There are some sayings in Odia that you would only understand when you have lived in Odisha. My mother says that one can visit Puri Temple only when Jagannath calls. I never thought about it till it happened to us. To mention an example, on New Year we had a mother & daughter staying with us. The mother was very keen on visiting Puri temple. We kept dissuading her as she was aged & had mobility issues, worried the mad rush during New Year might spell disaster. Miraculously, they had the smoothest darshan as if the stars had aligned. In contrast, another much younger group who had come from South India to visit Puri went back disappointed as strange events happened & none of them reached the temple, let alone see Lord Jagannath.
To put all this into context, a similar situation happened to us on our road trip to Ganjam. While exploring the nearby villages from Asika (famous for its sugar factory) we kept passing a spot with a signboard proclaiming “Archeological Site”. But we could never explore it. Time constraints often steered us away or on our last attempt, we simply missed the turn. But on another visit when we had no intention of going, we found the road quite easily. We took a chance continuing on the road reaching a village pond where children were frolicking in water. The road continued further & we found ourselves at a beautiful temple. Stepping into that unexpectedly grand temple, we were met with a surprise. The central deity, bathed in the soft glow of the interior, was none other than Lord Jagannath himself.
An interesting side story that not many people are aware of is the fact that Puri was invaded by Tiki Khan, the Muslim invader in the year 1733 and Lord Jagannath was shifted from Puri to several places in Ganjam. So after Puri, Ganjam is the next richest place of historical heritage, celebrating the fairs and festivals of Lord Jagannath in the state of Odisha.
Our hidden temple is situated at the foot of the mountain near the ruins of a royal palace. We will talk about this serendipitous find in our next post. It is a prototype of the Puri Sri Jagannatha temple. Although all the rituals and ceremonies are identical to those of the Puri , several dissimilarities are found in the preparation of Prasad. At Puri, vegetables like Tomato, Potato and Cauliflower are not used in the preparation of prasad, whereas in all the temples of Ganjam there are no restrictions. Another unique feature of Lord Jagannath in the district is that; In most places, only one chariot (Ratha) is constructed for the celebration of Ratha Yatra (Chariot festival).
Our time here inside the temple was meditative. We arrived around mid-day which is when the prasad is offered to Jagannath and later to the devotees present. Apart from us, just two other families were waiting for the prasad. The whole affair was quite the contrast to the atmosphere in Puri where you are jostling with hundreds of pilgrims to get a fleeting glance at the celestial trio. Even the priest seemed to be happy to see new faces and told us to go explore the ruins of the palace on top.
I would not hesitate to come back here again. I guess it depends on when Kalia (what Jagannath is fondly called in Odia) calls.
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