The Rajarani Temple, a masterpiece of Indian architecture dedicated to Lord Shiva dating back over a thousand years, is perhaps the most beautiful and magnificent edifice of Bhubaneswar.
The entire structure exudes grace and elegance. It is superbly decorated and carved with artistic sculpture featuring a rare sophistication of statues of human figures. Each superstructure is fully worked, rising from a slightly plainer platform to a heavily decorated column which reveals an impressive array of gods and fertility goddesses, blending with various elements of nature.
In the unfinished antarala (small antechamber), the outer walls still show the initial designs of many figures of nagas and naginis (male and female snake gods), that had been drawn and roughly blocked out for carving but were never completed.
History does not tell us why the graceful Rajarani was left in this unfinished state, why the sculptors left their work half done or why it has a silent, empty garbha griha
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