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Located in the verdant environs of the Titilagarh
sub-division in Balangir district, the twin
villages of Ranipur- Jharial bear strong traces of their ancient heritage.
This is primarily evident in the numerous ancient temples discovered by
visiting pilgrims to 'Somatirtha', as they called this region.
Saivism, Vaisnavism, Buddhism and Tantrism obviously enjoyed a great deal
of influence in the region. Situated on the rocky outcrops of this region
are a number of temples that are of great interest to tourists.
Located here is the Hypaethral temple of the 64 'yoginis'. It is one of
the four famous Yogini temples in India. The other three are located at
Hirapur near
Bhubaneswar
, Khajuraho
and Bheraghat near Jabalpur.
The finest specimen of a brick temple is the 20m high Indralatha temple.
It is one of the tallest brick temples of ancient India.