Most Indians have heard about Somnath temple that was raided by Mahmud of Ghazni a thousand years ago. Very few know that in the same century, the Chola king from the south raided Odisha and Bengal and took back with him images of Shiva. Even fewer people know that in the 13th century, the Ganga kings of Odisha bravely fought the Muslim invaders of Bengal, and even established a “New Varanasi” in Cuttack, Odisha, since the “Old Varanasi” had been plundered.

Around this time, the giant temple of Purushottama was built, renamed the Jagannatha (lord of the world), and the kings who built it declared themselves to be viceroy of this deity who was the true ruler of the land, the rashtra-devata. It was at this temple that Jayadeva composed his Gita Govinda that introduced Radha into Hinduism. There is some influence of Ramanuja’s Sri Vaishnava Vedanta school on the temple, as indicated by the independent temple to Lakshmi within the complex. But it also has Tantric rituals that give it a very unique local flavour.