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Showing posts from June 26, 2009


Ancient Temple Dedicated to Poet Kalidasa at Kendrapara in Orissa

Kalidasa, the author of the immortal classic Abhijnanashakuntalam and the greatest Sanskrit poet and dramatist, is worshipped in a century old temple at Babkarpur Village in Kendrapara in Orissa. The villagers are very well aware of the greatness of poet Kalidas, who is believed to have lived during the fourth century AD. The temple has a rock-cut idol of Kalidasa and pujas are offered daily by a Hindu priest. The Hindu Reports Noted Sanskrit researcher Dillip Dutta is fascinated with the annual ritual. "I rushed to the village to trace the unique legacy ... Initially I was under the impression that people had mistaken him to be a Hindu God and installed the idol in the temple." "But locals are well aware that they are worshipping the great Sanskrit poet. For them he is God," says Dutta, from Mugberia Gangadhar Mahavidyalaya in West Bengal's East Midnapur . The temple might have come up with the patronage of the local zamindar during the British