Nilamadhav Temple, Hindu temple in Nayagarh district, India

Nilamadhav Temple stands on the right bank of the Mahanadi at Kantilo, between twin forested hills. Its tiered tower is covered in vertical rows of carved figures and horizontal bands, with a whitewashed base showing patches of exposed stone. Beside it rise a taller tower with a striped section and domed top, and a lower whitewashed hall with a dark doorway and carved panels.

The temple traces its origin to a cave in the Brahmadri hills above the Mahanadi, where Biswabasu, a Sabara chief, worshipped a deity called Kitung in the Sabara dialect. The Puranas describe the image as an Indranila gem known as Nilamadhava; the wooden daru murti came later. The shrine stands at the triveni sangam of the Mahanadi, Kuanria and Kusumi, and Nilamadhava still has a shrine beside the Lakshmi temple in Puri's Jagannath temple.

Nilamadhav holds a central place in the Jagannath cult: a shrine to him stands on the right side of the Lakshmi temple in Puri's Jagannath Temple. At Kantilo, the Maagha Saptami or Ratha Saptami festival is the main celebration, with a fair on the Ekadashi of the month of Maagha. On Pausa Purnima the deity is decorated with gold ornaments.

Kantilo lies 82 km from Bhubaneswar and 33 km from Nayagarh town, with regular buses from both; the nearest railway station is Nayagarh Town and the nearest airport is Bhubaneswar. Coming by train, alight at Bhubaneswar, where frequent buses leave for Kantilo. The temple stands on the right bank of the Mahanadi, near the confluence with the Kuanria and Kusumi rivers, below twin forested hills.

The shrine of Nilamadhava still stands inside the Jagannath Temple at Puri, on the right side of the Lakshmi temple, so the Kantilo deity keeps a place in the larger Jagannath cult. The temple sits at a triveni sangam where the Mahanadi, Kuanria and Kusumi meet, compared in the Puranas to Beni-Madhava at Prayag.