Tradition · architectural tradition

The Kaliṅga śilpa tradition

Function

Archaeology & heritage

Confidence

Not assessed

Location

20.244, 85.838

Worth knowing

The tradition is still working. The Raghurajpur and Puri maharana families of temple masons carry it on, new temples are built to the manuals in Odisha and abroad, and the Konark and Lingaraja restorations have been done by masons trained in it rather than by conservation architects alone.

Connections (2)

• Alternative toNāgara temple architecture

  Kalinga building is classed within the wider Nagara family and is quite unlike the rest of it: the tower rises vertically and then curves in sharply at the top under a flat amalaka, the porch is a stepped pyramid rather than a shallow roof, and the whole is described in Odia manuals with its own vocabulary. Central Indian Nagara temples cluster their towers and Odishan ones do not, which is why Rajarani, whose tower is clustered, has never been fully explained.

• Site withinBhubaneswar

  The Kaliṅga śilpa tradition lies within Bhubaneswar — the two sites sit about 6 km apart, well inside the city's historical boundary and part of the same urban or peri-urban landscape. The Kaliṅga śilpa tradition is one of the specific sites that give Bhubaneswar its layered character, and reads differently when seen as a stop within the larger city rather than as an isolated monument on an open map. The surrounding neighbourhoods, roads and other heritage ensembles belong to the same single urban fabric.

On these journeys

• Eastern Ganga & Kalinga

Sources

Wikipedia, “Kalinga architecture”. The Madala Panji temple chronicle of Puri; Debala Mitra and K.C. Panigrahi on Odishan temple architecture; Archaeological Survey of India records.

• Wikipedia — Kalinga architecture