Mandirs in Puriਪੁਰੀ ਦੇ ਮੰਦਰ

Puri, on the Odisha coast, is the city of Jagannath, and its mandirs are really one story told at two ends of a single road. At one end of the Bada Danda, the Grand Road, stands the great Jagannath Temple, the eastern seat of the Char Dham. At the other end, about 3 kilometres away, stands the quieter Gundicha Temple, the garden house where Jagannath spends a week each year during the Ratha Yatra. This guide covers both shrines, and adds the Konark Sun Temple, about 35 kilometres away, as the excursion almost every Puri pilgrim makes. Jugti's full entries for Jagannath and Konark are linked below; Gundicha is introduced here and will receive its own full entry in time.

Jagannath Temple: the lord of the universe at home

The Jagannath Temple is one of Hinduism's most visited shrines and the eastern abode of the Char Dham circuit. The present temple was begun by Anantavarman Chodaganga, the first ruler of the Eastern Ganga dynasty, and completed in 1161 CE. Its sanctum tower rises 65 metres, the tallest temple tower in Odisha, over a walled complex of about 10 acres holding some 30 minor shrines. The deities here break the usual rule of Indian temples: Jagannath, his brother Balabhadra and his sister Subhadra are carved not from stone or metal but from neem wood, and every 12 or 19 years they are ceremonially renewed in the Nabakalebara rite. The temple kitchen, the Rosaghara, cooks 56 varieties of vegetarian food in earthen pots over wood fires, and the Mahaprasad it produces feeds thousands of devotees each day.

Gundicha Temple: the garden house at the other end of the road

The Gundicha Temple stands in a garden at the far end of the Bada Danda, about 3 kilometres from the main temple, 2,688 metres by one careful measurement. Built of light grey sandstone in the Kalinga Deula style, it has the four parts of a classic Odisha temple: the vimana over the sanctum, the jagamohana or assembly hall, the nata mandapa or festival hall, and the bhoga mandapa, the hall of offerings, with a kitchen joined by a small passage. Inside the sanctum sits a plain raised platform of chlorite, the Ratnavedi, 4 feet high and 19 feet long, which stays empty for most of the year. Tradition links the temple's name to Gundicha, queen of the legendary King Indradyumna, and devotees also speak of it as the aunt's home of Jagannath, his mausi ghar, and as his garden house or summer retreat.

For nine days a year the empty temple becomes the centre of Puri. A day before the Ratha Yatra the temple is ritually cleaned, the Gundicha Marjana. On the festival's first day the three deities ride their great wooden chariots down the Bada Danda: Nandighosha for Jagannath, Taladhwaja for Balabhadra and Darpadalana for Subhadra. They enter Gundicha on the second day and stay seven complete days, dressed in new clothes each day and cooled with sandalwood paste. Midway through the stay comes Hera Panchami, when Lakshmi, left behind in the main temple, arrives in procession to demand her husband's return, and in mock anger has a part of his chariot damaged. The stay ends with the Bahuda Yatra, the return journey through the eastern Nakachana gate, back down the Grand Road to the main temple.

Konark: the stone chariot, Puri's great excursion

About 35 kilometres north-east of Puri stands the Konark Sun Temple, built around 1250 CE by King Narasimha Deva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty. The whole temple was shaped as the chariot of Surya, the sun god: 24 carved stone wheels, each about 3 metres across, and seven stone horses to pull it. The great sanctuary tower has fallen, but the surviving audience hall and its dense carving made Konark a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984. It is not a living temple of daily worship in the way Puri's shrines are, and most visitors pair it with Puri in a single day trip, seeing the working heart of the Jagannath tradition and its most famous monument together.

How do the Puri temples fit together on a visit?

Outside the Ratha Yatra season, a Puri visit centres on the Jagannath Temple, with a walk or ride down the Bada Danda to the peaceful, usually empty Gundicha Temple, and a half day out to Konark. During the Ratha Yatra, in the month of Ashadha, usually June or July, the order reverses: the gods themselves make the journey, and the crowds follow them from one end of the Grand Road to the other. Both Puri temples are classic Kalinga work within the Nagara tradition. This guide is part of Jugti's mandirs in India collection.

All Mandirs in Puri

• Jagannath Temple : the Char Dham shrine of the wooden triad, completed in 1161 CE, famed for the Ratha Yatra, Nabakalebara and the great Mahaprasad kitchen
• Gundicha Temple: the garden house at the far end of the Bada Danda, empty most of the year, where Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra stay for seven days at the Ratha Yatra (full entry coming)
• Konark Sun Temple : the 13th-century stone chariot of Surya, about 35 km from Puri, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984 and the city's great excursion