Charchika

Charchika is the eight-armed Chamunda of Banki in Cuttack district, one of Odisha's oldest Shakta shrines, on the small hill Ruchika Parvata beside the Renuka river. The image shows the goddess seated on a prostrate body, wearing a garland of skulls, with a sword, trident, dagger and boon-giving gesture in her right hands, and a severed head, blood cup and damaru drum in her left. Her worship is Shakta and Tantric. Devotees come during Durga Puja and on other festival days.

The temple's legend ties the image to Parashurama. In one account, Parashurama sat on the Ruchika hill to atone for killing his mother Renuka and made the image of Chamunda there. He then drew a path for water from the nearby Mahanadi with his arrow, and the stream was named the Renuka river in...