Basudeba is Lord Krishna, an avataar of Lord Bishnu. The temple of Ananta Basudeba was constructed in the thirteenth century, and the complete murties of Krishna, Balarama and Subhadra are worshipped there. Balarama stands under a seven hooded serpent, Subhadra holds Jewels pot and lotus in her two hands keeping her left foot over another jewel pot, while Krishna holds a mace, chakra, lotus and a conch. Ananta is Balarama and Basudeba is Krishna.
The first Ananta Basudeba temple
The front view of first Ananta Basudeva temple
This temple as stated above was the first one built by Bhaumakaras in the seventh century. They originally followed the Mahayana sect of Buddhism but they were also tolerant towards other beliefs. And this prompted them to built this temple. Although the temple is purely converted now into a Rama-Sita and Hanumaan temple but we can still found the glimpses of Basudeva sects in its architecture and appearance.
first Ananta Basudeva temple
The second temple of Ananta-Basudeba
The second temple of Ananta-Basudeba was built by Somavamsi or Keshari dynasty in the 9th century. This temple is now converted completely in the office of Kitchen of the Ananta-Basudeba temple. Some statues were find from this temple which are again re-established along the banks of Bindu-Saras or BinduSagar.
The statue of Ananta and Basudeba from second temple
Now comes the third and most famous one. The new temple of Ananta-Basudeaba. As per the legends it appears that the original image of Bishnu was worshipped on the spot where the great temple of Ananta Basudeba was built in the 13th century A.D. Thus in the 13th century, Queen Chandrika of Eastern Ganga dynasty was prompted to construct a new temple – the temple of Anata Basudeba in this place. There must have been an old temple where this Bishnu image was installed.
Queen Chandrika with her helpers
One more thing, which I came to know is about Prasadhika means ladies who were sitting in different postues and having different items which were used in saundarjya prasadhana. From this they got the name of Prasadhika. Below are some statues which I found in the lower facade of the third Ananta-Basudeba temple.
Statue of Buddha
Two inscriptions were also came to my notice and when I made an inquiry about them, the chief priest of temple told me that these are not the original inscriptions of this temple.
Mr. Madhavanada Mahasupkar who is affectionately known as Madhava Pandit.