Goabirder

The Soul of Incredible India - The Leaning Temple of Huma

The Soul of Incredible India series - 

The Sun Temple at Konark

Kichakeswari Temple

Dhanobeni Temple

The Leaning Temple of Huma

The Leaning Temple of Huma

A small place just 23 Kms south of Sambalpur is home to the intriguing 'Leaning temple of Shiva' in Huma. It stands on the left bank of the mighty river Mahanadi. Lord Shiva is revered here in the form of Bimaleswar.

Having heard of this unique Shiva temple from friends in Sambalpur, we decided to see for ourselves where and how this temple came to be leaning!! 

Legend goes that a milkman used to cross the Mahanadi at this point and a jutting rock here used to be rendered a small amount of milk as an offering by him which was immediately guzzled up by the rock. The Raja gets to know of this and a temple is built at the site by Raja Baliar Singh, the fifth Chauhan Raja of Sambalpur roughly in the second half of the 17th century. According to some experts, the temple was built much earlier in the 12th century by Ganga Vamsi Emperor Anangabhima Deva-III and renovated by the Chauhan King!

What's fascinating here is the main Temple itself and the two subsidiary temples are all tilted. The main temple is tilted including the walls and the Vimana but the shikhar (the pinnacle) is perpendicular to the ground! Funnily, they are tilted in different directions as are the gateways and the boundary walls. Nothing seems in logical symmetry, including the inclination. One reason could be that it was built that way? That sounds very difficult considering that the temple is about 350 years old and this kind of tilt would undoubtedly made it too unstable to still stand. Another could be the geological instability of the rock it stands upon. But the different angles and directions of tilt in the premises are baffling to say the least .... 

Another attraction here are the huge fish in the Mahanadi next to the temple fabled as the deity's own and thus protected from fishing. They are very tame and pilgrims love to feed them prasad. 

The temple is also home to a troupe of monkeys which are quick to grab the 'prasad' from any unsuspecting person's hands as we all discovered much to our amusement!

All in all... interesting place! If one is in those parts, worth a dekho...