Brahma Temple, Bindusagar

The Brahma Temple stands on the eastern embankment by the Bindusagar tank in Bhubaneswar, on the left of the road from the Lingaraj Temple. Legend says Brahma came to Bhubaneswar for the coronation of Lingaraj and, asked to stay for good, promised instead to return each Chaitra for the Ashokashtami festival and to drive Lingaraj's Rukuna Rath as charioteer; the temple was raised in his honour.

The present building, in the late Kalinga style of the 15th century, dates from the time of the Gajapati rulers. It enshrines a four-armed black chlorite image of Brahma, holding the Veda and a water pot in his upper hands and a rosary and the gesture of protection in the lower. Brahmins of the Panda family carry out the daily worship, and the temple is traditionally visited together with Lingaraj and the Ananta Vasudeva Temple.