PURI : ITS APPEAL IS ETERNAL

The cynosure of all eyes in Puri is indisputably the Jagannath temple. 
 Several tales associated with it are astounding.  Among
 the other attractions of the  town is its beach

  that throbs with life in the evenings, 

 particularly during week-ends.

Pictorial representation of the principal deities of the Puri
temple: Balabhadra, Subhadra and Jagannath

CUSTOMS, BELIEFS AND WONDERS

(By Subbaram Danda)

The temple of Jagannath at Puri in the state of Odisha stands distinguished by its unique traditions and incredible legends.  A 12^th century Vaishnavite abode, its principal deities are Jagannath, and his siblings Balabhadra and Subhadra.  Here Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu, is worshipped as Jagannath. 

The tower of the Jagannath temple as seen from a distance

We learnt a lot about the temple in the course of our visit there, accompanied by a Panda (priest) recommended by the executives of the Sterling Resort, where we stayed.  Renovation work was going on in the sanctum and we had the ‘darshan’ of the deities from a short distance.

The temple stands on a gigantic raised platform surrounded by a wall 22 feet high with four entrances in four directions.  The main portal, called the Lion’s gate, is east-facing.  The Vimana, the tower over the sanctum, rises to a height of 215 feet.  Taller than a 21-storey modern skyscraper, the tower can be seen from any part of the city, it is said.   Inside the complex, there are a large number of small shrines for various other deities.

At the Jagannath temple.  Its surrounding wall is 22 feet high

Several features of the temple and its rituals took us by surprise.  The most outstanding of them is that the idols of the presiding deities are made of wood, not granite, marble or metal, as is the practice elsewhere.  They are replaced by new ones in a grand ceremony once in 8, 12 or 19 years, as per the temple tradition.

Many may not notice that the idols are not complete in their physical form.  According to a legend, Vishwakarma, the celestial architect and sculptor, who was making three idols in a closed room for a temple to be built by king Indradyumna, was disturbed by his queen Gundicha before they were ready.  In anger he vanished leaving the idols unfinished.  The king, however, built the temple with those incomplete idols.  He also constructed another temple granting the wish of the queen and named it after her.

That is a legend.  When construction of the present temple was taken up, the images of the deities were similarly designed.  A Gundicha temple also came up but without the idols of the presiding trinity.  It stands, three kilometers away, at the centre of a beautiful garden.  The main temple and this one stand at the two ends of what has come to be known as the Grand Avenue. 

The entrance to the Gundicha temple

At the Gundicha temple

Every year in June or July the three deities of the Jagannath temple are taken out in towering colourful wooden chariots in a grand procession, called Ratha Yatra.  The route is the Grand Avenue and the destination Gundicha temple, where they remain for nine days.  At other times Gundicha temple has no religious activity.  To witness the super spectacle of the Ratha Yatra devotees from all over the world throng Puri.   In 2015 they swelled to clock a swirling figure of 15 lakhs!  The huge chariots pulled by the pilgrims move inch by inch covering a distance of three kilometres in not less than five hours.  This has led to the contribution of a word to the English dictionary – Juggernaut. 

The famous Ratha Yatra of the Jagannath temple, Puri
(Photo courtesy: Odisha Government)

More fascinating is the fact that the chariots are made afresh every year.  Months before the actual date of the procession, hundreds of carpenters, artisans and painters start working on them with their bare hands and conventional tools.  Behold, the chariots become ready on the dot for the procession!

Another great feature is a little-known connection between the Puri abode and the Sun temple at Konark about 45 kilometres away.   The Konark edifice had a 33-foot monolithic pillar with an artistically-carved figure of Aruna, Sun’s charioteer, at the top.  It had stood in front of the porch of the temple.  When the Konark temple was abandoned following its collapse, the pillar was shifted to Puri and installed at the Lion’s gate of the Jagannath temple.  It can be seen even today. 

The Konark Sun temple today

As we went round, our Panda kept explaining several other characteristics of the temple.  He drew our attention to a large wheel, nearly 12 feet in diameter made of an alloy of eight metals, glistening atop the main tower. It is called Neel Chakra (blue wheel).  Besides being religiously significant, it serves as a lightning arrester.  From a mast on top of the wheel a triangular red flag 20 feet long flies with a couple of strings of several smaller yellow and red flags trailing below it.

We were stunned when he said that the large red flag atop the wheel always flutters opposite to the direction of the wind.  We looked at it for a while in great wonder but could not make out whether it was true.  Our poser to him: “If so, has it been scientifically verified?”   His response: “It is a miracle.  It is the manifestation of the divine power of the temple.  Jai Jagannath.”

Interestingly, all the flags are replaced every evening.  The flag-changing ceremony is a great draw with the devotees.  A man emerges from an opening beneath the top dome-like structure of the tower with the large red flag and the smaller ones wrapped around his waist.  With the help of just a chain of iron rings hanging from above, he climbs up fast and takes out the old ones.  Perched on the Neel Chakra he slides the main red flag on to the mast amidst loud chants of Jai Jagannath by devotees watching the ceremony from below.  Two strings of the smaller flags are tied to the spokes of the wheel.  He then descends collecting the old ones.  The entire process takes about 20 minutes. 

The main flag being changed

The flags fluttering after the changing ceremony

This ceremony has been going on uninterruptedly for centuries and the man doing the job is a descendant of the family to which the duty of hoisting the flag was originally assigned by the king, who had built the temple.

Another superlative facet of the temple is its kitchen.  Termed as one of the biggest in the world, it has a capacity to cook for a lakh of devotees daily.   As many as 56 varieties of dishes are prepared every day throughout the year.  The food is cooked only in earthen pots using firewood alone.  After the steam-cooked food is symbolically offered to the deities, the ‘Mahaprasad’ is distributed free to the devotees.  Some dishes, especially dry ones meant to be carried home, are sold in an adjacent area.  

Even in kitchen matters people talk of strange phenomena.  When seven pots are placed one on top of the other and used for cooking, the top-most pot always gets cooked first.  On day-to-day basis, there has never been an instance of any food being left over nor a shortfall.

We came out of the temple with a feeling of contentment, having had a good ‘darshan’ of the deities and having heard a lot about its history and glory.  At the same time, we were wondering about the veracity of the mysterious occurrences cited.  On the whole, it is certainly a fabulous and phenomenal temple to visit. 

Next we headed for the Gundicha temple.  Though no religious activity was going on, without any presiding deities in the sanctum, people were visiting it.  Here and there Pandas had put up some images of the deities to entice the visitors.

There are four big Sarovars (tanks) in Puri.  One is called Narendra Sarovar, built in the 15^th century by a royal dignitary called Narendra Dev.  During the Chandana Yatra (sandalwood festival) of Jagannath lasting three weeks, replicas of the images of the deities are taken round the tank in beautifully decorated and illuminated boats twice daily. 

  

The Narendra Sarovar

Puri beach is another attraction that visitors to the town do not miss.  It serves as a place of entertainment, complete with horse and camel rides and eateries, besides being a good area for swimming.  It is relatively clean.  In the evenings, particularly during week-ends, it bursts with life.  

At the Puri beach at about noon

A site that tourist literature promotes is Chilka lake, where people go for boating and dolphin watching.  It was not much of an interest for us and so we did not go.

Puri is essentially a temple town.  However, its steady transformation into a modern society is opening up vistas of new attractions for tourists.  A visit to this place will be a rewarding and memorable experience.  

Look for my next article.  It will be on Konark.

April 05, 2017.