : Orissan Temple Architecture
A Magnificent Example Of Temple Architecture Of Orissa
A product of the accumulated and crystallized experience of several
centuries, the temple of Lingaraja is the quintessence of
Orissan
architecture. In the elegance of its proportions and the richness of
its surface -treatment, it is one of the most finished and refined
manifestations of the temple-architecture in India.
The
treatment of its different elements displays the consummate skill of its
different elements displays the consummate skill of its master-designer;
all its constituent parts are effectively integrated into a compact unity
of supreme dignity. The crowning achievement of the architect is the
design of the graceful contour of its towering 'Gandi'. The Gandi's
soaring height and grandeur are almost a marvel.
The Decorations
The plastic embellishment of the temple is of equally exquisite
workmanship. All the panoply of Orissan decorative motifs is mustered here
with a rare aesthetic sense; every piece of carvings serves its appointed
role and enhances the majesty of the edifice as a whole. With all the
features fully evolved, it is the culmination, in every respect, of the
architectural movement at
Bhubaneswar
and sets the norm for the later temples.
A Traditional Connection
Traditionally, the construction of the temple is associated with three of
the later 'Somavamsi' kings with names ending in 'Kesari' but there is no
reliable record of its date.
However, an inscription on the wall of the 'Jagamohana', recording the
grant of a village for the maintenance of a perpetual lamp in the shrine
of 'Krittivasas', by which name the temple was anciently known, and dated
A.D. 1114-15 in the reign of the 'Ganga' king 'Anantavarman Chodaganga',
sets the later limit of the date of the temple.
The temple is a combination of four structures, all in the same axial
alignment - 'Deul', 'Gahamohana', 'Nata-Mandira' and 'Bhoga-Mandapa', the
last two being subsequent additions. The spacious courtyard is full of
shrines, big and small, of varying dates, their number exceeding a
hundred, of which only a few are of outstanding merit. The complex is
enclosed by a massive compound-wall pierced by an imposing portal on the
east and two secondary gates on the north and south.
The
Jagmohana
The 'Jagamohana' is equally monumental and closely follows the 'deul' in
decorative details. The 'Jagamohana' originally had two balustraded
windows, of which the one on the south side was converted into a door at a
later date, perhaps when the 'Nata-Mandira' or 'Bhoga-Mandapa' was built.
The topmost part of the 'Bada' above them is relieved with three 'Rekha'
replicas spaced by either a male or a female figure.
The Temple Deity
By the time the Lingaraja temple was constructed, the Jagannatha cult had
become predominant throughout Orissa. This is reflected
in the fact that the temple deity here, the 'Svayambhu Linga', is not, as
in all other cases, strictly a 'Shiva linga'. It is considered to be a
'Hari-Hara' linga, that is, half Shiva, half Vishnu. This and the variety
of deities represented elsewhere on the temple, once again point out the
basically syncretic nature of so much of Orissan religion.
There are 150 subsidiary shrines within the immense Lingaraja complex,
many of them extremely interesting in their own right, but non-Hindus
cannot visit them.
MINOR SHRINES IN THE COMPOUND OF LINGARAJA
Amidst the group of subsidiary shrines clustering round the great temple,
two, one, on the north of the 'Jagamohana', known as "Gopalini"
or "Bhuvanesvari" and the other, on the south of the 'Deul',
known as "Savitri", are of the "Khakhara" order. The
'Parsva-Devatas' in them are different forms of 'Parvati'.
In some of the other subsidiary shrines can be seen a number of images of
different dates, mostly of 'Parvati', 'Karttikeya', 'Ganesa' and 'Surya'
and rarely of 'Balarama', 'Subhadra', 'Krishna' and 'Trivikrama'.
Many of them found their way into these shrines after the decay or
destruction of the temples, to which they had originally belonged.
Particularly noticeable is an early image of 'Parvati', housed in a tiny
shrine to the northeast of the Lingaraja temple.
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