Astasambhu Siva Temple

This temple, like other 7 temples of the Astasambhu temples was constructed in the 10th century AD. Dhenekal, the town in which the temple is situated currently, had the capital of Kualo or Karmula in the earlier days. The Kualo kingdom was then ruled by the shulki kings, who were the descendants of the Bahmukar generation of kings. Lord Shiva was the main deity of the Bahmukar kings; hence these temples came to be addressed as the Asta sambhu temples.

This is another ancient temple connected with the Puri kings. It is said that Asta Sambhu cured once the ancient king from a fatal disease. As per the legend, the Shivalingas here are ones that were captured when the kings defeated opposing kingdoms. The Asta sambhu temple is a small temple on the campus of the Sri Sri Radha Rasik Raj temple. These are the family deities of Maharaja Prataprarudra and were worshiped even before the time of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Also in this temple are Gaura Nitai deities that were personally installed by Maharaja Prataprarudra.

Like all the other Astasambhu temples, this also belongs to the Kalinga architectural style. The basic material used for building is grey sandstone and dry masonry was the technique used here similar to the Astasambhu temple VI. This temple contains a vimana and a porch facing the front side. The vimana has a measurement of 2.20m X 1.90m. The porch alone measures up to 0.41m.

When elevated, the vimana is 4.15m tall and it belongs to the Rekha order that contains the bada, gandi and mastaka. The characteristic feature of all Astasambhu temples, triangular bada, is found in this temple as well and it is 1.30m tall, out of which, the pabhaga measures 0.32m, jangha measures 0.68m and baranda measures 0.30m. The gandi measures 1.85m and the mastaka is 1m tall.

The parsvadevata corners located in the temple are totally vacant and measures 0.40m in length, 0.22m in breadth and 0.09m in depth. The highlight of this temple is that, here, the deities and the architectural style is simple and has no ornaments on it, making it look all the more serene and ancient. There are Udyota Simhas on all four sides in the middle of the raha paga. The doorjambs have no decoration on them and are 1.10m tall and 0.45m broad.