Ramachandi

Ramachandi is a Shakta goddess worshipped in a temple on the Kusabhadra river near its mouth, about five kilometres from Konark in Puri district. Devotees consider her the presiding goddess of the Konark region, though some hold that the shrine was dedicated to Mayadevi, wife of Surya. Pilgrims and visitors reach the shrine near Ramachandi beach. A goddess named Ramchandi is also listed among the subsidiary guardian deities on Darpadalana, the chariot of Subhadra, in the Rath Yatra of Puri.

Sources disagree on who the goddess is. Some believe Ramachandi is the presiding deity of Konark, while others believe the shrine was dedicated to Mayadevi, the wife of the Sun God Surya. Odisha Tourism calls the temple older than the Sun temple at Konark, a claim that could not be supported from a...