Kalabhairavi Temple, Bhubaneswar

Kalabhairavi Temple stands within the Jaleswar Siva Temple precinct at Kalarahanga in Bhubaneswar. Dated to around the 12th century and credited to King Madhusudhan Deva, it is still a living temple. Its goddess is a four-armed Chamunda seated on a corpse, wearing a jatamukuta and a garland of skulls and holding a khatvanga, a snake and a severed head; the fourth hand is broken.

The east-facing shrine is a pidha deul of laterite and sandstone, laid in dry masonry in the Kalinga style and about 6.8 m tall, with a frontal porch. Its wall niches are empty, but the doorway carries a navagraha panel on the architrave and Shaiva door guardians in niches at the base. Durga Ashtami is observed here, and families hold birthdays, engagements, head-shaving and thread ceremonies at the temple. Pipal and creepers and cracks in the tower have damaged the building, and the State Archaeology department has repaired it.