Sarala Temple, Hindu temple in Odisha, India

Maa Sarala Temple, also called Jhankad Sarala Temple, stands in Jhankad, Jagatsinghpur district, Odisha. Its white flat facade has three scalloped arches hung with small figures and blue signs between them; above the roofline a circular wheel emblem with figures rests on a blue base flanked by a red-and-gold domed spire and a smaller green-and-gold one, with a red flag on a pole. A red, blue and yellow railing runs along the bottom.

The original temple at Jhankad was demolished by Muslims in 1686, and a mosque was built about a mile west, dated 1098 Hijri; the site is now called Nanda Deula and houses a Ganesha image. The deity's servitors moved the image to Tentulipada, then to Kanakpur, where formal installation took place in 1914. Historian Kedar Nath Mahapatra recorded these events in his history of Khordha.

The temple is one of the eight tantric seats listed in Sarala Das's Chandi Purana, alongside Mangala at Kakatpur and Vimala at Puri. A palm-leaf manuscript in the Odisha State Museum records this set of eight Chandis. The village name Jhankad may derive from Jangherpur, after the Jakha or Jankha residents of the old port of Chelitalo nearby.

The temple stands at Jhankad in Jagatsinghpur district, between the Budha and Chitrotpala river country south of Ratnagiri. The sanctum's image was formally installed at Kanakpur in 1914, so today's shrine is a 20th-century home for a much older deity. Look for the low railing painted in red, blue and yellow bands along the facade base.

The temple's name is tied to the poet Sarala Das, whose Odia Mahabharata names eight tantric seats of Odisha; in his list, Sarala of Jhankad stands alongside Mangala of Kakatpur, Ramachandi of Konark and Vimala of Puri. A palm-leaf manuscript in the Odisha State Museum records this grouping of the eight Chandis.