Digha or Puri: Which is the 'true home' of Lord Jagannath?

A controversy has erupted over the newly inaugurated Jagannath temple in West Bengal’s Digha, a replica of the more famous 12th-century shrine dedicated to the deity in Odisha’s Puri, sending tremors across the two neighbouring states.

While in West Bengal, critics of chief minister Mamata Bannejee are questioning the propriety of state money being spent on the construction of a temple with Banerjee doing the honours at the inaugural a la Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Ram temple in Ayodhya last year, the fracas in Odisha is over an alleged attempt to promote the Digha temple as Jagannath Dham, a privilege exclusive to Puri which is reckoned as one of the four dhams (religious centres) of Hindus, and the participation of more than 50 sevayats (servitors) of the Puri temple led by Daitapati Niyog secretary Ramkrushna Das Mahapatra in the consecration and other rituals in Digha.

Mahapatra’s  admission that he had carried with him idols of Lord Jagannath and his siblings carved out of neem wood in Puri for the consecration ceremony at the Digha temple — where stone idols of the deities had initially been placed for worship — has not helped matters.

There are allegations that he used leftover neem wood from the 2015 navakalevara (reincarnation) ceremony of the deities to make idols for the Digha shrine which, if true, would be seen as an act of gross misconduct by a senior servitor of Puri Jagannath temple. Navakalevara of the Puri idols usually takes place after a gap of 12 or 15 years, with the old idols replaced with new ones fashioned out of sacred wood including neem. The event is also marked by a symbolic transfer of souls from the old to new idols.

Though Das Mahapatra has vociferously denied using navakalevara wood for the idols at the Digha temple, the followers of Lord Jagannath — who happens to be the presiding deity of Odisha — are less than willing to trust him.

Bowing to public pressure, the Odisha government on 2 May asked the Puri Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) to initiate a probe into the involvement of servitors of the temple in the performance of rituals at the Digha Jagannath temple and other aspects of the controversy arising out of it.

Law minister Prithviraj Harichandan said, "Discussion has been going on about servitors from Puri joining the inaugural function of the Digha Jagannath temple, the Digha Jagannath temple being named as Jagannath Dham and the idols at Digha Jagannath Temple being carved from the Darubrahma, a special type of neem used for the construction of Jagannath idols during the nabakalevara in 2015. It has hurt the sentiments of Jagannath devotees and 4.5 crore Odias. The temple administration has been directed to conduct an internal inquiry into the issue. If anyone is found guilty, action will be taken against them following the approval of the state government."

Odisha deputy chief minister K.V. Singh Deo, too, admitted that the propaganda touting the Digha Jagannath temple as Jagannath dham has hurt the sentiments of people in Odisha. "As far as I know, there are only four dhams of Hindus, and one of these is Puri, which is known as Jagannath Dham. The chief minister is aware of the controversy and must have taken note of it,” Singh Deo said. 

Eminent sand sculptor Sudarshan Pattnaik has sought chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi’s personal intervention in the matter. In a letter to the chief minister, Pattnaik said, “According to sacred scriptures, there exists only one Jagannath Dham, which is located in Puri. Associating any other temple with the title ‘Jagannath Dham’ may lead to religious confusion and contradict long-standing Hindu spiritual and cultural traditions.”

Under tremendous pressure, Ramkrushna Das Mahapatra has now himself objected to the use of the word dham in the context of the Digha Jagannath temple. “It is wrong on their part to use dham for the temple there. Puri is the only Jagannath Dham. I will write to Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee in this regard. There should also be communication between the two governments on this,” he told reporters in Puri on his return from Digha.

He, however, defended his decision to visit Digha and take part in the rituals for the establishment of a Jagannath temple there. “Mamata Bannerjee is my disciple and I went there on her invitation. There is nothing wrong with setting up a Jagannath temple. It is being done all over the world. There should be no controversy over this,” he remarked.  

Nonetheless, the issue has divided servitors of the Puri Jagannath temple who, ahead of the consecration ceremony at Digha, had warned members of their community against participating in any rituals at the replica shrine. The suar niyog (set of servitors engaged in cooking in the Puri temple kitchen) had specifically asked its members to refrain from cooking the mahaprasad at Digha. “Our mahaprasad is unique and we won’t share our cooking skills with anyone else,” a senior member of the niyog who did not wish to be identified said.

The surge of angry reactions in Puri to the inauguration of the Digha Jagannath temple also reflects an underlying fear that the replica shrine could undermine the significance of the original and reduce the flow of tourists and devotees to Odisha’s holy town.

More than 300 km apart from each other, both Digha and Puri have been major tourist attractions for a long time, thanks to their excellent beaches. However, Puri invariably scores over its rival not only because of its closeness to other major tourist attractions such as Konark, Satpada and the capital city of Bhubaneswar, but also the fact that it is Srikshetra, the home of Lord Jagannath, with his historic temple drawing people in hordes from all over the world.

With a brand new and equally magnificent Jagannath temple coming up in Digha, there is a fear that this seaside West Bengal town could emerge as a serious competitor to Puri, which survives on tourism, the bulk of its tourists ironically coming from West Bengal. On a rough estimate, nearly 25 per cent of all domestic tourists in Puri are from the neighbouring state, which enjoys close linguistic and cultural affinities with Odisha.

“Though there seems to be no immediate competition to Puri from Digha, the long-term fear of reduced tourist footfall might be playing on the minds of not only Puri temple servitors but also hoteliers and others who depend on tourism for survival,” said tour operator Kamalapati Tripathy.

On the other hand, the inauguration of Digha Jagannath temple is being seen as a masterstroke by Banerjee, who is looking to kill two birds with one stone. While the move could help arrest the exodus of Hindu votes from her party, it is also expected to promote both nature and religious tourism in a big way.

Even more significantly, she has succeeded in embarrassing and sowing seeds of discord within the state BJP by cordially welcoming former Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh to the inauguration ceremony of the Digha temple. While many state BJP leaders have slammed Ghosh for choosing to visit the Digha temple on Banerjee's invitation despite escalating tension between their party and TMC over the recent Murshidabad violence, Ghosh, who attended the inauguration with his new bride, remains unfazed even as speculation over his future in the BJP intensifies.