Its historicity contributes to the temple's unique character
It's a temple with a chequered past. Visited by monks like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Guru Nanak Dev. But bypassed by Mahatma Gandhi when he visited Orissa during the Harijan movement in the '30s. Years later, Indira Gandhi was denied entry because she was married to a Parsi.
This, say historians, only highlights the shrine's somewhat unique character. Dr Karuna Sagar Behera, head of Utkal University's ancient Indian history, culture and archaeology department, attributes this uniqueness to a mix of "conservatism exemplified in the ban of leather items and cameras inside" and a "dash of liberalism" where a human deity is actually pulled in a chariot by thousands of people, irrespective of race, religion or caste, during the Rath Yatra festival. The Rath Yatra is mentioned in accounts dating from the 14th century onwards when a British observer recounts an accident that took place when devotees threw themselves frenziedly at the car, but it rolled on and ran over them.
The temple is built in the classic Orissa style of architecture with a rectangular courtyard, the pyramidal front porch (Jagamohana) and the curvilinear shrine housing the deity (deula). Though the interior of this knondalite stone temple is spartan, its exterior is highly ornamental. After the original lime plastering of its walls peeled off, archaeologists discovered a treasure trove of designs and inscriptions. The Archaeological Survey of India has been carefully plastering and deplastering the temple for over a decade now.