Jagannath Puri

The Jagannath Temple was built in its current form by King Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva of the Eastern Ganga dynasty around 1135 CE. The Deul (main sanctuary) is built in the Kalinga style of Odishan architecture — a tradition of extraordinary stone craftsmanship represented also at the Sun Temple in Konark. The complex covers 10.7 acres and contains over 120 subsidiary shrines within its walls.

The Rath Yatra (Chariot Festival), held annually in the month of Ashadha (June–July), is the most famous of all Indian religious processions. Three enormous wooden chariots — Nandighosa (Jagannath's), Taladhwaja (Balabhadra's) and Darpadalana (Subhadra's) — are constructed fresh each year and pulled through the streets of Puri by hundreds of thousands of devotees. The English word "juggernaut" (an unstoppable force) is derived from the name Jagannath, coined by awestruck medieval European travellers who witnessed the Rath Yatra.

The temple is one of the few in India where non-Hindus are traditionally not permitted to enter the main sanctum — a policy that has been challenged and debated in recent years. The Panchasakha tradition of Odisha's medieval poet-saints (including Panchasakha Achyutananda, Ananta, Balaram, Jasobanta and Jagannath Dasa) developed a deeply devotional, egalitarian form of Vaishnava worship centred on Jagannath that remains influential across Odisha and Bengal.