Khirachora Gopinatha Temple, Hindu temple in Remuna, Balasore District, India.
Khirachora Gopinatha Temple is a Hindu temple in Remuna, Odisha, with a tiered facade: a white upper section with a central dome and smaller domes, a green cornice painted with a lion, pot and birds, and a pink-and-green lower facade with two arched doorways framed by columns bearing standing figures. Inside, the black-stone Gopinatha stands in bas-relief, flanked by the free-standing Govinda and Madana Mohana.
A 13th-century king brought the deity statues from Chitrakoot and ordered the creation of two water bodies around the temple. These ponds remain important features of the site today.
The name Khirachora means "stealer of condensed milk" in Odia, from the story of Madhavendra Puri: the priest hid a pot of kshira under his garments after Gopinatha told him in a dream to give it to the saint. Twelve earthen pots of sweetened condensed milk, called amrta keli, are offered each evening.
The temple stands in Remuna, in Balasore district. Two large tanks, Brajapokhari and Kutapokhari, dug on the orders of King Langula Narasingha Deva, lie by the shrine. The sanctum holds Gopinatha in bas-relief, flanked by the free-standing Govinda and Madana Mohana brought from Vrindavana around 1938. Look for the "BHOGO BHANDAR" sign above the left doorway of the pink and green facade.
The two free-standing bronze-coloured companions, Govinda and Madana Mohana, were carried from Vrindavana around 1938 by the devotee Chaitanya Dasa Babaji, while Gopinatha itself is black stone in bas-relief. The temple is counted among the 108 Abhimana Kshethram of the Vaishnava tradition.
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