Alalanath temple

About 14 miles from Jagannatha Puri is the Alalanatha Temple at Brahmagiri. Lord Alalanatha is a four-handed form of Lord Vishnu. Whenever the Jagannatha Deities in Puri would be removed from the altar before the Ratha-Yatra festival for two weeks, Sri Caitanya would stay here. This is a temple where, at the end of the kirtana hall in front of a Deity of Sadbhuja, there is a large stone slab with the imprint of Sri Caitanya's body. Once when He fell onto this stone in an ecstatic trance and the stone melted, leaving the imprint of Sri Caitanya's body as we find it today. More on the Lord's pastimes at Alalanatha can be found here >>

Across from the Alalanatha temple is another Gaudiya Math temple that was established by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, in which resides the small Alalanatha Deity that was uncovered during excavations around the main Alalanatha temple. Once when Srila Bhaktisiddhanta was staying at this temple, the priest at the Alalanatha shrine had a dream in which the Lord came to him and said that He wanted to accept the worship of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta. Then the priest brought the small Alalanatha Deity to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, who worshiped Him. The Deity has remained here since then.