Maa Charchika Temple

Getting there

• By air

  Biju Patnaik Airport serves Bhubaneswar, the state capital, which is 58 km from Banki.

• By train

  Cuttack, the district headquarters, has a station on the East Coast Railway main line.

• By road

  A national highway passes through Cuttack district, and state highways to Banki branch off it. Banki is 47 km from Cuttack.

Why devotees come here

Maa Charchika Temple stands on a small hillock, Ruchika Parvata, on the banks of the Renuka river in Banki, Cuttack district. The presiding deity is an eight-armed Chamunda, known locally as Maa Charchika Devi. It is counted among the oldest Shakti places in Odisha.

Charchika Temple is one of the oldest Shakti places in Odisha. Locally it is believed that the Charchika idol was created by Parashurama. A legend says a devotee who worshipped her took away all her ornaments and built a house where the Renuka river now flows. Angered, she created the river to punish him and destroy his home.

The present temple was rebuilt in the 19th century. The deity image is dated to the 9th and 10th centuries, the Bhaumakara rule, on iconographic grounds. The temple has a pidha vimana, a jagamohana hall and a wooden mandapa called the sunyavahini mandapa. Stone is used for the construction, and the surface is thickly lime plastered and whitewashed.

The mandapa ceiling is made of wood and carved with episodes from the Bhagavata Purana, while its pillars are stone. INTACH rebuilt the sunyavahini mandapa after the Culture department handed the temple to it for restoration in 2019. The temple is managed by the Endowments department, and its carved canopy is its biggest draw. The mandapa has 12 pillars carrying large carved wooden beams, and a conical canopy of six layers.

Festivals

• OctoberDurga Puja

  The temple is most visited at this time, when thousands of devotees come to be blessed.

• 5 days after DussehraKumar Purnima

  A Hindu festival that is very famous at this temple.

Tips for your visit

• The Charchika prasad is made of fish, which matters for vegetarian visitors.
• Banki also has Anshupa Lake and the Chandaka Elephant Sanctuary.

Questions people ask