Patalesvara Shiva Temple, Orissa

The Patalesvara Shiva Temple is a Hindu temple that is dedicated to Lord Shiva. It is situated in the Old Town of Bhubaneswar. The temple’s architecture typically belongs to the 13th century Ganga era. The building material is composed of laterite and sandstone.

Temple History
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Daily Poojas And Festivals
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This temple is one of the oldest temples in Orissa that is being used even today. It is deep rooted in culture as it belongs to the Ganga Era, an era where culture and values went hand in hand. This temple is a group of other temples in its vicinity that has Lord Shiva as the main deity. It belongs to the Rekha deul typology and on the basis of its construction, on basis of which a temple is classified as a precinct, building, structure, landscape, site or tank, this temple is classified as a building.

The temple has a square vimana with extensions in the front. Half of it is buried underground. Bada gandi and mastaka are the two important components of the temple which measures up to 10.7 metres in height. There is a deity of the Gajalaxmi who sits over a lotus pedestal with two elephants on either side on top of a full blown lotus. The doorjambs form the decorative features here with three bands vertically placed with that of puspa sakha, lata sakha and patra sakha to the interior. There are also deities of Rahu and Ketu with Ketu having a serpent tail. It also hosts an image which depicts Nataraj within a niche in the gandi.

By Road: The Patalesvara Shiva Temple is situated at Bhubaneswar in Orissa state of India. Bhubaneshwar is well connected to other major cities of the country via regular buses.
By Rail: It is well connected through nearest Bhubaneshwar railway station
to major cities railway stations like Delhi, Agra, Mumbai, Chennai, Ajmer, Pali, Jaipur, Ahmedabad.
By Air: The nearest Airport is Bhubaneswar Airport which is well connected with regular domestic flights to Delhi, Mumbai.

Temple remains open from 6am to 9 pm. In this temple major rituals of Lord Shiva are performed. Mahashiva Ratri is celebrated at a grand scale in this temple. Kartika-purnima, Raja Sankranti, and Jalasaya ceremony are also celebrated on a grand scale. Thread ceremony, mundana, marriage ceremony are also performed.