{"id":1704,"date":"2025-02-15T15:11:03","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T15:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arteastic.in\/blog\/?p=1704"},"modified":"2025-02-16T04:54:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-16T04:54:20","slug":"temple-architecture-of-ancient-kalinga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arteastic.in\/blog\/temple-architecture-of-ancient-kalinga\/","title":{"rendered":"The temple architecture of ancient Kalinga"},"content":{"rendered":"

Going back to roots<\/span><\/h3>\n

Whenever I go back to the town I grew up in, a sense of bewilderment envelops me. The tentacles of modernisation and commercialisation have turned my sleepy town in to a city of bustle and busy, of broader roads and worse traffic, of outflung areas that got gobbled up by the expanding city, of construction and indubitable progress and of a rush of people going somewhere I never know.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, every journey into the city requires of me a certain readjustment. I keep looking for familiar landmarks amidst the many unfamiliar developments. I espy the radio station still looking as desolate as ever, the cultural auditorium where I had sometimes performed as a child, my school that still needs a coat of paint, the earlier bustling squares that have now lost out to busier and bigger squares, and the by-lanes that I knew intimately once. They comfort me with assurance\u2026providing the warmth of the familiar in what is now an unfamiliar city.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coexistence of old and new<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

The biggest sense of comfort, though, comes from the temples that continue to be the silent sentinels of my city. Even today, a short detour can take you back a millennium in a matter of minutes. Known as the temple city, Bhubaneswar, where I grew up, will continue to be moored to its past, anchored by some of the most breathtakingly beautiful examples of Kalinga architecture and masonry, sculpted in stone. Standing proudly in the midst of a growing city are temples of Lingaraj, Kapileswara, Rameswar, Mukteswar, Rajarani, Kedar Gouri, Anant Basudeba (a solitary Vaishnav temple amongst many dedicated to Lord Shiva), Baitala (dedicated to Goddess Chamunda) and many others.<\/span><\/p>\n

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