Bhubaneswar, October 3: Celebrating the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) on Sunday organised a Special Heritage Walk in the Old Town area of the capital city here following all the COVID appropriate behaviour.
As part of a three-day long celebration of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, today’s theme was a walkathon while yesterday it was cyclathon and first day, visit of citizens to the Integrated Command and Control Centre.
The walk was participated by 75 walkers from different walks of life. It started from the 10th Century monument of Mukteswar temple, which is unique for its intricate carvings and beautiful arch. Starting at 7.05 AM, the walkers explored the 7th Century Parasurameswar, Bindusagar lake, Ananta Vasudev, old Dharamsala, Gourishankar, Lingaraj temple. The guide explained the walkers regarding the nearby Chitrakarini and Sari Deula from near the Curzon Mandap near the Northern gate of the 11th Century grand monument, which is the epicenter of the Ekamra Kshetra.
The youngest participant Aaniya Rajhans (7) from KIIT International School also enjoyed her time exploring the heritage of the State Capital, whose ancient name was Ekamra Kshetra and it is a prominent place for worship of Lord Shiva as most of the presiding deities in temples across the region is Lord Shiva and Parvati.
Expressing her happiness over the heritage walk the little girl, Aaniya said that she would love to come to visit the places often in near future once the COVID situation eases a little more and she would also want her friends to come and see the temples we have in our city.
Conservation architect Apoorva Pillay from Hyderabad said, “The heritage walk was quite an enlightening experience on the 7-10th Century Kalingan temple architecture.”
It was focused on the historical evolution and architectural elements of Mukteshwar, Parsurameswara, Ananta Basudev and Lingaraja temples. The entire walk from the first temple to the last one involved a series of interesting anecdotes and events related to the Hindu and Buddhist history. What I found the most fascinating was the Buddhist influence on Kalinga architecture depicted in the form of sculptures and the elaborate and one of its kind arch (torana) at Mukteshwar temple entrance.
Bijay Das, a retired banker, writer and well-known theatre and ‘Jatra’ personality of Odisha, who is credited with many bestselling screenplays of ‘Jatra’ world (Jollywood) said, “The Special Heritage Walk unveiled many untold stories on our glorious monuments to the walkers. We all must have basic knowledge on the beautiful monuments as they are the identity of this ancient city.’’ Das is also the president of Sadhana.
Secretary of Sadhana Shreegobinda was of the opinion that the heritage walks provide a nice opportunity to explore the missing links between our past and present and as Bhubaneswar had a great history and succeeded in becoming a modern Smart City with notable urban development projects, knowing the past history has also got an important value for every citizen.
Venkat Chelapathy, who hails from Chennai, but stays in the city said, “I have a wonderful experience of knowing the ancient monuments of Bhubaneswar. We all enjoyed the walk as we got to know the wonderful Kalingan architecture and temple building styles.”
The Special Heritage Walk are organised in association with city-based social service organisation Sadhana and URC Construction.
