The Alarnatha temple is situated at Brahmagiri, a hilly area, at a distance of 24 km from Jagannatha Puri. Lord Alarnatha (or Alalanatha) here is a four-handed Deity of Lord Vishnu showing Abhaya-mudra in His right hand. According to the history of this temple, Lord Brahma worshipped Lord Narayana on this hill in Satya-yuga and later carved a Deity of the Lord. Therefore, this hill is called Brahmagiri. Since Alarnatha was earlier being worshipped by the Alwars of South India, He came to be known as Alvarnatha which later became Alalanatha. It is said that Ramanujacharya, a great spiritual teacher in the Sri Sampradaya visited this temple in the past.

Alarnatha’s consorts, Sri and Bhu accompany the Lord. At the feet of the Lord is Garuda with his hands folded in prayer. There are also small Deities of Rukmini and Satyabhama here. The temple was built by King Madan Mahadev in 1128 AD.

There is an instructive pastime of Lord Alarnatha who accepted food offerings from an innocent boy named Madhu. Long ago, there was a priest here by name Sri Ketana who had a son named Madhu. Once Ketana had to go out of the temple for some days and so he asked his son to offer food to the Lord while he was away. Young Madhu expressed his inability to do it as he did not know any mantras or procedure to make the offering. Ketana told him that he just had to place the plate of food in front of the Deity and pray to Him to accept the offering.

The first day, Madhu’s mother called him after cooking food and told him to go and offer it to the Lord. Madhu went and placed the plate of food in front of the Deity and prayed to Him to accept the offering. He then went out to play with his friends. After some time, he came and saw that the plate still contained the food. Madhu did not know that the omnipotent Lord could accept the offering by His mere glancing over it. Being disappointed that the Lord had not accepted the food, he prayed to Him to please accept it and then went out again. The second time, he came back and was greatly distressed to see that the food was left untouched by the Lord. He then began to cry and fervently prayed to the Lord, “I am a small boy and I don’t know the proper procedure to offer the food. But my father has asked me to make the offering. If you don’t accept the food, my father will be angry with me. Please accept it.” Madhu went out again and to his great joy, found the plate empty when he came back.  Seeing the empty plate, Madhu’s mother asked him where the prasadam was.  The boy replied that the Lord had eaten all the food. The family had to fast that day as there was no prasadam. This continued for three days and the family was forced to fast during this period.

After three days, Sri Ketana returned and found that his family was fasting for the last three days without prasadam. He learnt from Madhu that the Lord was eating the entire offering. Ketana who had no faith in the words of his son, thought that he must have eaten the food himself or given it to somebody. He wanted to find out the truth and asked his son to offer the food that day as he had done before.

Accompanied by his father, Madhu went in front of the Deity and placed the food as usual. He prayed to the Lord to accept it and then went out. Ketana who was hiding at the altar saw that Lord Alarnatha was personally taking a cup of sweet rice. As he rushed to the Lord and grabbed His arm to prevent Him from taking it, the hot sweet rice spilled out and fell on the Lord’s body causing burns. Ketana said to the Lord, “How will we eat if you eat all the offerings? We have never heard of a Deity that eats. Being a Deity of stone, how can you eat and talk?”

The Lord then declared that He was pleased by Madhu’s simple devotion but is never pleased with any offering, no matter how opulent, if it lacks devotion or is made by a materialistic, faithless person. The burnt marks manifested by Lord Vishnu on His body can be seen to this day.

The Deities of Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra at Puri Jagannatha temple remain in seclusion for a period of two weeks before the Ratha-yatra festival every year. During this period, known as anavasara, devotees cannot have darshan of Their Lordships. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, while staying in Puri could not tolerate separation from Lord Jagannatha at such times and He would go to Alarnatha temple. Even now, the temple is crowded during this anavasara period. The payasa (kheer) offered to the Lord during this time is very much relished by the devotees.

Once Chaitanya Mahaprabhu entered the Alarnatha temple and fell flat on the ground before the Lord. His love for the Lord was so intense that when He lay on the stone floor in an ecstatic trance, the stone melted like butter to capture the impressions of His head, chest, arms and legs. You can see these impressions even today in the stone called Prema-shila on the right side of the temple when entering the main gate from the road.