The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.s1.86

v2.c17.s1.86

**Rajarani Deul :**—About half a mile to the west of Bhāskareśvara, still within the area of the plain on which it stands, there is a large temple which was once a magnificent structure, but is now in a very dilapidated condition. It stands in the middle of what was once a beautiful flower garden, but it is now overgrown with brambles. The temple faces the east and has a porch in front. Both were built at the same time, with dressed brick-red sandstone, but without any carvings. The carved ornaments were then completed on the body of the temple, and commenced on the porch, but, owing to some cause or other, never carried forward to any great extent. A few ornaments round the doorway, and the two side niches were all that were completed; but chisel-marks on the stones show the outlines of the works which were at one time intended to be executed, and, judging from them, it is evident that the porch was intended to be as sumptuous as the body of the temple. The cause which prevented the completion of the carvings, likewise prevented the consecretion of the structure. Hence it is that there is no sacred image of any kind in the sanctum, and the structure has received no distinctive name. The image would have been obviously a *liṅgam*, and it would have been called the *īśvara* or ‘lord’ of the dedicator, whose name would have formed the first member of the compound name. The dedicator was probably the queen of one of the Keśarī kings, who, dying before the completion of the work, left the temple to remain as it was, and it has since run into decay; the people, in the absence of a special name, calling it Rājaiānī Deül, or the “temple of the royal queen”. Hence it is, too, that the temple has not been referred to in any of the several Sanskrit works on the sacred fanes of Bhuvaneśvara. Judging from the material, brick-red sandstone, and the style of the work, the most florid, I take the age of the pile to be the 9th century.