ODISHA

    In the beginning of August 2022, I was infected by a viral 'flu. It tired me so much that I had to sit down after brushing my teeth to regain my strength ! Following this, my wife also fell ill during the time of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. Both of us took antibiotics to recover. The fatigue lasted for a couple of weeks for both of us. Since the last couple of months, we had been discussing about taking a break. As we recovered, I decided that this was a good time for a break, anticipating more work in the last quarter of the year. We talked about various destinations and finally zeroed in on Odisha.  My reflections on the trip follow.
    NOTES: 1.) The hyperlinks in this blog post provide more useful information.
    2.) I have not specified names of people and hotels, etc. in this blog post. Even the photographs are of a generic nature.
    I consulted a friend from Odisha for tips about visiting Odisha. His recommendation was simple: Try the variety of sweets like Chena Jhili, Chena Poda, enjoy the food and avoid being cheated in temples. The advice was useful !
    We landed in Bhubaneshwar airport in the afternoon. The driver allocated by the tour operator was on time. For the five days he was with us, he drove well, keeping the speed steady. For the first day, his suggestion was to check in late at the hotel, since the hotel was on the outskirts of Bhubaneshwar. We ate lunch in the city and moved to the Lingaraj temple. "Bhubaneshwar resembles Mysuru.", remarked my wife. Just as Mysuru has heritage buildings and parts of it bring a small town atmosphere, Bhubaneshwar also has older, independent houses. The main roads are spacious and well planned.

    https://odishatourism.gov.in/content/tourism/en/discover/attractions/temples-monuments/lingaraja-temple.html explains about the Lingaraj temple. Its gopura stands 180 feet tall. The complex contains 150 small temples, including gods like Narsingh Dev (Narasimha), Satya Narayan, various forms of Shiva, Parvathi and even Yamaraj ! The shivalinga in the temple is self-manifested ("swayambhu") and is of granite. The Lingaraj temple is sprawling which would require half a day or even a day to cover if we wanted to pray to all the gods and goddesses in it, in detail ! We had to leave our mobile outside. Once in the temple, we were accosted by priests promising to perform poojas. I recalled my friend's warning about pandas promising to conduct poojas and extorting money from people. My wife and I moved ahead, declining the pandas. Unfortunately, this open commercialism of rituals and the exploitation of tourists by such pandas or priests was seen in all temples. It is a sour note from the trip. The Lingaraj temple has a "kalyani" or tank with several shrine like structures surrounding it. The Bindu Sagar lake is located near the Lingaraj temple.
    Old Bhubaneshwar town has several temples like the Ganga Yamuna temple and the Raja Rani temple. Our next stop was the Mukteshwar temple.

My wife says that the way in which I organise folders on my laptop is annoying. I am orderly in some things. The symmetry of Mukteshwar temple pleased me no end. I expect that author Agatha Christie's famous fictional detective Hercule Poirot would have been happy also!

To my eye, the symmetry of Mukteshwar temple was a joy to behold ! The colourful stones added to its attraction. https://odishatourism.gov.in/content/tourism/en/discover/attractions/temples-monuments/mukteswar-temple.html has more information about the temple. My wife enjoyed the relative calmness and silence here, compared to the Lingaraj temple. The kalyani next to the Mukteshwar temple was full of fish that swam around, congregating when school children dropped "puri" or rice flakes into the water ! The Parasurameshwar temple is adjacent to the Mukteshwar temple.
    We checked into the hotel at around 6 p.m. The room and the air conditioning felt comfortable and inviting after our long day that began at 3:45 a.m. ! There is a "khao gully" or "chaat street" that served tasty street food 100m. away from our hotel. Our hotel was located near the college campus. The chaat street served momos, Pav Bhaji, Dabeli, Faloodas and Dahi Bara (Dahi Vada) and ice cream to cater to the students. We enjoyed the street food, finished with handi chai, tasty tea served in small cups of clay ("Handi" or "Matka"). Through out the trip, these cups of tea refreshed us !
     I had located a restaurant that served cuisine from Odisha about a mile from our hotel. We walked to the hotel and ate dinner there: Dalma, Nadia Bhari with a cup of Chena Jhili shared between us as dessert. The dessert was delicious !
    The next day began with an overcast sky, which made me wonder what was in the offing. We had brought umbrellas from Bengaluru. When we set out for Nandan Kannan, the zoo, I kept the umbrellas within reach. Nandan Kannan zoo is a wonderful place for children. https://www.nandankanan.org/ is the website for more information. The attraction of the zoo is undoubtedly the white tigers, but the zoo features other interesting species also, including crocodiles, tigers and lions. We also saw emus and a few exotic birds. The air conditioning in the car felt welcome after the hour long walk in the zoo. The sun played hide and seek with the clouds. As we set out to Dhauli, for some time, the sun disappeared. It poured heavily.

The highlight of Nandan Kannan is its white tigers. Most of the big cats were in a sleepy mood when we visited, including this white tiger.

    Dhauli is a less popular spot, but if it is mentioned that this is the place where Emperor Ashoka renounced violence and turned to Buddhism, it could be more famous. https://www.dhauli.net/history-of-dhauli.html describes its significance. The relevance of one of Emperor Ashoka's edict from 3rd century B.C. continues even now. The edict states: "You are in charge of many (thousand living beings). You should gain the affection of men. All men are my children, and as I desire for my children that they obtain welfare and happiness both in this world and the other world, the same do I desire for all men..." What a noble thought it is !
    There is a shanti stupa in Dhauli, which was under renovation. Rain threatened to pour again, but both of us had our umbrellas. We saw a small shrine in memory of a Japanese guru, where we saw a man continuously playing the drum. We saw cashew being sold at around Rs. 150 per kg. Cashew was in abundance in all places that we visited. The quality seemed to be good, but we opted not to buy. It rained again as we drove towards Raghurajpur next, a village with artisans.

The artist Dilip Prusty's house is extremely colourful. He explained about pattachitra in detail.

     Dilip Prusty is one such artist who works in Bengaluru. His house is a riot of colours, full of paintings, a painted kettle, key chains and other souvenirs. Dilip narrated how the pattachitra is made and its importance. "When Shree Jagannatha catches fever, he rests. However, his devotees who have come for his darshana should not be disappointed. So the pattachitra with paintings of the three siblings Jagannatha, Balabharda and Subhadra are used instead of the idols while the Lord rests. The art of pattachitra is closely linked to Puri and the gods of Puri.", said Dilip. The patta consists of sheets of canvas glued with chalk and gum made of tamarind seeds, as explained in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattachitra#Technique. The colours used in the paintings are a combination of white, yellow, orange, red and black all derived from natural sources, mostly stone. The stones are crushed and mixed with a gum, so that the colours bind to the canvas. We saw these colours used by Dilip, kept in what looked like coconut shells. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattachitra#Colour has more information.
     In front of us, Dilip drew the outline of a peacock. "You can also draw!", he urged my wife and me. I did not want to insult the canvas after learning how it is painstakingly made ! My wife drew petals of a flower and then we let the master take over ! Dilip took a fine brush, dipped it in colour and with a steady hand, followed the outline of the peacock that he had drawn using a pencil. Dilip extended the outline from the head into a long curved back and a tail with the famous colourful feathers closed. In a matter of a couple of minutes, a peacock had emerged on the canvas, in front of our eyes ! It is the first time I have seen such an artist at work: it felt a little magical !

The temple of Shree Jagannatha is sprawling. We had a good darshan of the idols. In the pinkish twilight, the temple looked beautiful from a distance, as seen here.

     We reached Puri in the late afternoon and ate lunch at our hotel. The man at the reception suggested that we could go for the sandhya aarati. At around 4:30 p.m., we set out for the Puri Jagannath temple. https://www.shreejagannatha.in/mahaprabhu-shree-jagannatha/ explains how Shri Jagannatha represents a confluence of all philosophical streams in Hinduism. There is always a continuous line of people awaiting darshan outside the temple. "I will park around here. Once you come back, please call me. You can take a rickshaw or walk to the temple.", said our driver. We took a cycle rickshaw. Like in Bhubaneshwar, we had to leave our footwear and mobile phones outside about 200m from the temple. We walked to the queue which moved quickly. The temple queue arrangements are systematic. We got to see the three idols of Jagannatha, Balabhadra and Subhadra clearly. The decorations ("alankar") was striking. The big eyes of the gods stood out. Another highlight in the evening is the change of the flag atop the vimana that. Considering that the vimana is more than 200 feet, this is an awe inspiring task. We saw people looking up as the flag was changed.
     In Puri, the "prasad" (offering) is given to devotees but it can also be purchased in the Anand Bazar. We purchased the sweet "khaja" as prasad to share back home. The backdrop of the temple made for a striking sight. We walked back, doing some shopping on the way. We searched for Chena Poda, asking in a couple of places and finally finding it! It is a kind of paneer cake that was very rich in taste!
    I woke up relatively early the next morning. The Puri beach was literally a few minutes away from our hotel. I walked to the beach and felt the cool breeze. While it was cloudy, it did not rain. After breakfast, we set out for the sun temple at Konark. On the way we stopped at Chandrabagha beach. It felt good to stand in the clear water ! The sand is white and clean. It was sunny, but there was still a cool breeze that ruffled my hair. We enjoyed the walk on the beach. There were All Terrain Vehicle motorcycles (ATV bikes) with four wheels, which some tourists enjoyed.
     Just before we entered the Konark temple, we ate sandwiches. Hearing us speak our native tongue Kannada, another couple spoke to us in Kannada. They travel a lot. Both husband and wife urged us to visit Badarinath and Amarnath, among other spots. We immediately acted on piece of advice that they gave us: to take a guide for the Konark temple. We did so - and I am glad about that ! We would have missed some of the wonder of the sculpture in Konark which our guide showed us.

This is the view of the Konark sun temple from the main gate. Due to an accident, people are not allowed inside.

    Some of the significance of Konark is brought out in https://www.indianculture.gov.in/unesco/heritage-sites/sun-temple-konark. It was built by the King Narasimha Deva of the Ganga dynasty in the 13th century. Our guide explained: "The king had no children. His priest advised him to build a temple to the Sun God, following which this temple was built. The temple is actually built in the shape of a 'ratha' or chariot. There are 12 pairs of wheels for the chariot. Since the ratha came from the west, there are gates on north, south and east but not in the west. The original height of the main temple was around 250 feet. There was a huge lodestone on the top whose magnetism interfered with the navigation of ships. So the Portuguese destroyed the temple." The web site partially collaborates this story.
    The sides of the temple have many sculptures depicting scenes from everybody life in astonishing detail. There are also erotic carvings, for which our guide said: "After the battle of Kalinga, there was considerable loss of life. To increase the population, such carvings were made." To me, this is doubtful: Emperor Ashoka lived more than thousand years before King Narasimha Dev. Such carvings are seen in many other temples. It is unlikely that all the sculptures were made for this purpose!

This is a rider going for a hunt on an elephant. If I look at the way his right hand is holding the weapon, is it a gun that he wields - in the 12th century?!

    Some of the sculptures reminded me of Belur and Halebidu in Karnataka. The attention to detail is a wonder to see. Our guide showed us the statue of a woman washing her hair. Water trickles down from her hair and a swan or duck waits with its mouth open to drink the drops !

This is part of a wheel in the Konark temple, with spokes and the beads used to tell the time seen.

    The highlight of Konark is the wheels of the chariot. Each wheel can tell the time accurate to 3 minutes! There are 8 spokes in the wheel, denoting 8 "pahars" or chunks of time, each pahar representing 3 hours. Our guide held his umbrella perpendicular to the plane of the wheel, at the centre. This made the wheel like a sundial. The shadow fell on the circumference of the wheel, between two spokes. Between the spokes on the circumference, there are many beads in two rows, each representing 3 minutes. Using this, one can calculate the time. Our guide used the umbrella and said that the time was 12:09 p.m. My mobile phone showed 12:10 p.m. ! I was stunned by the design of the chariot wheel ! I salute the knowledge of geometry, metallurgy and physics of our ancestors ! The first four minutes of the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9RF9lLBIMs&t=10s explains the process well.
    The stones used in Konark were transported from places like Udaygiri by boat. It is thought that a pulley mechanism was used to lift the stones. There are iron clamps in Konark that look old, but there is no sign of rust on them! The science of metallurgy was advanced beyond what I had thought !

A young Lord Krishna is seen on the right, eating butter. I feel that his raised arm and his feet show how much he enjoys the butter! The Krishna on the left is older and he plays his flute. One foot is bent probably in dance.

    I had always believed that it is the eyes in images and in reality that convey emotions. The sculptures proved it otherwise. The majesty and power associated with the queen of a region is seen here.

The term "body language" is used often nowadays. Here is how one can see the importance of body language: the majesty and power of a queen is seen in this cropped image of the queen. The way in which she sits shows her regal and imperious nature.

This is actually a small sculpture, but again it shows the power of body language. It appears that this woman is wearing a skirt and very gracefully at that ! She also appears to be holding a purse ! Fashion supermodels of today, beware: you have some serious competition from a lady from 1000 years ago !

    Emotions like grace, shock and playfulness are seen in many sculptures. I would not have noticed such sculptures on my own.
    At the main gate is a statue of a man being crushed by an elephant on the top of which is a lion. The lion represents power and the elephant wealth. The interpretation is that humanity can be ruined by its ego and that one has to rise beyond it.

From Puri to Konark, we saw a lot of greenery along with water. Lotus flowers bloomed in the small ponds and tanks. We crossed a couple of rivers also.

    Due to the rains the greenery on the road from Puri to Konark was refreshing to see. The rivers were also full. We saw many lotus flowers in the small ponds and standing water. On the way back, we stopped at a sand museum. I thought it contains sculpture by the famous sand sculptor Sudarshan Pattnaik, but that wasn't the case. There were some good sculptures, but at the price of Rs. 30, it was overpriced. We ate lunch at a restaurant near our hotel.
    In the evening, my wife and I went for a walk on the Puri beach. There was a lovely pink twilight. We drank Handi tea at a small eatery. I thought my negotiation skills had improved when I booked an auto for Rs. 100 instead of the Rs. 200 asked by some others ! The joke was on me since the auto driver dropped us midway, claiming that the oil ran out !
    After breakfast on the next day, we left for Chilika lake. On the way, we stopped at Alarnath temple, whose significance is described at https://www.nativeplanet.com/puri/attractions/alarnath-temple/#overview. The legend is that when Lord Jagannatha became unwell, devotees visit Lord Alarnath. The priest there showed us that the idol's palm was scalded due to bathing in hot water.
    We reached Chilika at around 11:30 a.m. We went for a 2.5 hours cruise with a boat to ourselves! We saw no birds as it was off season.
    Our boatman did take us to an island where red crabs are bred. A man stepped into our boat and said: "Due to high tide, the red crabs are not visible. However, here are some red crabs for you to see." He showed us a couple of crabs in a covered vessel. He also said how pearls are formed: "At the time of the Swathi star, on the full moon night, when it rains, a drop falls into an oyster or a mollusc. The oyster feeds the drop which leads to a pearl being formed over time. Not all oysters have pearls." This was an extremely poetic description of how pearls are made! The scientific explanation at https://www.thoughtco.com/how-do-pearls-form-2291787 seems more prosaic, in comparison! The man broke open a few oysters: the fourth or fifth one had a wonderful pearl. It was so perfectly formed, we realised that this may be fake. He asked if we wanted to buy the pearl and made us feel it. We declined, suspecting the genuineness.

This is the island where the water is relatively peaceful on one side, as seen here. Moving to the other side, the sea was visible with its fury and tide!

    The one other highlight of Chilika lake is a small island at the mouth of the sea. We stopped there for 20 minutes or so. On one side, the island was peaceful where our boats were anchored. On the other, the sea raged violently with waves crashing on to the shore. On the way back, another boat had its blades caught up in fishing nets. Our boatman tied the two boats together and we proceeded towards the mainland. We reached there, ate a light lunch and headed to Bhubaneshwar. On the way, we saw many villages where men played cards in courtyards or under trees. We reached Bhubaneshwar and the hotel that we had checked into on day 1 in the evening. It rained a little after we had checked in. We ordered food to our room.
    The next morning, we went shopping: I scouted for sweets while my wife stepped into Utkalika, Odisha's handicrafts emporium. Our purchases meant that we had to buy another bag. We reached the airport well in time. Landing in Odisha, we had only two backpacks. Heading back to Bengaluru, we had to check them in, following our shopping spree!
    It took us about 2 hours and 20 minutes to reach Bengaluru directly. It took us another 2 hours to reach home!
    Whoever tasted the eatables we had brought appreciated it, including my friend who is famous for his taste bud! It was good to see that our first long trip following the SARS-Cov2 pandemic went off so well. It is after 9 years that I felt the sensation of the sea water on my legs and the sand flow away beneath my feet.