Southern Odisha town Umarkote, located at a distance of 18 km from the Chhattisgarh border, is endowed with natural resources and tourist places. The temple of Maa Pendrani is one of them.
The temple has been constructed at the western end of the town in order to create a sublime place for worshipping and performing religious rituals. Interestingly, Sunday is the only day of the week on which the temple remains open for worship and people from faraway places visit the shrine of Goddess Pendrani. locals believe that Maa Pendrani of Umarkote is born out of a legend. People of a small village Pendrahandi, situated in Chhattisgarh, worship the soul of Pendrani, a married girl who was a victim of secret jealousy of her own brothers.
As the story goes, her husband was overtly pampered by her parents who made him stay in their household with no work to bother about. The four brothers out of sheer jealousy conspired and succeeded in killing her innocent husband and buried him in their field. Sensing a foul play, Pendrani could unfold the heinous crime and apparently jumped into her husband’s funeral pyre and perished in its flames. A few days later, her spirit was believed to roam in the village helping those who trusted her supernatural transformation.
Here in Odisha, people adore her sacrifice and worship her in a temple constructed at Umarkote. To pay reverence to Pendrani, locals observe a grand festival known as Pendrani Yatra in the month of Asadha. A large number of devotees, pilgrims and tourists from Odisha as well as Chhattisgarh arrive at Umarkote to participate in the event. That the local degree college has been named after her is a tribute to the saga of her supreme sacrifice.