Maa Baulasuni Temple, Nilok

Maa Baulasuni Temple stands at Nilok, a village of Bhadrak district in Odisha, about 27 km from Bhadrak. Baulasuni is a goddess worshipped in northern Odisha as a protector of the locality; she is shown with a red face, two large eyes and a mark that serves as both nose and tilak, and people say she rides out at night on a black horse. Tradition holds that a Brahmin saw children worshipping a round stone under a tentuli (tamarind) tree, and that he and a villager both dreamed the goddess lived there in the form of that stone.

She was first worshipped under the tree, later on an altar; the present temple dates from 1969 and the yagya mandap from 2000. The main festival, Makar Mela, begins on Makar Sankranti (14 January) with a three-day yagna and Chandi Patha before the temple, and the fair lasts 15 to 20 days, ending with a yatra performance on the field called Maa Baulasuni Padia.