India Guide
Orissa
Lingaraj Mandir
Address: Bindu Sagar group of temples, 2km south of the city centre
Price: Foreigners not permitted inside
Immediately south of the Bindu Sagar stands Orissa's most stylistically evolved temple. Built in the eleventh century by the Ganga kings, one hundred years before the Jagannath temple at Puri, the mighty Lingaraj Mandir has remained a living shrine. Foreign visitors are not permitted inside, but all four of its principal sections are visible from a viewing platform overlooking the north wall of the complex. The two nearest the entrance, the bhoga-mandapa (Hall of Offering) and the nata mandir (Hall of Dance) are both later additions. Beautiful sculpture depicting the music and dance rituals that would once have taken place inside the temple adorns its walls.
The immense 45-metre deul is the literal and aesthetic high-point of the Lingaraj. The rampant lion projecting from the curved sides of the tower, and the downtrodden elephant beneath him, again symbolize the triumph of Hinduism over Buddhism. On the top, the typical Orissan motif of the flattened, ribbed sphere (amla) supported by gryphons, is crowned with Shiva's trident. As in the Brahmesvara temple, the long saffron pennant announces the living presence of the deity below.
The shrine inside is unusual. The powerful 2.5-metre-thick Svayambhu (literally "self-born") lingam that it contains, one of the twelve jyotirlingas in India, is known as "Hari-Hara" because it is considered half Shiva, half Vishnu – an extraordinary amalgam thought to have resulted from the ascendancy of Vaishnavism over Shaivism in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Unlike other lingams, which are bathed every day in a concoction prepared from hemlock, Svayambhu is offered a libation of rice, milk and bhang by the brahmins.