We had just come back from the excursion of Chilika Lake. I had witnessed the cleanest beach in my life at the
sea mouth and I was filled
with great joy and satisfaction that I decided to come to Odisha. We took rest for a while and then set out for the
sightseeing of Puri.
Puri (often called as Jagannath Puri) is
primarily a pilgrimage town with famous temple of Lord Jagannath , one of the
four dhams in India. Naturally we
headed towards the temple first. There is a very unique and interesting thing
about the idol of Lord Jagannath. Generally all the Hindu deities are made of
stone or metal, but that of Lord Jagannath is made from wood. This deity is
replaced with a sacred tree wood every 12 years and is built to be the exact
replica of the existing one. In order to reach the temple we had to park your
car some 500 metres before the temple and from there we walked. The temple is
dedicated to Lord Vishnu and we
spotted a group of Krishna devotees
dressed in saffron/red colored clothes performing dance and satsang kirtan just outside the temple. It was a good feeling and we danced
along too.
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| Jagannath Puri Temple (Source) |
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| Group Dancing in front of Temple |
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The temple premises are majorly built using
large stones. The main temple consists of three different idols viz. Jagannath , Balbhadra and Subhadra
which are considered to be the forms of Vishnu
, Balarama and Subhadra(half-sister of Krishna) respectively. The ritual chakra (Nila Chakra) on the shikhar of
the temple are also related to the Sudarshan Chakra of Lord Vishnu. It symbolizes protection by Shri Jagannath.
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| Ritual chakra |
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After having the darshan, it was already late evening and we decided to move towards
the area of Puri beach. Although it
was dark but there were still a lot of people at the beach. People were having
a leisure time on the beach with their families. We removed our slippers and
started walking on the wet sand. I had visited lot of beaches in day time or
sunset time but for the first time I was visiting any beach in night time and
it seemed different. The waves were more ferocious and were rising to a great
height as they rise in day time. The deafening roar of the waves and cool
breeze on the face, it all set up the mood and we were feeling refreshed. As we moved a bit further we noticed that
there was an open air cultural program going on near the beach. The board on
the stage read “19th Glory Fest”. We enjoyed the cultural program
and then left for the dinner in a restaurant near beach. It had been late by
the time we finished our meal, so we decided to call it for the day and we
moved back to the hotel.
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| Puri beach at night |
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| People playing at Puri Beach |
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| 19th Glory fest |
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| Dance at Cultural fest |
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The next morning I had planned to move towards Bhubaneshwar via Raghurajpur
– a Heritage village famous all over India for its handicrafts and “Patta
Chitra”. Raghurajpur is a small village which is different from all
other villages of the state. It is well known for community of artisans who
produce varieties of handicrafts items such as Patta Paintings, Palm leaf
engravings, Stone carvings, Paper made
toys and masks, Wood carvings, Wooden toys, Cow-dung toys,
Tasser Paintings etc. This is what
makes this village perhaps the only place in India where such variety of art is
present at one place. We stopped by this village to have a look on the famous Pattachitra paintings.
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| Raghurajpur- The Village Entry |
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| Raghurajpur - The Heritage Village |
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The entry is just like any other village but the
difference is that you can see handicrafts and artistic things in every single
house of the village. We sat in one of the houses and quickly went through the marvellous
pieces of handicrafts by the talented people of Raghurajpur. We purchased a lot
of handicrafts for our friends and families.
Quick
fact: Pattachitra is a general term for traditional cloth-based scroll
painting.
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| Old man making handicrafts |
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| Handmade Handicrafts at Raghurajpur |
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| Pattachitra |
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| Paintings at Raghurajpur |
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The Jagannath
Temple of Puri and the Heritage
Village of Raghurajpur made me experience a different India altogether. It
was like I have never seen or experienced before. Far away from the pomp and
show of the bustling cities and having their own tradition, stories and
culture. It added to my bag of experiences and did a lot of good to my spirits.
We will visit Bhubaneshwar – the capital city of Odisha in the
next article! Till then Keep Blogging and Happy Holidaying!
Stay connected for the next article. Readers please share your feedback in
the comments section below.
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