Research team to trace religious history of Lord Jagannath

Puri, Feb 19 (UNI) A research team comprising historians, religious scholars and temple priests will soon visit Gopali village under Sonpur district in Western Orissa to retrace the religious history of Lord Jagannath.

The traditional temple history manuscript recorded by the royal historians(madala panzi) revealed that during invasion of Muslim General Raktabahu to Orissa, the then ruler Shoven Dev secretly shifted the deities to a secured place far away in Sonpur and kept them under ground near a ''pipal'' tree for about 144 years till another Hindu ruler retrieved the deities and reinstalled them in the temple.

According to Madalapanzi, the deities were worshipped there and the tree was popularly known as ''Dianbar''. In the past, deities had to remain out of temple a number of times at secret places under the close vigil of devotees for brief periods to protect them from Muslim invaders.

But the Gopali village incident was the single most occasion where the deities remained under ground for one and half century, the Madala panzi of the Jagannath temple revealed.

Jagannath Temple Chief Administrator Suresh Chandra Mahapatra would lead the team. Temple Deputy Administrator Bhasker Mishra would investigate into the popular legends over lord Jagannath prevalent there till date and descriptions of the madala panzi story relating to the secret place.

The team will talk to local historians and search records at the old royal palace to get the entire story of the Lord Jagannath, his elder brother lord Balavadra and their sister Devi Subhadra during their stay at the place.

UNI