Brahmeswara Temple

The Brahmeswara Temple in Bhubaneswar is a Shiva temple that can be dated unusually precisely. An inscription, now lost from the site but recorded, states that Kolavati Devi, mother of the Somavamshi king Udyotakesari, built it in the eighteenth year of his reign, around 1058-1060 CE, at a place called Siddhatirtha in the sacred area of Ekamra.

It is a panchayatana temple: the main shrine stands at the centre with four smaller shrines at the corners. The sanctum tower is about 19 metres high, and the whole structure was carved inside and out after the stone was assembled, applying woodcarving techniques to stone. It owes much to the earlier Mukteshwara Temple, including the carved interior of the assembly hall and the many lion-head motifs, but it adds new themes, notably a crowd of dancers and musicians, some with lutes, across its outer walls.