Baripāda

About Baripāda

Baripada sits on the east bank of the Budhabalanga River as the headquarters of Mayurbhanj, Odisha's largest district, and for two centuries it was the seat of the Bhanj rulers of the princely state of Mayurbhanj. They moved their capital here from Haripur at the end of the eighteenth century, and later maharajas gave the town its planned centre and its railway.

Locals call Baripada Dwitiya Srikhetra, the second Puri, because its Rath Yatra is the most celebrated after Puri's own. Since 1975 only women have pulled the chariot of Devi Subhadra, a rare custom. Mayurbhanj Chhau, a vigorous dance performed without masks, fills the town during the Chaitra Parva in April, and the Jagadhatri Mela at Bhanjpur brings days of fairground fun in autumn.

Baripada is also the natural base for Similipal National Park, a tiger and elephant reserve of sal forest, grassland and waterfalls about 30 km away. In town are the old Jagannath temple and the Ambika temple, and out in the countryside the brick temples of Haripur and the falls at Devkund. Trains run to Bhubaneswar and Kolkata.