Odisha Part 2 - Puri: The Experience of Jagannath

The temple of Jagannath at Puri is one of the four most important temples across India. Sometimes called the Char Dham – Badrinath in the north, Rameswaram in the South, Dwarka in the west, and Puri in the east – these temples mark four corners of our country, and each of these temples has a connection to Adi Shankara. He is said to have travelled to each of them, thus marking a sacred geography of India, long before the country actually existed. Among these 4 temples, 3 are dedicated to Lord Vishnu, while only Rameswaram is dedicated to Lord Shiva, though the lingam there is said to have been installed by Rama. Further, Shankara set up Mutts at 3 of these sites (or very close to these sites, like at Badrinath, where the mutt is at Joshimutt), while the mutt in the south is at Sringeri in Karnataka, quite a distance away from Rameswaram. Coming back to the topic, I have visited Rameswaram most often, Badrinath during my childhood, and Dwaraka a few times, but Puri had stayed out of reach for quite some time, and thus I looked forward to my visit.

I first visited Puri in 2017, on a sponsored trip to write content for a hotel chain, and then again, this year (2025). On my first visit, the hotel arranged for me to visit the temple for what they called ‘special darshan’. Special darshan turned out to be early in the morning, before the sun was out, and I was herded into the temple from what appeared to be a back gate. I could hardly make out details of the temple, but I was fairly quickly whisked in and out of the main shrine. My first thought on seeing Lord Jagannath was surprise – I hadn’t actually expected Him to be quite so big. There wasn’t much time to see Him properly, as there was quite a crowd, and I was rushed out. By the time we came outside, the sky was lit with traces of dawn, and I insisted on walking around the courtyard at a more leisurely pace than that set by my guide. This was my first experience of an Odisha temple, and I enjoyed it thoroughly, while, at the same time, I cursed temple rules and regulations for not allowing me my phone or camera to take pictures. This early in the morning, the visitors to the temple were more focused on the main shrine and the Lord, and the temple premises outside the shrine were fairly empty. I had the place to myself, and I walked around slowly admiring both the architecture and the iconography. Thinking back, it is that which I remember the most, and not the main shrine at all. Another thing I remember vividly is the huge amount of bhog that turned up at the hotel a few hours later. It was apparently part of the ‘special darshan’ arrangement! There was a huge basket full of bhog and I didn’t have the first clue what to do about it. Eventually, I spoke to the hotel management, and asked them to distribute it among the staff, since there wasn’t any way I could finish even a teeny tiny bit of it!

 

My pic of the temple from Jan 2017

This year, when we planned our Odisha sojourn, Samhith wanted to visit a beach, but we chose to stay at a more remote location nearer to Konark, rather than Puri. Knowing his aversion to crowded temples, I didn’t actually plan a visit to Puri at all. But as I always believe, we visit temples not when we want to visit Him, but when He wants to see us. And this time, He evidently had other plans. Our driver, from the moment he picked us up at the airport, spoke so much about the temple and the Lord that Samhith eventually asked me why we were skipping the temple, and I agreed to go ahead and visit, with our driver promising us that we wouldn’t have to pay the pandas a huge amount of money, and that we wouldn’t be saddled with baskets of bhog either.

And so it was that we landed at Puri, just about 10 days before the shrine would be closed after the sacred bath, which would be followed by the Rath Yatra. Our driver timed our visit so that we would arrive at a time we could see the Lord from the closest possible distance, between two bhogs. This time, it was he who herded us into the temple complex, made us wait till it would be time, and then pushed us along with the waiting crowd to have darshan. Darshan this time was better for me, simply because I was prepared for Him. I was able to see all three of the deities better than I remembered from the last time. The rush this time was far more, but we were able to see Him quite clearly, and for a little while before we were pushed aside.

However, the Lord didn’t make it easy. It began pouring the moment we set foot inside the temple, and the rain didn’t let go. Umbrellas aren’t allowed inside the temple, so we were drenched within minutes, despite trying to take refuge under one of the eaves, along with multitudes of others trying to do the same. Despite this, we managed to circumambulate the temple before having darshan, but with the rains and the crowd, both architecture and iconography were difficult to appreciate.

The two of us, totally drenched, outside the temple in May 2025

I had had two darshans of Lord Jagannath, and while I could appreciate the form of the Lord as quite different, unusual and unique, as compared to the idols that I am used to, I still wondered why people called Lord Jagannath so beautiful. I mentioned this to Indrani at Svanir during one of our many conversations, and ruminated that it probably had to do with two things – firstly, that I was used to a different idea of beauty, and secondly, I hardly had enough time to just stand and see Him, truly appreciate Him, or His beauty. That is when she suggested that I visit Kalabhoomi, the Odisha Crafts Museum established by the Handlooms, Textiles and Handicrafts Department of the Government of Odisha at Bhubaneshwar.

Kalabhoomi turned out to be an amazing museum, with galleries devoted to various textiles and crafts of Odisha. However, the highlight was the Jagannath Gallery. This gallery, the last one in the museum, is, as the name suggests, dedicated to the Lord in the most sacred temple of Odisha. The central focus of the gallery is the life-size Lord Jagannath in Raghunath Besha, where the Lord is dressed as Lord Rama in his court, with Sita and the others. The Lord was first decorated in this form in the temple in 1577, and most recently in 1905.

 

On one side are 5 more representations of Lord Jagannath in 5 other forms – Suna Besha, where the deities are decorated in gold ornaments;

Badasinghara Besha, where the deities are adorned with flowers;

Gajanana Besha, where the deities are decorated like elephants with trunks and tusks;

Padma Besha, where the deities are decorated with lotus flowers;

and Nagarjuna Besha where the deities are decorated like warriors.  

It was raining when we visited the museum as well. With the rain beating down on the windows, stuck inside without umbrellas or raincoats, and worried about falling sick, I simply sat down on the floor in front of the Lord, and gazed at Him without anyone to disturb me. And slowly, as I looked at Him, and imagined seeing Him in His shrine, I began to see His beauty, His appeal, began to see why people called Him beautiful. It is an experience difficult to explain, and certainly there are no words to describe it. The best way I can describe it, is that I was transported – to the grand temple of Puri, and for a moment, it was just me and the Lord, all 3 of them.

And thus I communed with Lord Jagannath, not on my two visits to the temple, which I still love for its architecture, and its beautiful sculptures, but in a lovely museum, built in a local style, unpretentious and simple.