The Chamundas of Bhubaneswar
Chamunda is a fearsome aspect of Shakti, also known as chamundi, chamundeswari and charchika. She is one of the Saptamatruka or seven divine Goddesses. She is also one of the chief Joginis, a group of sixty-four or eighty-one Tantric goddesses. According to legend, Chamunda appeared from the frown of the benign goddess Parvati to kill demons Chanda and Munda. Here, Chamunda is viewed as a form of Parvati.
Matsaya Purana tells a different story of Chamunda’s origins. She with other matrikas was created by Shiva to help him kill the demon Andhakasura, who has an ability — like Raktabija — to generate from his dripping blood. Chamunda with the other matrikas drinks the blood of the demon ultimately helping Shiva kill him. Ratnakara, in his text Haravijaya, also describes this feature of Chamunda, but solely credits Chamunda, not the other matrikas of sipping the blood of Andhaka. Having drunk the blood, Chamunda’s complexion changed to blood-red. The text further says that Chamunda does a dance of destruction, playing a musical instrument whose shaft is Mount Meru, the spring is the cosmic snake Shesha and gourd is the crescent moon. She plays the instrument during the deluge that drowns the world.
In this blog, I will present the three temples of Chamunda in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
Let us take a tour.
Temple no.1 — -Boitala Temple
Boitala temple is an 8th century temple of typical Khakara style. It is situated on the road side to the west of Bindusagar tank, and is remarkable both for its shape and for the carvings. This temple is famous as Vaitala Deula or Tini Mundiya Deula (Deula is an Odia word for Temple), but its actually is Boitala Deula.
As per the legends, Chamunda came to Odisha in a boat and Boita is an Odia word for boat and from Boita it is Boitala deula.
Tini Mundiya or three heads are symbolism of three powers of Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati. It is also a Tantric shrine.
As I stated, this temple is famous for its superb carvings.
Below are some Pictures(although not of good quality) which can show you the superb stone sculpture work and carvings.
The presiding deity, Chamunda or Charchika sits on a corpse flanked by a jackal and an owl and decorated with a garland of skulls. She holds a snake, bow, shield, sword, trident, thunderbolt and an arrow, and is piercing the neck of the demon.
The Chamunda is surrounded by a host of other smaller size allied deities, Saptamatrukas, alongwith Basudhara, Bhadra and ganesha, carved in the lower parts of the walls, each within a niche separate by a pilaster. The figure on the east wall, to the right of the door, is a skeleton form of Bhairava forming the counterpart of Chamunda.
Temple no. 2 — -Chitrakarini Temple
Chitrakarini temple is historically and architecturally important, it is very lesser known monument. Situated just the backside of Lingraja Temple, it is also a temple dedicated to Goddess Chamunda.
This temple is of later period of Odishan architecture. This temple is of panchayatana style, mean the main temple is in middle with four sub shrines in the four sides. This temple is of Nagara style.
The four sub shrines are shown below which are different from each other in terms of carvings.
Such temples were known as Panchayatan style of temples, in which main shrine is surrounded by four sub-shrines.
This temple is also very rich in carvings and stone sculptures but due to time phase lots of images are disfigured.
Temple №3 — -Mohini temple
Mohini temple, located at an elevation of 9.45 ms on the south-bank of Bindu Sarovara. In the temple are located idols of deities Parsva-Devatas, Parvati, Kartikeya and Ganesha. Few short records are incised on the body of the deula. A ten-armed dancing icon of Chamunda is located inside the sanctum. Six-armed image of ‘Mahishasuramardini’ lies on the floor of the Jagamohana.
Chamunda, being a Matrika, is considered one of the chief Joginis, who are considered to be daughters or manifestations of the Matrikas. In the context of a group of sixty-four joginis, Chamunda is believed to have created seven other yoginis, together forming a group of eight. In the context of eighty-one yoginis, Chamunda heads a group of nine yoginis.
ॐ ऐं ह्रीं क्लीं चामुण्डायै विच्चे ।।
Thanks….
Ref: Wikipedia
