Manikeswari

Manikeswari is the presiding goddess of Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi district, regarded as the chosen deity of the Nagavamsi rulers and the royal families of the region, and worshipped as a form of Durga. She is the centre of faith for southwestern Odisha, where tribal and Shakta traditions meet. Her great festival is the Chhatar Jatra, held around Mahashtami in the Durga Puja season, when the goddess is carried in a grand procession from Jenakhal to the main temple before huge crowds.

Manikeswari is remembered as the ishta devi of the Nagavamsi Kshatriyas, and also as the royal family deity of several chiefly houses of southern Odisha, including Parlakhemundi. According to one tradition she was installed at Bhawanipatna when the capital of Kalahandi was shifted from Junagarh...