INTACH bid to restore Jagannath Sadak glory

TNN | Jun 6, 2014

BHUBANESWAR: Monuments along historic Jagannath Sadak in Odisha will be documented. The project by NGO Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Odisha chapter, is aimed at reviving the lost glory of this trodden path which pilgrims took to visit Jagannath Temple at Puri while highlighting its sad state of affairs.

"The project will not only create awareness about the sadak but also help in its conservation. We will undertake a scientific, cartographic, archeological, historical and geographical survey of the road," said INTACH state convener A B Tripathy. Nearly 412 km of the existing road, which winds through Jaleswar, Basta, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Chhatia, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar before culminating at Puri, will be covered, he added. Dating back to 1700, Jagannath Sadak was the old pilgrim road from Kolkata to Puri. In 1825, it came to be known as Orissa Trunk Road, but for devotees, who descended on this path and made the slow way to Puri, it has always been Jagannath Sadak. Though most pilgrims trudged on foot, many covered the distance on bullock carts, hackney carriages, palanquins, horses and elephants.

There were choultries, dharamshalas, wells, tanks, culverts, bridges, temples, rest sheds and ghats along the road. Remnants of these are still visible on the isolated stretch, INTACH sources said. "I had embarked on a bullock cart journey in 2011 and discovered many new facets of this ancient road. It has a rich oral history. Many vestiges of the road, though still intact, are in a state of despair," said project head Anil Dhir. There would be at least 1,200 monuments along the road in Odisha, he added.