Odisha upset at Puri sevayats' participation in Digha event

The inauguration of a new Jagannath temple and cultural centre at West Bengal’s popular seaside resort of Digha has really upset devotees in neighbouring Odisha.

Their anger is not so much over the construction of the new shrine, modelled on the 12th century Jagannath temple in Puri, Odisha, as over the branding of the complex as ‘Jagannath Dham’, which is how devotees typically refer to the shrine in Puri, Odisha.

What angered them even more was the participation of Puri temple sevayats (servitors) in the rituals at Digha, with the most senior among them claiming that leftover sacred neem wood from the 2015 navakalevara (reincarnation) ceremony of Puri deities was used to make the idols for the Digha temple.

The new temple, built at an estimated cost of Rs 250 crore, was inaugurated on 30 April. Odisha law minister Pruthviraj Harichandan ordered an inquiry into allegations on the use of the leftover wood and also on the conduct of the Puri servitors who participated in the rituals there.

Gajpati Dibya Singh Deo, scion of the Puri royal family who enjoys the privilege of being the first sevak (servitor) of Lord Jagannath, also expressed his displeasure at the use of the suffix ‘Dham’. ‘Jagannath Dham’, ‘Purushottama Kshetra’, ‘Shreekshetra’ and ‘Neelachala Dham’ referred only to Puri, he asserted.

The controversy erupted after Puri Daitapati Niyog secretary Ramkrushna Das Mohapatra—who led a team of 60 servitors from Puri to Digha at the invitation of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Bannerjee—told a Bengali TV channel that he had brought idols carved from leftover neem wood for the rituals at Digha.

He later tried to wriggle out by claiming he was misquoted, but the telecast footage nailed his lie. The senior daitapati (bodyguard of Lord Jagannath and his siblings) was embarrassed even more as the probe report of the Jagannath temple administration established that idols for the Digha shrine were fashioned by a Bhubaneswar-based sculptor out of neem wood procured locally.

“The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration has reported that Rama Krushna Das Mohapatra took the Jagannath idols from Bhubaneswar and not from Puri. The three idols were made of neem wood and were prepared by Bhubaneswar-based sculptor Sudarshana Maharana. Maharana has also admitted that he sculpted the three idols and handed them over to Rama Krushna Das Mohapatra for installation at Digha,” said the law minister.

The minister also put the controversy to rest by saying that carpenters in Puri claimed it was not possible to carve three 2.5-foot-high idols with leftover neem wood from 2015. “Besides, no wood was dispatched from the temple,” he added.

The Odisha government officially urged West Bengal to desist from using the Dham tag for the Digha temple and avoid calling the sea in the beach town Mahodadhi (the great ocean), an honour reserved for the sea in Puri.

The temple row provided the ruling BJP in Odisha an opportunity to settle an old score. BJP leaders, who have been fuming against Mamata Banerjee following her refusal to come to the rescue of Odisha when it faced an acute shortage of potatoes last year, described her as “arrogant” and “anti-Hindu”.

Relations between the Mohan Majhi-led BJP government in Odisha and Mamata soured last year when the potato crisis persisted for several months and prices of the tuber went through the roof. Things got so bitter that Majhi accused Mamata of trying to settle a political score with him though he never clarified what that score was. With those memories still fresh, it was payback time.

Majhi, in a letter to Mamata, said, ‘While we acknowledge the devotion towards Lord Jagannath across regions, the use of the term “Jagannath Dham” in official promotions for the Digha temple is likely to cause confusion among devotees, dilute the historical identity of Puri as the original and revered abode of the Lord, and hurt the religious sentiments of the people of Odisha.’ He concluded by urging Mamata to be culturally sensitive in this matter.