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Orissa Review

T he prime symbol of Odiaidentity is Lord Jagannath. The early dawn

of each Odia breaks with the breathing of thevirgin air that emanates from the bodyof Lord Jagannath. He is thespiritual and material chief ofOdisha who is rightly calledas Bada Thakur (Thegreat God of Gods)who resides inside theBada Deula (Thegreat temple) on theBada Danda (Thegreat path way)situated on the shore ofthe Mahodadhi (Greatsea) at Purastama (Thebest of the cities). TheJagannath cult is a syntheticproduct of Jainism, Buddhism andBrahmanism in which the essence of the three cultswere well assimilated after critical and analyticalexplanatory operations. The theory of universalbrotherhood, peace, equality, liberty, fraternity,toleration etc is the prime-trait of the Jagannathcult that is disseminating the socio-culturalmovement since the days of its inceptions.

The avatarabad theory of the Hindu-belief is well analyzed in the Jagannath cult provingthe fact that it led to the evolution of the cult of

socialism; God could manifestHimself in every form, i.e.from an insect to animal andfrom animal to human form

of various types, i.e. as awarrior, as a king, as a

farmer, as a social-reformer and as amilitant- reformer.Achyutananda Daswho claims himself asa Sudra and one ofthe great poet-

Philosophers of thePanchasakhas rightly

mentions in his“Sunyasamhita” ;

“Avatara dasa ehi daru rupa,Ehi darurese lina.

Isvara sakshate lilara nimante,Bije ratna simhasana”.

Translation: - “This wooden form is thesum total of the ten incarnations. Once again allthe manifestations of ten incarnations wereassimilated in the wooden form. The Lord

Jagannath Cult - The Cult of SocialismDr. Binodini Das

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enthrones Himself on the golden throne (RatnaSimhasana) for performing various roles.”

Further, another poet-philosopher of thePanchasakha-cult, Balaram Das, is found toextending supportive idea to AchyuatanandaDas’s ideology. He mentions in the ‘VedantaSara Gupta Gita’;

“Sarvada Niladrire sthitiEthu sakale jata honti,Samasta avataraman

Jata hoina pase puna.”

Translation:- The Lord (Jagannath)resides in the Niladri. All are born from Him. Evenif all the incarnations are born from Him andfurther, the incarnations are assimilated within LordJagannath.”

To justify Lord Jagannath as the sum totalof all incarnations, Balaram Das warables overhis literary-exposition “JagannathCharitamruta.”;

“Sri Jagannath solakala,Ethu kalae Nanda bala,

Kalake solakala hoi,Gheni janmile Gope jai.”

Translation: - “Sri Jagannath is themanifestation (sum total) of sixteen arts. One ofthe manifestations of these arts is the son of Nanda,i.e. Sri Krishna. The Lord was born at Gopamaking one of the arts into sixteen forms.

To identify Lord Jagannath as the sumtotal of ten incarnations means an acceptance ofthe theory of socialism, i.e. “all are equal beforethe eyes of the God”; and He has not madediscrimination and distinction between man andman; He is omniscient, omnipotent andomnipresent. Lord Jagannath is the supreme

sovereign of the Odia nationality. Even if to theend of the rule of the last independent Odia-Hinduruler, Makunda Deva, Lord Jagannath wasconsidered as the supreme ruler of Odisha andall the ruler considered themselves as therepresentatives of the Lord. Taking into accountfrom the visits of various sadhus and santhas toPuri from different parts of India from ancient daysto mediaeval times, Lord Jagannath is presentedas the product of both advaitavada (non-dualism) and polytheism. Atibadi Jagannath Dasis also seen to support the theory of Advaitavadaof Sankaracharya by admitting the fact that LordJagannath is the symbol of trinity of Godhood;He evaluated Lord Balaram as Shiva, Subhadraas Brahma and Jagannath as Vishnu. They arenot different from each other; They are part andparcel to each other. They are a single spiritrepresenting three aspects of the great universe.Describing Lord Jagannath as supreme-infinitewho made Himself to be emerged from anabsolute Zero (Sunya / great vaccum) to a form,Balaram Das mentions in his ‘BrahmandaBhugola’;

“Se kale nathila samsaraNa thile chandra divakara”

Na thile divasa rajani,Na thile bhubana medini”

x x x x

Na thile Brahma , Vishnu, Siva,Na thila Vedara prabhaba”

Se kale more suny-rupaEmanta gala koti kalpa.”

Translation:- “In the primeval days, therewas no existence of the universe; So also, sunand moon were not present; Day and night didnot occur. There was no concept of the world(three worlds- Swarga, Martya and Patala) andthe earth.”The concept of Brahma, Vishnu and

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Siva was not present those days; The influenceof the Veda was also not felt; During those remotedays He (Lord Jagannath) bore out the shape ofan absolute zero / great vaccum and He stayed inthat form for indefinite crores and crores of years”.

An analytical approach made over theliterary-expositions of the Panchasakhaspresents to the fact of ingrained advaitaphilosophy in existence with the Jagannath cult.Rightly, they described Lord Jagannath as Alekha(beyond description), Anama (without names),Anadi Brahma (life without evolution),Nirguna (without attributes), Niranjana (purewater) and Nirakara (water shaped) etc. ThePanchasakhas were undoubtedly greatopponents of the existing caste-system and idolworship, but they could hardly distinguish betweenthe sunya –alekha (absolute vaccum / zero whichis beyond description) and the wooden form ofLord Jagannath. The Panchasakhas were thegreat exponents of the re-energizing the sociocultural movement or the sudra movement whichwas already in a defunct state. They were the greatreformists in the sense that they infused andinculcated the spirit of socio cultural equalityamong the masses by stating an explanation thatwhen Lord Jagannath does not distinguishbetween man and man, how could a humble mando the same.

A number of folk lores and legendarysayings relating to Lord Jagannath are foundattesting to the fact of socio cultural unity andintegrity of the Odia society where liberty, equalityand fraternity played a vital role. Let it beconsidered that the struggle against the castesystem in Odisha was developed under theleadership of Lord Jagannath. The classicparadigm was the story of Dasia Bauri who wasborn in a Scheduled Caste called bauri whoresided near Baligaon. He was a great devout of

Lord Jagannath who was not allowed to enterinside the temple. Lord Jagannath was so pleasedwith the absolute devotion of Dasia that he offeredtwo boons to him out of which one was that LordJagannath would personally receive any kindofferings made by Dasia Bauri. In one occasion,Dasia Bauri gave a coconut of his tree to a Brahminof his village who made a pilgrimage to Purirequesting him that after offering his personalnaivedyas, he must come down to the back sideof the Garuda Stambha where he would offerthe coconut to Lord Jagannath telling that it wassent for Him by Dasia Bauri. Further he told himthat if it was not personally received by LordJagannath, then it must be returned back to Dasia.The Brahman followed accordingly what was toldby Dasia. To his surprise, the Brahmin found thehands of Jagannath extended like the tusks of theelephant towards him and the coconut was liftedwithin no time. Another interesting incidenthappened when Dasia Bauri personally proceededto Puri to offer sweet mangoes to Lord Jagannath.He was obstructed by the Sevakas who insistedupon him to hand over the mangoes to them. DasiaBauri’s polite refusal to the sevakas stating thatthe mangoes would be directly received by theLord made them to be curious. The sinceremeditational devotion of Dasia Bauri made themangoes to be vanished within an wink of theeyes and to the utmost surprise of the sevakasthe seed stones of the mangoes were found lyingon the ratna simhasana. This proves to the factthat the god belongs to all in an equal manner.

Further, a group of persons of vested-interests describe Lord Jagannath as‘Patitapaban’ which literally means who is theuplifter or saviour of the Patitas, i.e. dalita ordown-troddens. Pandit Nilakantha Das, one ofthe architects of the Satyavadi Vana Vidyalayaseverely ridiculed this idea of ‘Patitapaban’. Heclaimed that no one is patit in front of Lord

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Jagannath. Since all are equal, the patitas (downtroddens) were created by the unruly socialbehavior. Similarly, the account of Bhakta Salabegand Kabir proves to the fact that Jagannath cultureknows no racial, social and cultural discrimination.It stands for socializing the Odia-society wherethere is no place for discrimination between caste,creed and religion. Probably the Sikhs langar cult( inter dinning ) was borrowed from the ‘Anand-Bazar cult’ of Lord Jagannath where peopleirrespective of their social status could dinetogether. Apart from it, people from ChhatisaPataka (36 patakas -castes and sub-castes ) areemployed to render their respective services tothe God.

Jagannath culture is marching lineally sincethe days of it’s inception accommodating andadopting the principal traits of other religious faithsand beliefs. As a defacto ruler in Odia-statepolities, Lord Jagannath is told to manifest Himselfin different incarnations to awaken the socio-cultural awareness among the masses. It is rightlyexplained by Lord Sri Krishna in the SrimadBhagabvad Gita to Arjuna that;

“Yada yada hi dharmasyaGlanir bhavati bharatah

Abhyuthanam adharmasyaTadatman srijamahayam

Paritranya SadhunamVinasaya cha duskrutam

Dharma samsthapanarthyamSambhami yuge yuge.”

An analytic approach over Balaram Das’s“Laxmi Purana” testifies to a fact that LordJagannath in the manifestation of goddess Laxmiemerged to carry out the socio cultural movementin the then society which was at its lowest ebbexhausting all its potential and energetic spirit andleading towards a rapid disintegration and decline.

In it’s attempt to re-energizing the defunct spiritand to create consciousness among the subalternsand to free the society from the gender-bias,Balaram Das devoutly surrendered to goddessMaha Laxmi for liberating the society from thethralldom of social taboos, evils, orthodoxy,conservatism, and above all, Brahmin dogmatism.Goddess Maha Laxmi as a first lady of Odiasociety seems to take leadership to regeneratingthe idea of male-female equality and to revoltingagainst male chauvinism. It also tries to establisha fact that a woman should carry out her struggleagainst male chauvinism, so long her right toequality is not perfectly ascertained. Further more,in His Lila (acting) Lord Jagannath is found tomanifesting Himself in the form of SriyaChandaluni, a lady of an out caste who could nevermake temple entry. But this Sriya Chandaluni wasa sincere devotee of Lord Jagannath and MotherLaxmi. Her sincere and absolute devotion madeGoddess Maha Laxmi to remain present in herthatched and dilapidated house in one fine morningof Thursday day of the month of Margasira toreceive her worship and offering. This led to aserious troublesome affair as it was seen by LordBalaram, the elder brother of Lord Jagannath, whodisapproved Laxmi’s presence in a Chandala’shouse. This led to the banishment of goddessLaxmi from the Bada Deula who desperately leftthe temple accusing Lord Jagannath for notfollowing the nuptial ideologies. The result is wellknown to every body. As a self esteemed lady,Mother Laxmi did not return back to his parentalhouse rather she opted to carry out the strugglesinglehandedly imparting a lesson to all Odia ladiesthat ‘virtue, patience and wit-mind’ wouldultimately encrown a lady with absolute success .In the voice of goddess Laxmi, Balaram Dasachieved his objective, making the temple entryof the out castes and also promoting theinterdining culture inside the Anand Bazar with

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a hope that the idea would be diffused anddisseminated throughout the Odia –society. Itindicates to the fact that social distinction is man-made. It is not made by any divine authority.

In Jagannath culture the sins and crimeshave no place. But, if a sinner would make properrepentance for his acts done he would bepardoned and would be allowed to join in themainstream of social life. Take for exampleBalaram Das who ran out from a harlot’s houselistening to ding dung sound of the bells andblowing of the pipes to accompany LordJagannath during the car-festival, but his shabbyand awkward gait-up made the Daitapatis tobelieve that without proper ablutions he wasriding up the car to make the whole processunsacred. So he was forcibly thrust out of the carwho with a sorrowful mind went to the sea-shorewhere he made three sand-chariots installing thethree deities there and worshiping them. Whenthe car was not moving a single inch, then its causewas sorted out. Lord Jagannath instructed to theMaharaja that he must apologise to Balaram Daswho made him to sit inside the sand chariot of thesea shore. Then the king came and politelyapologized Balaram Das who accompanied themto Bada Deula and his request made theNandighosha Ratha to move on.

There are so much paradigmaticreferences mentioning Jagannath cult as a movingforce diffusing the idea of socialism through outOdisha. But it is regrettable that from a liberalcult sprang up another cult liberalizing it to themaximum extent. It was the Mahima cult. It wastold that Mahima Swami who was an ardentworshipper of Lord Jagannath was ill treated bythe Puri pandas. The humility, the torture and theinsult that he experienced inside the Puri templemade him to believe that if “the Lord is an absolutenon-existence or a vacuum, so what is the needof worshipping him in an idol-form following such

cumbersome, complicated rites and rituals. So hefelt that performance of complex rites and ritualsmade certain people to monopolise the cult andhe revolted propagating the cult of the worship ofa single being who is ‘sunya’. If Mahima Swamiconsidered as the founder of the Mahima Dharma,Bhima Bhoi is considered as the pioneeringauthority to expound the ‘sunyavada’ theory.Mahima dharma is found to borrow all the ideaand ideologies of the Jagannath cult except idol-worship, rites and rituals and above all, with allsorts of militant spirit discouraging the castesystem and promoting socio-economic equalityand pronunciating equality of man and woman.

Another frustrating incident that happenedfew years back definitely contradicted the essenceof the Jagannath cult is the Keradagada dispute.It was a well aware fact that some people whowere considered as low-borns were not allowedtemple entry inside the Keradagada. Their sincereappeal to ascertain their claim as a true Hindudevout was unheeded up. All the deities of Hindu-belief are undoubtedly aryanised in course ofAryan invasion. The autochthonous tribes of Indiawere animistic; they worshiped the trees, wood,stone, animals etc giving them different names andbelieving that each god had been assigned withdifferent activities. It was modified and amendedby the Aryans. Jagannath cult is a fusions of bothtribal and non-tribal cult; from tribal deityNilamadhaba to Lord Jagannath representingmonotheism and polytheism. So, as Jagannath cultbears out socialism within its fold, it is a sincereappeal to all Odia-people that they mustimplement this idea in their socio-cultural behaviorfor relieving the society from chaos and tension inthe one hand and on the other promoting Odianationalism for the healthy growth of Odia society.

Dr. Binodini Das, Reader in History, B.J.B Jr. College,Bhubaneswar.