Chandaneswar

Chandaneswar is a Shiva shrine at Chandaneswar in Baleswar district, close to the West Bengal border, built in the Kalinga style of temple architecture. Shiva is worshipped here as a lingam in the Shaiva tradition. The shrine is best known for Chadak Yatra, also called Nila Parba, observed around Maha Bishuba Sankranti, the Odia New Year in April. Devotees who take a vow of penance, called pat bhaktas, gather in large numbers, and a fair grows around the temple. Shivaratri is also observed. The shrine is reached from Jaleswar or from the seaside town of Digha.

No firm date or founding account of the temple is documented in published sources, so its origin is best described as local tradition. What is better recorded is the festival. Chadak Yatra belongs to the wider folk Shaiva tradition of eastern India, in which devotees observe fasts and bodily...