Budhi Thakurani
The Temple of Budhi Thakurani is situated at Angul town. Near the Temple ,
an exact replica of Puri Jagannath Temple is built. It is famous as Saila
Srikhetra. The presiding deity of Angul is Goddess Budhithakurani. Angul has
earned celebrity as a Sakta Centre since 8th Century A.D. with the rise of
the Sulkies on its soil. Goddess Budhithakurani is worshiped in the form of
a stone icon covered with Vermellion.
The Bigraha of the Goddess is made in Black Granite stone and looks like a
pillar. It is the symbol of Budha Budhi worship system of tribal culture.
This type of customs also seen in the village of Ogi, Para and Bagedia
villages where Budha Thakur is worshipped and Purnakot, Jerang villages
where Budhi Thakurani is worshipped in this district.
It is also seen in the other parts of Orissa i.e. in Kaligali of Cuttack
City where pillar type Goddess is worshipped as Goddess Kali and known as
Budhi Thakurani. As per history it is not clear regarding the period of
worship of Budhi Thakurani at Angul. As per hear say, once upon a time this
Angul was ruled by one Kandha named Sunas and he used this hill as Gada and
accordingly the hill is called as Sunasagada. The Kandha ruler placed this
Budhi Thakurani and worshipped as his Esta Devi and in due course this place
was full of deeply forest.
In the year of 1848, the Angul district was came to under control of British
Empire and in the year 1896 they shifted their headquarter from Purnagada to
Nuagada and planned the Angul town. They constructed road for convenience of
the people. So it was required to clean the forest & at that time the hill
came to their notice and they found that one pillar type of Goddess was
there inside the deep forest. Then the era was cleaned and from that day the
Goddess was worshipped as the Adhistatri Devi of this area and called as
Budhi Thakurani.
In the year of 1956, one saint came to Angul and visited the Sakti Pitha and
became fascinated to see the Bigraha of Goddess. Curiosity was aroused in
his mind to know what is inside of the Bigraha. Then he tried to dig the
back side of the Bigraha to find some thing. But he could not get any thing
and returned away. In due course the holes had been filled and a Lion's
statue was placed there.
Now this Budhi Thakurani is renowned in the town as well as in the district.
Daily thousands of people visited the place and Budhi Thakurani is placed in
every person's heart of this district as Easta Devi / Grama Devi.
Getting There
Budhi Thakurani Temple is situated in one side of Sunasagad Hill which is in
the middle place of the Angul town.
Situated on NH 42 at a distance of 160 km from Bhubaneswar, Angul is an
important road junction of the State connected by regular bus services from
Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Talcher, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Rourkela,
Raipur, Durgapur and other important places of the State and nearby States.
Angul Railway Station is on the Barang Jn.–Sambalpur section of
Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line in the East Coat Railway Zone headquartered at
Bhubaneswar. Important train routes to Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Howrah, Nagpur,
New Delhi, Kurla, Visakhapatnam make it helpful for Angul citizens to
commute to other parts of nation.
In Angul, taxis, buses and autos are available easily. There are a number of
moderately priced hotels in the town.
The nearest domestic airport is
Biju Patnaik International
Airport, located in Bhubaneswar, 150 km southeast of Angul. It is about
three hours drive to Biju
Patnaik International Airport from Angul. To make arrangements for a
taxi from Airport to Angul, contact one the taxi operators and travel agents
that have counter in the Airport.
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