Abandoned Sculptures from Bhabani Sankara Temple, Bhubaneshwar.
Bhubaneshwar is not just about gigantic Lingaraj Temple. The capital city of Odisha is known as Temple city. The city once had around 3000 temples and even today hundreds of temples found in every nock and corner of this rich heritage city.
Most of the temples in this city had ransacked & destroyed by different different invaders’ who doesn’t
believe on Sanatan Dharma and Idol worship. Some of the temples are destroyed due to the negligence of Government and its local authorities. And few are going to be endangered because of illegal land acquisition and illegal construction.
Bhavani Shankar Temple:
This Bhavani Shankar Temple when i visited some days back seems to be in risk because of
lack of maintenance and illegal land acquisition.
The endangered temple is present beside Lingaraj Temple, towards Binda Sagar Pond of Old Town, Bhubaneshwar. The temple is not as much big as Lingaraj temple. It is small in size build by Gangas towards to 14th century.
Eastern Ganga Dynasty:
Basically The Eastern Ganga dynasty ruled most of the modern region of Odisha in 3 phases.
Early Eastern Gangas (493-1077), Imperial Eastern Gangas (1077-1436) and Khemundi Gangas (1436-1947) and is the longest ruling dynasty of Odisha.
This ancient temple is basically build during Ganga Dynasty. Here is the list of rulers who ruled Odisha.
The point of attraction of this temple is the ancient Sculpture of Nursingnath and Mukhalingam and
many more carvings of God and godess found orphanly inside the premise.
Mukhalingam:
I suspect these are not all from this location, but have perhaps been collected and relocated here for safe keeping over the years. Linga is an aniconic representation of the Hindu god Shiva. Generally Mukhalingam is a Linga with a face.
Mukhalingas may be of stone or can be made of a metal sheath, which covers the normal linga.There are basically 3 types of Mukhalinga found. a single faced Mukhalinga, 3faces and 5 faces. The Temple structure is now surrounded by herbs, grass and vegetation that is constantly growing around the structure, which makes the temples indecent.
End Note:
Unfortunately the temple and the Sculptures are in now very in bad state and need immediate renovation. It is request to the local authority to have a look on these temples and try to renovate it as soon as possible.
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Hindukranti
HinduKranti is an online e-magazine, which Provides Updates on News, Politics, History, Religion and Temples. Its main aims are to present the true facts of Indian glory which is not mentioned in our textbook.
