Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha, is also popularly known as the “Temple City of India”. Being the seat of Tribhubaneswar or ‘Lord Lingaraj’, which literally means the Lord (Eeswar) of the Three Worlds (Tribhuban), as in Lord Shiva , Bhubaneswar is an important Hindu pilgrimage centre. Hundreds of temples dot the landscape of the Old Town, which once boasted of more than 2000 temples. Bhubaneswar is the place where temple building activities of Odia style flowered from its very inception to its fullest culmination extending over a period of over one thousand years.

Founded during the Kalinga empire over 3,000 years ago, Bhubaneswar today boasts of a cluster of magnificent temples, constituting a complete record of Odisha temple architecture from its early beginnings to its culmination.

Post-Independence, the modern city of Bhubaneswar, designed by German architect Otto Konigsberger in 1946, was established to shape the city in serving as an administrative centre for the state. Today, the city is an emerging hub for education, health and information technology. The citizens of Bhubaneswar can take pride in the several distinctions bestowed to the city.

Country	India
Languages spoken	Odia
Currency used	Indian Rupee

Nightlife info

Bhubaneswar is an administrative, information technology, education and tourism city . Bhubaneswar was ranked as the best place to do business in India by the World Bank in 2014. Bhubaneswar has emerged as one of the fast-growing, important trading and commercial hub in the state and eastern India. Tourism is a major industry, attracting about 1.5 million tourists in 2011. Bhubaneswar was designed to be a largely residential city with outlying industrial areas. The economy had few major players until the 1990s and was dominated by retail and small-scale manufacturing. With the economic liberalisation policy adopted by the Government of India in the 1990s, Bhubaneswar received investment in telecommunications, information technology (IT) and higher education.

The city is somewhat dumbbell-shaped with most of the growth taking place to the north, northeast and southwest. The north–south axis of the city is widest, at roughly 22.5 kilometres (14.0 mi). Growth in the east is restricted due to the presence of Kuakhai River and by the wildlife sanctuary in the northwestern part.The city can be broadly divided into the old town, planned city (or state capital), added areas and outer peripheral areas. It is subdivided into Units and Colonies.

Culture and history info

The twin hills Udayagiri and Khandagiri (Lat. 20.16 N; Long. 85.47E) are located in the vicinity of Bhubaneswar town. The National Highway No.5 passes through the close proximity of the hills. These two hills represent one of the earliest groups of Jaina rock-cut architecture in eastern India in the field of architecture, art and religion. These caves were first brought to the notice by A. Stirling in 1825 A.D.

Udayagiri is the hill on the right and access to its 18 caves is provided by a flight of steps. The largest and the most beautiful, Cave 1, Rani Gumpha or Queen's Cave, off the pain path to the right is double storeyed. Excavated on three sides of a quadrangle with fine wall friezes and some recently restored pillars, not exactly architectural marvel, but has some beautiful sculptures.

The crest of Khandagiri on which Jaina temple stands, is 37.5 m high, 3.96 m higher than that of Udayagiri. The substance of the rock is coarse-grained sandstone of a varied texture. However, later on, these sandstones were duly exploited by the temple builders of Bhubaneswar during medieval period.