Samaleswari Temple is a

Hindu temple A Hindu temple, also known as Mandir, Devasthanam, Pura, or Kovil, is a sacred place where Hindus worship and show their devotion to Hindu deities, deities through worship, sacrifice, and prayers. It is considered the house of the god to who ...

in Sambalpur, Odisha, India, dedicated to the goddess known as 'Samaleswari', also known among the natives as ''samalei maa'', meaning Mother Samaleswari. Shree Shree Samaleswari, the revived presiding deity of Sambalpur, holds a profound religious significance across western Odisha and

Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh (; ) is a landlocked States and union territories of India, state in Central India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ninth largest state by area, and with a population of roughly 30 million, the List ...

in India. Situated on the banks of the sacred

Mahanadi River The Mahanadi River is a major river in East Central India. It drains an area of around and has a total length of . Mahanadi is also known for the Hirakud Dam which was the first major multipurpose river valley project after India's independence ...

, Goddess Samaleswari has been worshipped since ancient times as Jagat Janani (Mother of the Universe),

Durga Durga (, ) is a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars. Durga's legend centres around combating evils and demonic ...

Mahalaxmi Lakshmi (; , , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, , ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the Devi, goddess of wealth, fortune, prosperity, beauty, fertility, sovereignty, and abundance. She along with ...

, Mahasaraswati, and Adishakti. After Lord

Jagannath Jagannath (; formerly ) is a Hindu deity worshipped in regional Hindu traditions in India as part of a triad along with (Krishna's) brother Balabhadra, and sister, Subhadra. Jagannath, within Odia Hinduism, is the supreme god, '' Purushot ...

, she is the only deity in Odisha who presides over such a vast region, encompassing all of western Odisha, and extending into parts of

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in East India, eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north ...

and Chhattisgarh. The region in which the temple is situated has a rich cultural heritage. Sambalpur region is popularly known as Hirakhanda from ancient times.

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

has described the place as Sambalaka, according to French traveller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier and English historian

Edward Gibbon Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English essayist, historian, and politician. His most important work, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1789, is known for ...

, diamonds were exported to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

from Sambalpur. The temple is of Sandhara order (these types of the temples have a square sanctum enclosed by a gallery of pillars meant for

pradakshina Parikrama or Pradakshina is clockwise circumambulation of sacred entities, and the path along which this is performed, as practiced in the Indic religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. In Buddhism, it refers only to the path alon ...

). Thus, the Sandhara temples have a Pradakshinapatha is built of a kind of stone as durable as

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

, cemented with lime mortar, the whole building is plastered, but in the course of time the surface has become mouldy. The temple consists of two separate structures. The square sanctum enshrining the deity is four step below the covered circumambulation, which is supported by 12 stone pillars. Eleven parswa devis (side Goddesses), are embedded on the outer wall of the sanctum, so that the devotees can worship those deities during parikrama through the vaulted circumambulation. The idol of Shree Shree Samalei Devi consists of a large block of granite rock with an inverted, trunk-like projection at the bottom. This also symbolises a yoni, and is an interesting kings-yoni worship. A shallow cut on her "Baraha" like face symbolises her mouth. Traditional Sambalpuri nose ornament of pure gold hangs down from her imaginary nose. Beaten gold leaves fixed on two disproportionate golden eye-like depressions on the face act as substitute for her eyes in an attempt to define the face of the mother deity on a mass of self shaped rock, the devi's idol inspires sublime sentiments of awe, fear, reverence, devotion, love and affection towards all-pervasive motherhood. She is worshipped with great care and devotion by the natives in her temple, famously known as the Samaleswari temple. Among the varieties of

festivals A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

observed before the goddess throughout the year, three festivals are observed prominently. The first two are ''

Navaratri Navaratri () is an annual Hindu festival observed in honor of the goddess Durga, an aspect of Adi Parashakti, the supreme goddess. It spans over nine nights, first in the month of Chaitra (March/April of the Gregorian calendar), and aga ...

pujas'' during the months of March and April and during the months of September and October (

Chaitra Chaitra () is a month of the Hindu calendar. In the standard Hindu calendar and India's national civil calendar, Chaitra is the first month of the year. It is the last month in the Bengali calendar, where it is called Choitro. Chaitra or Cha ...

Navaratri and Ashwin Navaratri respectively). The goddess is dressed differently on each day representing each of the Navadurgas, this is called ''Beeja''. Among these two ''navaratra pujas'' (nine days continuous worship of the goddess), the second one is observed with great splendour and devotion. On the 1st day of the Navaratri, the goddess is dressed in white attire, called ''Dhabalamukhi''. The third festival which is said to be the chief festival of the whole western

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

region is Nuakhai. In this festival, the farmers offer the first produce from their lands to the goddess before using it for their personal use.

External links

Samaleswari
Shakti temples Hindu temples in Sambalpur district Tourist attractions in Sambalpur Buildings and structures in Sambalpur {{Odisha-hindu-temple-stub