Place · open-air Yogini temple · India
Chausath Yoginis, Bhubaneswar
Also known as Bhubaneswar, Chausath Yogini, Chausath Yogini — Hirapur, Chausath Yoginis, Hirapur
The 9-century hypaethral (open-air, roofless) Chausath Yogini circular temple at Hirapur in Khurda district, Odisha, 20 kilometres from Bhubaneswar — one of only four surviving major Chausath Yogini temples in India (with Ranipur-Jharial, Mitaoli and Bhedaghat). The 20-metre-diameter circular stone shrine holds 64 yogini goddess sculptures in niches around the inner wall, with no roof — the only Yogini temple of this form in India. The yogini figures (now partly damaged) represent the Tantric Dasha-Mahavidya and Chausath Yogini traditions of 8-11th century eastern India. The temple is 9-century Somavamshi-period, discovered by K.N. Mohapatra of the Odisha State Museum in 1953. ASI protection since 1958. UNESCO tentative list (serial Yogini nomination).
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 20.226, 85.926
Connections (1)
- Site withinBhubaneswar
Chausath Yoginis, Bhubaneswar sits inside Bhubaneswar and forms one piece of its layered sacred, royal or civic landscape. The city carries this entry as one of the sites that make its urban fabric legible — a shrine, monument, institution or craft tradition specifically anchored at this location — and the city's broader history reads better when the stop is seen in its context rather than in isolation. The surrounding streets, markets and other heritage ensembles around it belong to the same single city.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Bhubaneswar”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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