Kalijai Temple

Sthala katha — the traditional account

What follows is the temple’s own traditional account, transmitted through liturgy and local memory. It is recorded here as tradition, not as attested history.

The goddess is said to be Jaai, a newly married girl who drowned when her boat capsized in a cyclone while crossing Chilika to her husband's island home, and whom the lake's people afterwards venerated as a deity.