Chausath Yogini Temple, Ranipur Jharial, Odisha

Chausath Yogini Temple, Ranipur Jharial, Odisha

Chausath Yogini Temple is a Hindu Temple dedicated to 64 Yoginis located in Ranipur Jharial village in Balangir District in Odisha, India. It is one of the circular and open-air Yogini temples of India. It is situated on the right bank of the river Tong, a tributary of the river Tel, which itself is a tributary of the Mahanadi River. It is one of the two such temples in Odisha, the other one is at Hirapur in Khurda district.

History

The temple was believed to be built in 9^th century CE during Somavamsi rule. It was the first of the Yogini temples to be discovered; it was described by Major General John Campbell in 1853. It is a protected monument maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India, Bhubaneswar Circle.

The Temple

This Temple is facing towards east and situated on an outcrop of rock. There was another entrance on the southern side apart from the eastern entrance, once, but now it is closed. The temple is circular on plan and hypaetheral in elevation. It is built of sand stone of the local variety. It has a circular wall which bends inward at 8 feet 6 inches height. The length of the outer circumference is 169 feet and 2 inches and inner circumference 145 feet 10 inches.

The exterior of the temple is devoid of any decoration. There is a four pillared shrine located in the middle of the enclosure. It houses an image of Lord Nataraja, Lord of dance. He is three-faced and eight-armed and is depicted with Urdhva Linga. Ganesha and his mount Nandi can be seen at the base of the image. An idol of goddess Chamunda might have been housed along with Lord Shiva in the central shrine.

The interior walls would have had around 64 niches but only 62 niches can be found presently. There might be two niches on both sides of the southern entrance. The size of each niche is 1’ 6” x 3’ 2”. Out of the 64 niches, 48 niches houses well preserved images and the balance niches either houses broken images or empty. The Yogini idols are made of a low-quality coarse sandstone similar to the temple walls.

Among the existing 48 yogini idols, 28 are two armed figures and 20 are four armed figures. 14 of the Yoginis are animal-headed; among them can be seen goddesses with the heads of a cat, an elephant, a snake, a horse, a buffalo, an antelope, and seemingly also of a leopard and a sow. The leopard-headed goddess is holding up a human corpse, suggestive of the corpse rituals (shava sadhana) of the Yogini cult.

The absence of haloes or attendant figures as at later Yogini temples suggests that this temple was built relatively early. All the yoginis are seemed to be alike wearing conical crown. Uniquely, all the Yogini images are depicted poised about to dance, in the Karana pose of Indian classical dance. Like the Hirapur temple, but unlike other Yogini temples, there are no Matrikas, mother goddesses, among the Yoginis.

The 19th century archaeologist Alexander Cunningham described two further Yogini images. One, uniquely, had the attributes of the Sun-god, Surya; she had two arms, a lotus flower in each hand, and seven horses. The other (now surviving only from the knees down) was dancing on a reclining male; she had 6 or 8 arms and was depicted pulling her mouth open wide; she held a skull-cup, a kettle-drum, and a sword.

Connectivity

The Temple is located at about 11 Kms from Bangomunda, 26 Kms from Kantabanji, 28 Kms from Kantabanji Railway Station, 32 Kms from Titlagarh, 40 Kms from Titlagarh Junction Railway Station, 62 Kms from Bhawanipatna, 92 Kms from Balangir and 212 Kms from Raipur Airport. The Temple is located at about 8 Kms from Ganrei on the Kantabanji - Titlagarh route.  

Location