Biraja Temple

The Biraja Temple at Jajpur, called Jajnagar in Muslim chronicles, is the ancient shrine that gave the place its older name of Biraja Kshetra, the field of the goddess Viraja. Tantric texts teach that the navel of Sati fell here in the old Utkala kingdom.

The present Deula-style temple was raised around the 1000s, though Jajpur had been a capital under the Somavanshi king Yayati Keshari from 473 and later under the Buddhist Bhauma-Kara dynasty of the 700s. The town remained a centre of Tantric worship.

Its two-armed Durga spears Mahishasura while pulling his tail, one foot on her lion and the other on the buffalo demon. A sacred well named Nabhi Gaya draws pilgrims for rites for the dead, and an annual sixteen-day Durga Puja culminates in the animal sacrifice of Bali Dana.