Samaleswari

Samaleswari is the presiding mother-goddess of Sambalpur and of western Odisha at large. Her temple stands on the bank of the Mahanadi, and her authority extends far beyond the city: across the Kosal region she is the goddess to whom households turn first, the divine centre of a distinct cultural world within Odisha.

The tradition

In local tradition her name is linked to the simuli, the silk-cotton tree, beneath which the goddess is said to have first been worshipped; she is also called simply Samalai. The present temple is attributed to the Chauhan rulers of Sambalpur, and local accounts credit its foundation to Balaram Dev in the sixteenth century, after which the goddess served as the tutelary deity of the ruling house. She is worshipped not through a conventional image but in the form of a large block of granite, adorned and attended as the mother herself.

Worship

Samaleswari's greatest public moment comes at Nuakhai, the harvest festival of western Odisha, when the first grains of the new rice crop are offered to her before families across the region sit down to eat the new harvest together. Navaratri also draws large gatherings to Sambalpur. In both, her role is the same: she is the mother of the land, and the year's food and fortune pass through her hands first.