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History of lord Jagannath

Posted by Mayapur Vasi Das on May 6, 2010 at 4:00pm
On archaeological and epigraphically grounds we cannot definitelyestablish the historicalimportance of Puri before the 7th Century A. D. There is a commonlyprevalent notion that thetemple of Lord Jagannath is situated on a blue mountain and thereforecalled Niladri, Nilachal orNilagiri. But we find no mountain at Puri or any reference to a hill or amountain near Puri inthe history, it can be presumed that it might have been built on a sandhill called Niladri orthe Blue Mountain only on the grounds of analogy.

There was a small Jagannath Temple before 12th Century A.D. wherethe present temple is situated.As the old temple became weak and starts damage, the King “Raja AnantaVarman Chodaganga Dev”decided to build a new temple. It is believed that the present templebuilt on the garbage of oldtemple. Because of the height of the base of the present temple is morethan 30 feet.

The founder King of the Ganga Dynasty, King Chodaganga Deva beganit’s construction of thecelebrated Temple of Lord Jagannath now existent at Puri in 1235 A.D..The construction wasfinished by King Anangabhima Deva. The wooden images of JagannathBalabhadra and Subhadra wereinstalled in that temple.

The management of the temple continued under the Hindu rulers till1558.

Then the State of Orissa was conquered by the Afghan Nawab of Bengaland the temple was attackedby the Afgan General ‘Kalapahad’. At that time, an independent Khurdakingdom was established by“Ramachandra Deb”, who assumed the management of the temple. Heconsecrated the temple andreinstalled the deities. Till 1760, the temple continued under theKhurda Raja (King), who waspaying tribute to Mughals and Marhattas.

Raja Mansingh, a General of the Mughal King Akbar, defeated theAfghans and annexed Orissa in tothe Mughal dominion. It remained under the Mughals till 1751 A.D.

Then Marhattas took up direct management of the temple till 1803.

The British annexed Orissa into British Empire in 1803 and allowedPuri Raja to manage thetemple. . However, to the credit of the British it must be said thatthey respected the right toworship of the Hindus at Jagannath and indirectly allowed patronage.They recognized thatJagananth Puri's King of Orissa (Gajapati Maharaj) as the Superintendentof the Temple andgranted some revenue rights and privileges to the temple to run it'saffairs. The positioncontinued till 1947.
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