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Jagannath Temple, Puri

Shri Jagannatha Mandira (ଶ୍ରୀ ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ ମନ୍ଦିର) in Odia

Also known as: Shri Jagannath Temple, Shree Jagannatha Temple, Srimandira, Bada Deula, Jagannath Puri Temple

Puri, India
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Religions: Hinduism | Place Type: Temple | Region: Asia

Overview

The Jagannath Temple, Puri is a Hindu temple in the coastal city of Puri, in the state of Odisha in eastern India. The temple honors Jagannath, a form of the god Vishnu, and is one of the four Char Dham, the group of Hindu pilgrimage sites at the four corners of India, together with Badrinath, Dwarka, and Rameswaram. Daily worship continues in the temple, and its annual Rath Yatra chariot festival draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Puri.

Present

The Jagannath Temple, Puri is an active center of Hindu worship. Its administration is vested in the Shri Jagannath Temple Managing Committee, a statutory body created under a law of the state of Odisha, the Shri Jagannath Temple Act of 1954. The Gajapati Maharaja of Puri, the hereditary royal figure of the region, chairs the committee, and a state-appointed Chief Administrator manages daily affairs. Hereditary servitors carry out the daily cycle of rituals, from the morning opening of the doors to the night rest of the deities. The temple kitchen prepares Mahaprasad, vegetarian food cooked for the deities in earthen pots and then shared among worshipers and pilgrims, every day. Entry to the temple is limited to Hindus, a long-standing and permanent rule. The area around the temple walls has been redeveloped as the Shree Jagannath Heritage Corridor, an open pedestrian zone encircling the complex.

Religious Significance

The Jagannath Temple, Puri is devoted to Jagannath, whose name means Lord of the Universe. Hindus worship Jagannath as a form of Vishnu, one of the principal gods of Hinduism, and many devotees also regard him as a form of Krishna, another form of Vishnu. In the temple, Jagannath is venerated together with his elder brother Balabhadra and his sister Subhadra. Hindu tradition identifies Balabhadra with Balarama, Krishna's elder brother, and Subhadra with the sister of the two brothers, so that the three images are worshiped as a family. Their images are carved from neem wood and are ceremonially replaced in a rite called Nabakalebara, meaning new embodiment, held at intervals of twelve to nineteen years. Hindu tradition holds that visiting the four Char Dham leads the devotee toward moksha, liberation from the cycle of rebirth. Each year in the month of Ashadha, which falls in June or July, the three deities are placed on large wooden chariots and pulled by devotees along Puri's main avenue to the Gundicha Temple, about three kilometers away, in the festival of the Rath Yatra. The deities return to the main temple on the ninth day, and devotees regard pulling the chariots as an act of devotion.

History & Structure

The Jagannath Temple, Puri was built in the 12th century under King Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva, ruler of the Eastern Ganga dynasty, on a site that was already an established Hindu pilgrimage center. The complex was completed under his successors in the 13th century. In 1568 an army of the Bengal sultanate looted the temple and burned the wooden images of the deities; new images were installed in 1575. The temple was raided repeatedly in the following centuries, and control of its administration passed through Mughal, Maratha, and British hands before the state of Odisha assumed oversight in the 20th century. The temple is built of stone in the Kalinga style of Odisha on a raised platform and is enclosed by two concentric walls. Four gates open in the four directions; the main eastern gate, the Singhadwara or Lion Gate, is flanked by two stone lions. The complex is made up of four main structures in a line: the sanctuary, the assembly hall, the dance hall, and the offering hall. The main tower rises about 65 meters and is crowned by a metal wheel, the Nila Chakra, above which a flag is changed every day.

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