Maa Mangala Temple, Kakatpur

This is a 15th-century temple and a symbol of ancient Shakti Pithas of Kalinga. The temple is situated at the eastern bank of holy river Prachi which was named Saraswati before.

Maa Mangala is a Hindu goddess who is one of the manifestations of SHAKTI. In ancient times, Buddhist monks used to symbolize Maa Mangala as goddess Tara. Now the deity worshiped as one of manifestations of Goddess Durga in the hymn of the goddess Vanadurga.

Maa Mangala is the symbol of qualities like of peace, power, happiness, love, purity, knowledge & truth. [1]

The carvings of the deity Mangala is in typical Odia style, having khilana & prabha back to her sitting place. The architecture of temple is a typical example of Utkaliya Peedha Vimana Style.

There is a bed made of solid stone on which it is said Maa Mangala rests after touring the entire universe every day. As if to attest to this, the bed looks worn out in just the same way it would if it were in use for centuries.

There is no written prove based on the evolution of the Deity. The legend behind the evolution has no base in ancient days. The myth is that in ancient times Utkala had a good commercial relationship with different islands like Singhala, Java, Sumatra etc. Demon Ravana used to worship goddess Mangala with his great devotion and became the most powerful by the blessing of the Deity. After the victory of Lord Ram, goddess was taken to Utkala from Singhala by a Sadhaba (one who do business with other country & islands). At that time the Prachi civilization was getting civilized and developed more day by day & was only path to enter Utkala. He established the Deity Mangala in Prachi valley.

Legend

Maa Mangala

Evolution of the name of the deity as Maa Mangala hails from a legend believed by the locals of Kakatpur village. Goddess Managla kept herself hidden under the deep water of river Prachi. Once a boatman was sailing his boat across river Prachi. At that time the river was outpouring and flooded so he was unable to sail his boat to the middle of the river. He spent whole day and night but not able to sail his boat and during early morning, before the dawn, Goddess Mangala came in his dream and asked him to recover her from the water and to establish her in nearby Mangalapur village. The boatman dived into the water and able to find the deity from the bed of the river. Then as per the direction of the Goddess he established the figure of the deity in a temple in Mangalapur village. After this the boatman saw a black crow dived into the water and did not come out of the water for hours and days, the crow detained inside the water of river Prachi exactly in the same place from where he recovered the figure of Goddess Mangala. In Odia language, Crow means Kaa-kaw (କାକ) and Detained means Aw-taw-kaw (ଅଟକ). So by combining the two words it becomes Kaka-Atka, so during the course of time the Mangalapur village is known as Kakata (Kaka-Atka) pur and the Goddess is known as Kakatpur Mangala. That time before 500 years ago Local Zamindar Roychudamoni family has made the mandir at Kakatpur with all the Sebak arrangement. This Mandir was Made by Panchanan Mitra (Roychudamoni) on 1548 AD.

Every twelve to nineteen years when the wooden icons of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra of the Jagannath Temple, Puri are replaced during the Nabakalevara rite, Priests of the temple in Puri pray to Mangala in the Kakatpur temple to give them divine guidance. The goddess appears in their dreams and reveals the location of the three divine Daru Bramha trees from which idols of the deities are made.[2]

The temple is reachable by the roads from Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Paradeep which are approximately 69 km, 60 km, 55 km, 38 km and 83 km respectively. The nearest railway stations are Bhubaneswar and Puri. The nearest airport is in Bhubaneswar.