Temple- Baba Akhandalamani Temple Odisha

Baba Akhandalamani Temple Odisha


This famous Akhandalamani temple, the abode of "Lord Siva" is nicely located in the bank of river Baitarani, at Aradi, 37km away from the district head quarter of Bhadrak towards east by road via Asurali, Kothara and Dhusuri.
This place is also linked with Chanbali by boat through the river Baitarani. From Chandbali ferry ghat to Aradi it will take hardly 2 hrs by boat.

Legends
There is no such conclusive history available either regarding Baba Akhandalamani or the temple of the lord siva. According to legends around 350 years ago during the rule of Raja Sri Niladri Samara Singha Mohapatra, once in an early morning the Raja sent a peasant to cultivate his Paddy field which

was located on the bank of the river Baitarani. While cultivating, the blade of his plough was broken by hitting with some hard material. Then, the peasant was astonished and searched out and found a black glazed granite stone with full of blood which is flowing towards the river Baitarani. Afraid by this incident the peasant ran to call the King. Then the king Niladrisamar Singh hurriedly came to the spot, and found flood of milk in place of blood and a huge black cobra hooding the stone. On that night the king had a dream regarding the arrival of the God Akhandalamani on that place. This news spread like wild fire in the locality.

The next day the king Niladri Samara Singha Mohapatra started worshiping the great god and immediately built a wooden temple on the spot. A large number of devotees from different villages and area started visiting and worshiping the great GOD. The king invited five Brahmins from a village named Naharagrama of Jajapur district to perform seva-puja ( Worshiping and taking care) of lord Akhandalamani.

The present main temple of Aradi was built by the King of Konika Shri Harihara Bhanja and his chief queen Satyabhama Patadei.The height of the temple is around 150 ft.All the stones used in this temple were brought from the historic hill of Lalitgiri near Chandikhol.

The entrance main Hall was built by a sage named Shri Narasingha Pratap Kumar and the surrounding wall of the temple was built by a noted sage named Shri Darshan Sekhara Das.

Their are many fairs and festivals observed at the temple of Baba Akhandalamani, but the principal among them is the Mahasivaratri. On this day pilgrims and devotees inside and outside the state are assembled and worship Akhandalamani at Aradi. BOOL-BOOM devotees come to Aradi in large number from different areas in the month of Sravana to worship the God and pour holy water over the LINGA. The BOOL-BOOM devotees carry holy water from different rivers of India like Ganges, Baitarani, Mahanadi, Salandi etc with a bamboo lever. Lord Akhandalamani is unique and omnipotent.