Biraja

Biraja is the ancient goddess of Jajpur, on the Vaitarani river in Odisha, and her temple is the heart of one of eastern India's oldest Śākta centres. The surrounding country is known as Biraja Kshetra, the goddess's own field, and a sacred site of this name on the Vaitarani figures in early pilgrimage tradition — Jajpur's sanctity as a goddess-seat reaches back well over a millennium.

The image

The goddess is worshipped as a two-armed Mahishasuramardini of strikingly archaic type. With one hand she drives her spear into the buffalo demon, shown plainly as an animal, while the other grips its tail; her lion presses the beast down. The simplicity of the composition — far removed from the many-armed Durgas of later art — is generally taken as a sign of the image's early character, and it has remained the living object of worship rather than a museum piece.

Worship

Jajpur is also a place of the ancestors. Within the temple precinct lies the Nabhi Gaya, a well where pilgrims make pinda offerings for the dead; local tradition ranks the site with Gaya itself, as the place of the navel. The goddess's great season is autumn, when Sharadiya Durga Puja at Biraja is observed on an unusually extended scale, running over sixteen days and drawing pilgrims from across Odisha.