Pancharatha Temple (Odia: ପଞ୍ଚରଥ ମନ୍ଦିର) is a Hindu temple in Sonpur district. It's a highly revered shrine in Odisha.

This beautiful temple, constructed in a chariot size, which resembles the Sun Temple, Konark. Here Pancharatha means five carts.

As many as five temples are built upon a single platform here. The idols of Lord Siva, Ganesh, Kartikeya, and Rishava along with Goddess Shakti aka Parvati are worshipping here.

The most noteworthy feature of the temple is that the idol of Lord Ganesh faces east; generally in all Shiva temples the idol faces south. It is believed that Pancharatha Temple was built by King Birmitra Singhdeo to commemorate the death of his son Prince Somobhusan. But still, the researchers are working on the history of the temple.

Here we have some photos of the Pancharatha Temple captured by Chandrakar Liman Sir.

We always share good and attractive photos of places, foods. But this time, it's quite different this time. Last year, we face a super cyclone named Fani which hit at Puri.

Puri, the city of Lord Jagannath is famous for the ancient history of Odisha. Lots of people come to visit this place from all over the world to visit Lord Jagannath and for the sea beach.

The Temple and the Matha cultures of Puri always give lots of things to the visitors. But this cyclone changed the structure of the place.

3rd May 2019 is the day which the people of Puri and Bhubaneswar may not forget for one or two decades. On this day, the topical cyclone Fani hit Puri.

By the evening, we saw some photos on Social media. Due to the cyclone and heavy wind flow, some news channels broke down and lots of people affected by this. The whole structure of Puri and Bhubaneswar changed just like the snap of Thanos from the Infinity War.

Can you recognize this place? It's the palace of our Lord Jagannath, the Srimandira. Lots of trees down with the hit of heavy flow and lots of houses broke down. Here we are sharing some more photos by Rajashree Sahoo from Puri.

* All these photos are taken by Rajashree Sahoo, a journalist from Puri, who works at Bhubaneswar.

Akshaya Tritiya (Odia: ଅକ୍ଷୟ ତୃତୀୟା) is an annual springtime festival of the Hindus and Jains. In Odisha, this day is celebrated as a festival, where the farmers started the 1st process of cultivation. The first process for cultivation is plowing fields.

According to the Odia calendar, Akshaya Trutiya is celebrated on the 3rd day of Bishakha Shukla Paksha. Bishakha is the 1st month of Odia calendar and Shukla is the Bright Half of moon. Here Trutiya is the 3rd day.

On this day, the farmers wake up early in the morning and after a holy bath, they worship Maa Maha Laxmi, the goddess of wealth in front of their house. At that time, they use to worship the cultivation instruments and after a puja at the paddy field, they plow the fields and start the process of cultivation with some rice grains.

People use to believe that, this day is the holy day and the work won't hurt before a happy and good end. So lots of people use to start a new business, new work on this day. Some people also do the rituals like Marriage, House warming, or Griha Prabesh puja on this day.

In Odisha, most of the people who are capable use to buy gold on this day. People use to buy gold like Dhanterash. On this day, the construction of chariots for the Puri Rath Yatra starts.

Pana Sankranti (Odia: ପଣା ସଂକ୍ରାନ୍ତି) is the 1st day of Odia New Year. This is also known as Maha Vishuba Sankranti. This festival is the traditional new year day festival of Buddhists also.

The festival date is set with the solar cycle of the lunisolar calendar, as the first day of the traditional solar month of Mesha. This is identical to the purnimanta system of lunar month Baisakh. It therefore almost always falls on 14 April every year on the Gregorian calendar, but in a leap year on the 13th of April.

The festival is celebrated with visits to Shiva, Shakti, or Hanuman temples, as the day is considered to be the birthday of Hanuman according to Odia Calendar. Communities participate in mela or fairs, do feasts and special drinks such as a chilled sweet mango-milk-yogurt-coconut drink called Pana is shared, a tradition that part is the source of this festival's name.

Pana Sankranti is similar to new year festivals observed by Hindus elsewhere such as Vaisakhi in the north and central India, Bihu in Assam, Pohela Boishakh in Bengal and Puthandu in Tamil Nadu.

Festivals like Danda Nata, Uda Jatra or Uda Parba, are celebrated during this time. Danda Jatra or Danda Nata is one of the ancient dance forms of Odisha, originated from Galleri and Baibelli village of Ghumushar.

Uda Parba is a traditional tribal festival similar as Danda Nata where iron nails (12-16 inch) hammered in the back of the devotees and tagged with a rope. It's quite dangerour.

Chandipur, is a beach in Baleswar District, the northern part of Odisha, India. The beach is located on the shore of the Bay of Bengal and is approximately 16 kilometers from the Baleswar Railway Station. 

The beach is unique in a way that the water recedes up to 5 kilometers during the ebb tide. Due to its unique circumstances, the beach supports bio-diversity.

The horseshoe crab is also found here on the beach towards Mirzapur, the nearby fishing market, and the community at the confluence of the Budhabalanga River at Balaramgadi. It is a suitable picnic spot. One of Odisha Tourism's Panthanivas or you can say a guest house is situated here.

Chandipur is located at 21.47°N 87.02°E. It has an average elevation of 9.8 ft. This town is 51.330 acres in size. Chandipur beach can be submerged at high tide.

Summer temperatures range 25–40 degrees Celsius, while the Winter range is 17–27 degrees Celsius. The tourism season is typically November to March.

Chandipur can be reached by traveling up to Baleswar by rail or road and then thereafter catching a bus, auto or taxi. Road access to Baleswar is via National Highway 16 (NH-16). Chandipur sea beach is 16 km from Balasore railway station.

Also avail the local guide & trekker service to see the major locations of Panchalinegeswar, Khirachora Gopinath temple, Chandipur Beach, Emami Jagannath temple, & Nilgiri Jagannath temple.

Apart from these, Many types of seafood are available in nearby hotels and restaurants. Fish is especially inexpensive here.

Shri Shri Baladevjew Temple, Keonjhar (Odia: କେନ୍ଦୁଝର ବଳଦେବଜୀଉ ମନ୍ଦିର) was established in the year 1671. This temple was built by Raja Laxminarayan Bhanja. The height of the temple is 135 feet.

The main idol of this temple is Lord Balaram, the 8th Avtar of Lord Vishnu. He was the elder brother of Lord Krishna in Dwapar Yug.

The Cart-Festival (ରଥଯାତ୍ର) of Keonjhar Baladevjew Temple is now the main attraction because of the height of the Cart. Previously the height of the cart was 60 feet but now it's 72 feet, which is the tallest cart in the world.


The height of Nadighosha, the cart of Lord Jagannath in Puri is 45.6 feet and the height of the chariot of Baladevjew Temple, Tulasi Kshetra, Kendrapada is 64 feet. According to the Global Records and Research Foundation (GRRF), now it has the tallest cart.

* All these photos are captured by Limon.
* We have published here with his permission.
* If you wish to share these photos, then take his permission.

Jasmine Flower (Odia: ମଲ୍ଲୀ ଫୁଲ) is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family (Oleaceae). It contains around 200 species native to tropical and warm temperate regions of Eurasia and Oceania. Jasmines are widely cultivated for the characteristic fragrance of their flowers. A number of unrelated plants contain the word "Jasmine" in their common names.

Summer is the time for the blossom of Jasmin. The smell of this flower always attracts people in the evening. The night is the best time for spreading the good smells. This flower blossoms in the evening and with its good smell the night becomes more attractive.

In the morning, people use to collect the flowers from the trees and these are used in different works like offering to lord, making some Gajra or necklace.

In Odisha, Dola Jatra is another big festival like Raja Parba, Ratha Jatra, Durga Puja, etc. This festival is celebrated according to the previously decided dates as per our Odia Calander.

Holi is the popular ancient Indian festival, originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is celebrated predominantly in India but has also spread to other areas of Asia and parts of the Western world through the diaspora from the Indian subcontinent.

Dola Yatra is celebrated in other states but in different names. In West Bengal, Tripura, and Asam people celebrate is as Basant Utsav.

Holi is mainly famous for Radha and Krishna from our ancient history book Mahabharata. Tough in Mahabharata, there is no mention of Radha with Krisha, but some other reference books which created based on the story of Mahabharata shown the presence of Radha and this festival.

This time, we have captured a few snaps of Dola Melana from Bidyabihar ground, Maitapur, Balasore, where they were celebrating the 7th Radha-Kanhu Melana from 7th March 2020 to 9th March 2020.

Radha-Kanhu Melana started by the initiative of Bishnumohan Mohanty, the Chairman of the Royal Group of Schools and Colleges. They are inviting different Opera parties to this three days festival with more than 50 Radha-Krishna Carts from nearby villages.