Puri Tourism in Orissa

Jagannath Temple is a famous  temple in puri  dedicated to Jagannath and located in the town of Puri in the state  Orissa in  India and the name Jagannath is a combination of the Sanskrit words (Jagat) and (Nath). The temple is an important pilgrimage destination for many Hindu traditions, particularly  worshippers of Krishna and part of the Char Dham pilgrimages that a Hindu is expected to make in one's lifetime and the temple was built in the 11th century atop its ruins by the progenitor of the Eastern Ganga dynasty and King Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva.The temple is famous for its annual Rath Yatra festival, in which the three main temple deities are hauled on huge and elaborately decorated temple cars.

Puri Temple

 The temple is sacred to the Vaishnava traditions and saint Ramananda who was closely associated with the temple and it is also of particular significance to the followers of the Gaudiya Vaishnavism whose founder and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, was attracted to the deity, Jagannath, and lived in Puri for many years.

The puri Jagannatha temple is situated in the puri district in Odisha (previously called Orissa) gives much ascendancy to the Vaishnavas and Puri on the eastern coast of India, is one of the four dhamas. The other three being dwaraka in the west, Badrinath in north and rameswaram in the south which is a saiva kshetra  and Jagannath temple is dedicated to Krishna is worshiped as krishana bhadra  with his brother , Balaram also known balabhadra and sister subhadra, also called ekanamsa.

Jaganath, Subhadra and Balaram

The paramount deity is season the ratna simhasana in the inner most part of the temple and Sridevi is also seated on the ratnavedi at the left side of the lord Jagannath  which is representative of all powers is also installed on the ratnavedi. 

The ancient puranas and literature have stated about the antique of the lord jagannath and copper plates belonging to the4th century A.D. stated the sanctification of jagannath puri temple. The great vaishnava saint adi sankaracharya (778-820A.D) visited puri in first quarter of the 9th century A.D., and established one his four pithas known as bhogabardhan or gobardhan math at puri the other deities which wees being worshiped hear are Nikakantha, Narasimha, Ardhasini, Markaneswar, Jambeswar and Kapalmochana and a tank called makandeya was also there as a sacred place.

Puri Temple

Puri Jagannath Temple

The eastern ganga ruler anantavarman choda gangadeva encouraged movement of vaishnavism and constructed the jagannath temple at puri. The main tower was not completed in his period and the other parts of the puri jagannath temple were gradually extended by his successors.

The town is bounded on the south by the bay of bengal. the puranas and texts mention it by various names such as puri jagannath, jagannath puri , Niladri Nilchala, Sri kshetra mandirmala kshetra and Nilachackra, purusottama kshetra purusottam puri , jagannath dham and sankha kshetra. The lord jagannath or purusottam abodes on a nilagiri kshetra the most ancient name of the place was Nilachaia or blue hill and the holy city puri has the mathas belonging to different sects performing different rituals.

 Lord Jagannath.

The great epic “Ramayana’ enumerates rama exhorts vibhishana to devote himself to the worship of jagannatha the family deity of ikshvaku dynasty tradition associates the worship of the deity of purusottama with the name of lndradyumna and the mahabaratha states that a legendary king named lndradyuma and the epic story of indradyumna and the tank named after him appear to have helped to develop the traditional association of king inddradyumna and indyumna-sarover with purusottama jagannatha.

Matsyapurana refers alarge number of which puri occupied an important place in Orissa. The vishnupurana   which is considered to have been composed in the third-fourth centuries refers to jagannatha as an important deity and the god jagannath, the sacredness of the place and construction of the temple are described in the puranas like theagni,the the brahma,the padma and the skanda .the famous sea port town of puri was marked by Chinese pilgrim hiuen tsang as charitrapur tantric literature(10th-11thcenturyA.D) also mentions the lord jagannatha.the kalikapurana and the tantra yamal are the examples of the tantric works which refer todarurupi (wooden made) jagannatha as the presiding deity of the purottsama kshetra in utkala. The kalikapurana states that the jagannatha is the supreme deity of udra desa. The famous drama prabodha chandelle king kiritivaraman (1041-70A.D) mentions purusottama as a god.

 Rathayatra

Description of the temple

Puri Jagannatha temple is the highest among the existing temples in Orissa and the temple is 214ft high from the road level is on a perfect pancharatha plan. In front of the entrance to the eastern gate way there is themarvelous sun pillar, It is amonolithicshaft of the chlorate with 16 sides and the temple has two big concentric walls and four gates both in outer and inner walls . The outer wall of the temple which is called meghanada prachira and the inner wall know as karma bedha surround the temple and other structures such as mukthi mandapa sacred places and the outer enclosure is called simha dwara. The entrance on the southern, western and northern sides of the outer enclosure are known as aswadwara and Vyaghrdwara, hastidwara respectiveiy,Navagrahas are depicted on all the gates.

RATHA YATRA

Rathayatra of jagannatha

The rathayatra of jagannatha starts from the jagannatha temple of puri and goes to the country side residence of the deities at gundicha bari two miles away and Subhadra is not even a minor deity and the presence of her image with Krishna and balarama is unusual and the only one to be found. The images of Krishna, balarama and subhadra are incomplete as none of them have arms or legs and this most unusual. Legend has it that once king indradyumna saw a wonder box floating downs the river. The box contained relics of Krishna and the king commissioned the divine architect, vishwakarman,for the purpose. Vishwakarman agreed,but one condition that we would not be disturbed while he was craning the images king indradyumna grew restless and curious to see what progress had been mad walked into vishwakarman’s workship and  Vishwakarman was very up set at having broken his own word but brahma came to his help and agreed to breathe life into the images.