Bhubaneswar

Kenduli

Temples, heritage and monuments

The village Kenduli is situated on the Prachi river in Balianta police station of Bhubaneswar tahasil. It was originally a Sasan or Brahmin settlement. Even at present a part of this area is known as Kenduli Sasan, the other part being Kendulipatna, while the area containing the old relics of temples and images, is known as Kenduli Deuli. The village is famously known as the birth place of poet Jayadeva of ‘Gita Govinda’. The area has extensive relics of brick temples and sculptures of Saiva, Vaishnava and Sakta cults some of which may be ascribed to the 10th-11th century A.D.

A two-armed image (both the arms broken) with heavy matted hair is worshipped by the local people as the sage ‘Jayadeva’. On the southern side of the village there is a temple dedicated to god Lakshmi-Nrusimha and the image of Nrusimha carrying Lakshmi on his lap reveals the iconographic peculiarities of the Ganga period. A cultural organisation called the Jayadeva Sanskrutika Parishad was started here in 1966. A small museum containing old images and other archaeological finds unearthed from the nearby area is housed in the Parishad building. Every year a cultural function in honour of the poet Jayadeva is organised at Kenduli by this cultural organisation.