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Early medieval Orissa was an important centre of Saivism.' Bhuvanesvara in the Puri District is the home of early temples dedicated to Siva, the oldest being the Parasuramesvara assigned to the eighth century A. D. The temple of Muktesvara, famous for its sculptures representing scenes of religious life, for example, ascetics and disciples and the worship of Siva, is somewhat later. The temple of Lingaraja, regarded as the most stupendous edifice of its kind in Orissa, is placed about the middle of the tenth century. Close to it is situated the small but exquisitely beautiful temple of Parvati , which is probably of the same date as its great neighbour. Other important Saiva temples at Bhuvanesvara include the Brahmesvara (eleventh century), which stands on a platform with four smaller temples at the corners, and thus occupies a position similar to that of the temple of Gondesvara at Sinar, twenty miles from Nasik. The beautiful temple of Meghesvara situated close to the Brahmesvara was built towards the end of the twelfth century; while the Siva temple of Catesvara was built about the year 1220 A. D. in the village of KrishIt be noted that the only architecturally napur in the Cuttack District. 3 may important Vaisnava temple at Bhuvanesvara is the Ananta-Vasudeva said to have been built by Bhavadeva, a minister of king Harivarman of Eastern Bengal. It cannot be much later than the great temple of Lingaraja. Abm Interesting early temples dedicated to Siva exist also at Khiching, the old capital of the rulers of Mayurbhanj, and in Baudh State on the right bank of the Mahanadi. The twin temples at the village of Gandharadi , a few miles from Baudh Town, belong to the same style of architecture as the ParIf the Parasuramesvara is assigned to the asuramesvara at Bhuvanesvara. middle of the eighth century, the Gandharadi temples may be placed towards the close of that century. The two temples are exactly similar to each other : the one is dedicated to Siddhesvara Siva with its sikhara surmounted by a Sivalinga, and the other is a Vaisnava shrine dedicated to Nilamadhava , with a wheel of blue chlorite on the top of the sikhara. A wheel on the top of the sikhara is a common feature of Vaisnava temples, but the location of an entire Sivalinga on the top of a temple is something unknown in Orissan architecture. Next in importance are the three Siva temples, situated close to the modern temple of Ramesvara, in Baudh Town. They have been assigned to the ninth century. Beglar, who saw them in the last quarter of the 19 th century, 1 This section is based on R. D. Banerjea: History of Orissa, Vols. I and II. Chapters 29 and 30 deal with Architecture and Plastic Art respectively . See also R. D. Banerjea: Antiquities of the Baudh State in Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, Vol. XV. 2 See below. 3 R. D. Banerjea (op. cit.), Vol. I, p. 262. 4 This view is no longer accepted. See The History of Bengal, Vol. I, p. 203, published by the University of Dacca.

says: though small they are gems of art in their own humble way.' R. D. Banerjea says: The decorative motifs and the plastic art of the three temples at Baudh are certainly superior to and older than the great Lingaraja-AnantaVasudeva group at Bhuvanesvara.' A peculiarity of the three temples in Baudh Town is that they have no Mandapa or Jagamohana, as it is called in Orissa, its place being taken by a porch over the entrance. Unfortunately the porch still exists only in one of the temples. Another peculiarity is that in plan the three temples are eight-rayed stars, and the arghapattas of the Lingas are also similar. The Baudh temples are no doubt older than the Lingaraja group at Bhuvanesvara, specially because the large Jagamohana had not yet come into vogue. Khiching likewise was a prominent centre of Saiva worship. It is about ninety miles from Baripada, the present capital of Mayurbhanj, and the site represents the ruins of a large ancient city, which was the home of a people much more civilized than the present aboriginal inhabitants with a sprinkling of Oriya nationals. The principal shrine was that of Camunda known as Kincakesvari; and the Siva temples that have survived are the Kutaitundi or Nilakanthesvara and the Candrasekhara which is still intact. The Saiva sculptures discovered at Khiching (Uma-Mahesvara, the bust of Siva etc.) bear testimony to the influence of the Saiva cult in the area dominated by the culture of Khiching. The architecture of the three Siva temples in Baudh Town and those at Khiching is believed to represent an intermediate stage between such early specimens as the Parasuramesvara and the Muktesvara at Bhuvanesvara and the twin temples at Gandharadi and the next phase of Orissan art as we find it in the temples of Lingaraja, Brahmesvara and Anantavasudeva at Bhuvanesvara. The Candrasekhara temple at Khiching has accordingly been assigned to about 900 A. D. A peculiarity of the temples at Khiching, as in the case of the three temples at Baudh, is that they are without any Mandapa or Jagamohana. As a matter of fact, there are certain temples at Bhuvanesvara also, for instance, the Bhaskaresvara, which have no Jagamohana. Some of them are believed to be older than the great temple of Lingaraja. Most of the early Hindu temples in Orissa are thus dedicated to Siva. The Parasuramesvara at Bhuvanesvara is the earliest. The Gandharadi temples, although one of them is dedicated to Visnu, come next; and the Muktesvara at Bhuvanesvara is placed at the end of the early period. All these edifices are characterized by spires or sikharas of which the curvature is much less pronounced than that of the sikharas of later temples; and in this respect they belong to the same category as such early temples in other parts of India as the later Gupta temple at Nachna Kuthara, the Dasavatara temple at Deogarh in Jhansi District and certain other temples at Aihole.* 1 JBORS, Vol. XV, p. 80. 2 See the plates in R. D. Banerjea: History of Orissa, Vol. II. 3 See above. 4 "The Parasuramesvara cannot be very far removed in date from the post-Gupta temple of the Dasavatara at Deogadh in the Jhansi District. The low regularly curving outlines of the temples at Gandharadi and the Parasuramesvara belong

The predominance of the great Saiva centre at Bhuvanesvara, or Amratirtha, continued for centuries until it was eclipsed by the final establishment of the cult of Jagannatha at Purusottama or Puri. The great temple of Jagannatha at Puri (the Vimana or the sanctum and the Jagamohana) was erected by Anantavarman Codaganga (1078-1148 A. D.) towards the close of the eleventh century, but the architectural style is considered to be degenerate in comparison with the classic examples of Orissan art at Bhuvanesvara. The Eastern Gangas of Kalinga extended their rule over the whole of Orissa in the second half of the eleventh century. But their tutelary deity was Gokarnasvamin, or Gokarnesvara Siva, who is so often mentioned in their inscriptions, and whose shrine was located on the top of the Mahendra mountain in Ganjam District. Vajrahasta (1038-68 A. D.), the grandfather of Anantavarman Codaganga, is called parama-mahesvara or a devout worshipper of Siva in one of his inscriptions. Nevertheless the establishment of the temple of Jagannatha at Puri was a turning-point in the religious history of Orissa. A famous Vaisnava scholar, Naraharitirtha, a disciple of Anandatirtha, the founder of the Madhva school, was the regent of Orissa for twelve years during the minority of Narasimha II (1278-1306 A. D.), and built the temple of Yogananda-Nrsimha at Sri-Kurmam in Chikakole Taluka of the Ganjam District in 1281 A. D. Other inscriptions recording gifts by Naraharitirtha have been found in the temple of Kurmesvara at Sri-kurmam and that of Laksmi-Narasimhasvamin at Simhacalam near Waltair. The final triumph of Vaisnavism, or rather Neo-Vaisnavism, in Orissa was not, however, achieved until long after the fall of the Eastern Gangas. The new empire of Orissa extending from Medinipur to Trichinopoly was built up by Kapilendra (1435-70), who liberally patronized the great temple at Puri. His successor Purusottama (1470-97) added the Bhogamandapa to the temple of Jagannatha. It was during the reign of his successor Prataparudra (1497- 1541) that Neo-Vaisnavism became paramount in the religious life of Orissa owing to the long residence of the Bengali saint Caitanyadeva in the country and his powerful influence on the king and the people. Unfortunately, as ably demonstrated by R. D. Banerjea, the supremacy of the new Vaisnavism in Orissa coincided with the political downfall of the country; and "the acceptance of Vaisnavism or rather Neo-Vaisnavism was the real cause of the Musalman conquest of Orissa twenty-eight years after the death of Prataparudra." So far as the equilibrium of faiths was concerned, the predominance of to the same type as the Sikharas of the Deogadh temple and the later temple at Nachna Kuthara. Sometime during the course of the 9 th century A. D., temple types in Orissa began to change and the Sikhara grew taller. It was at this time that the curve of the spire became abrupt near the Amalaka. The only known examples of this type are the three small temples in Baudh town." JBORS, Vol XV, p. 80. The Dasavatara temple at Devagarh on the Vetravati river is believed to be a monument of the Gupta age (early fifth century A. D.). It was dedicated to Visnu whose image must have been installed in the sanctum. A short inscription in Gupta Brahmi characters on a big square pillar refers to the gift (dana) of Bhagavata Govinda, obviously the founder of the temple. See Dr. V. S. Agrawala's paper on the temple in Art and Thought (Luzac, 1947), p. 51.

the cult of Jagannatha inevitably led to the decay of the older cults of Siva at Bhuvanesvara and elsewhere. In the tenth century or thereabouts the Saiva centre at Bhuvane- svara appears to have been as important as any other centre of Saiva worship in Central or Western or South India. About this time Bhuvanesvara was included in the dominions of the Somavamsi kings, who at first ruled in the Eastern part of Mahakosala corresponding to the Chattisgarh Division of Central Provinces, and later extended their control over portions of northern and central Orissa. These kings appear to have been Saivas. Mahabhavagupta Janamejaya who appears to have reigned at the beginning of the tenth century is described in one of his charters as a devout worshipper of Siva. His successor Mahasivagupta Yayati is probably the same as the king Yayati-Kesari who, according to Orissan tradition, built the massive temple of Lingaraja at Bhuvanesvara. As we have seen, even on architectural grounds, this edifice has been assigned to the tenth century. Similarly, the temple of Brahmesvara at Bhuvanesvara is said to have been built by the mother of Udyotakesari, described as seventh in descent from Janamejaya, probably the same as Mahabhavagupta Janamejaya. The temple thus appears to have been erected in the early part of the eleventh century." Among the kings of earlier dynasties who ruled in different parts of Orissa, Sagguyayyana of the Mana dynasty, who reigned in Southern Tosali or Tosala (the area to the south of the Chilka lake), is described as paramamahesvara or devout worshipper of Siva in an inscription issued by his feudatory Sivaraja in the Gupta year 283=603 A. D.3 The early Karas who ruled over Central Orissa in the eighth century A. D. were Buddhists. Among the later Karas, the queen Tribhuvana Mahadevi is described as a devout worshipper of Visnu; while the Hindol plate of Subhakara II records the grant of a village in Northern Tosali or Tosala (the area around Bhuvanesvara and Puri) for the benefit of the temple of Pulindesvara and the maintenance of Saiva ascetics. Among the Bhanja chiefs of Khinjali who ruled in the eighth and ninth centuries, Satrubhanja, one of whose grants was issued in 744 A. D., and his successor Ranabhanja I are described in their inscriptions as worshippers of Visnu; but Netrbhanja, the son of Ranabhanja I, is called a devout worshipper of Siva. The tutelary deity of these Bhanjas was Stambhesvari who appears to have been a tribal goddess like Maniyadevi of Bundelkhand (see above), or the more famous Vindhyavasini Devi worshipped by the Sabaras. The cult of these goddesses was, as a rule, affiliated to the Tantric aspect of medieval 1 R. D. Banerjea (op. cit.), Vol. I, Chap. XIV; Vol. II, pp. 356, 366, 373. 2 Ibid. Vol. I, p. 118. 3 R. D. Banerjea (op. cit.), Vol. I, p. 158. 4 The territory corresponding to the States of Gangpur, Bonai, Bamra, Rairakho, Sonpur, Patna and Karond with a portion of Sambalpur, mostly inhabited by aboriginal tribes, was known as Khinjali. It was divided into two parts by the river Mahanadi. R. D. Banerjea (op. cit.), Vol. I, p. 6. 5 Ibid. Chap. XII.

Saivism. It may be added that the existence of prominent centres like Bhuvanesvara and Khiching provides more conclusive evidence of the prevalence of the Saiva cult in early medieval Orissa than the religious predilections of individual rulers.