Kshirachora Gopinatha Temple

The Kshirachora Gopinatha temple stands at Remuna in Balasore district, Odisha. Its name means Gopinatha who stole the condensed milk, a nod to the child Krishna's love of milk sweets, and the village name is said to come from ramaniya, very beautiful. It is counted among the 108 Abhimana Kshetrams of the Vaishnava tradition.

The black stone image of Gopinatha is carved in relief and flanked by free-standing figures of Govinda and Madana Mohana, brought from Vrindavan around 1938. Legend says Rama carved Gopinatha with his arrow for Sita at Chitrakuta, and that King Langula Narasingha Deva brought the deity here in the 13th century and had the large tanks of Brajapokhari and Kutapokhari dug. The temple's best-known story concerns the saint Madhavendra Puri, who wished to taste the deity's famous sweetened milk; that night Gopinatha told the priest in a dream to take a pot he had hidden for the saint, and so became known as the milk thief.