The little known Buddhanatha temple is  almost 1000 years old .

It is a 12th century temple situated in a small village named Gara-di-panchana in Orissa, India.

It is called a Shiva temple but more accurately it is  a Hari-hara temple , one in which the combined energies of Shiva and Vishnu are invoked.

The temple is  older than the famous Sun Temple at Konark and is an 'active' temple i.e worship with all attendant rituals and rites has carried on here uninterrupted .

This even though the temple structure had suffered heavy damage and has only recently been partially restored.

The outer walls have intricate sculpture of Gods, demi-gods and other forces, like the image of the Mother Goddess here which is actively worshipped.

This is said to be an image of Buddhanatha , the sage who laid out the plan of the temple.

In keeping with the aesthetics of Indian religious and philosophical art , it is a representation of the state of consciousness of  Buddhanatha rather than what he looked like physically.

Though it is only about 20 kilometres away from Bhubaneswar , the capital of Orissa , the Buddhanatha temple seems situated in another world.

This is rural Orissa , green all around , a sense of great open space under a hot but brilliant sky.

What makes the Buddhanatha temple really interesting is the mystical beliefs of the priests and other villagers of the village.

They say that the mystic energies of the temple are going to unleash themselves in the year 2007.

According to them the temple has an important esoteric role to play in the evolution of human consciousness to a higher plane as there is a millennial transition from the Age of Kali , characterised by dark ignorance , to a coming Age of Truth .

Meanwhile the children of the village find the temple grounds a great place to play cricket in.