BHUBANESWAR: Participants of Ekamra Walks Old Town Circuit on Sunday got an opportunity to have a glimpse of worship of ‘Matrikas’ (mother Goddesses) at temples across Ekamra Kshetra here on the occasion of Mother’s Day.
Tour guide Satyaswarup Mishra showed the heritage walkers the statues of mothers with their children on the walls of Mukteshwar temple where the Ekamra Walks begins. At Parshurameshvara temple, Mishra explained the participants about Sapta Matrika (seven motherly incarnations of Goddess Shakti).
“Sapta Matrika forms are not reflected in any other temple apart from Parshurameshvara in the city.
However, Sapta Matrika images are found in Jajpur town, Bajrakote in Dhenkanal and Padmapur in Rayagada. But the representation of the seven forms of the mother Goddess at Parshurameshvara temple is unique,” he added.
The heritage walkers also visited Sampurna Jaleswara temple, Kotitirtheswar temple, Ananta Vasudeva temple, Lingaraja temple, medicinal plant garden at Ekamra Bana on the western bank of holy Bindusagar lake.
PhD scholars from IIT Roorkee, Suryendu Dasgupta and his wife Megha Tyagi, also participated in the walks. “We had heard about the heritage walk from our common friends working as architects with the State Government and other academic institutes,” the couple said.