Purushottama Kshetra : the Sacred Shrine of Hindu World
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Odisha Review June - 2014 Purushottama Kshetra : The Sacred Shrine of Hindu World Dr. Janmejay Choudhury he concept of tirtha or sacred shrine in the alone helps us get over ignorance and leads to TIndian context originates from the time when liberation. It has now come to mean a sacred Puranas began to be composed around 4th century place which helps one to cross over from cycle A.D. The meaning of tirtha is a sacred shrine of birth and death to moskha or liberation. charged with the power of Gods and Goddesses Pilgrims aspire to attain salvation by visiting sacred and resonant with shrines to prepare for purity. A tirtha release from the possesses three temporal world. Puri is elements that make it known in the ancient so sacred –it is Suchi- scriptures as Shree pure, it brings Punya- Dham. It is recognized goodness and it is as Dham or a tirtha th Subha-auspicious. particularly after 9 This makes a tirtha a century. place where you can Purusottam- gain nirvana, Puri has been described enlightenment and in the various Puranas achieve moksha or as the most sacred liberation. A tirtha is shrine in Bharata Varsa. a place on earth It is the Kshetra where where the gods the God Purusottama descend and which made his sacred shrine facilitates the crossing perpetual abode, over, enabling ascent Vaikuntha Bhuban.1 of human beings from Bhavasagar or the temporal The sacred shrines, according to the tradition, and ephemeral world of nama and rupa, (name existed even during the great universal deluge and and form), multiplicity and diversity, to the eternal also in the beginning of this creation.2 Its greatness abode of oneness, peace, tranquility and bliss. is unparalleled, its importance is unique and its Tirtha really stood for knowledge as knowledge sanctity is unquestionable.3 Puri enjoys its position 70 June - 2014 Odisha Review as one of the foremost religious centres of India. Kalpataru, Laksmidhara (early 12th century A.D.) It is one of the seven Mokshapuris or salvation mentions Purusottama as a place of pilgrimage centres of the Hindu faith. ‘Ayodhya Mathura on the authority of Vamana Purana. Mahakasi Kanchi Avantika Puri Dwaravasti caiva saptaita Mokshadayika’ is a Puranic couplet. Visnudharmattara of 600A.D.refers to the These seven places virtually cover the whole of manifestation of Visnu as Purushottama in Odra 7 India between them. There are four chief religious country (Udresa Purushottama) . The centres around which the Brahmanical religion and Ksetramahatmyas of Jagannath Puri have been 8 practices flourish. Of these, while Badrinath and discussed in Brahma Puruna (1030A.D) , Narada 9 Dwaraka are centre of Vaishnavism and Purana, Kapila Samhita (1350A.D), Skanda th th 10 Rameswaram is the centre of Saivism, Puri fosters Purana (11 -12 centuryA.D) , Padma Purana, the confluence of all sects in and through Vamadev Samhita (published by Mukti Mandap Purusottama Jagannath, even though many regard Pandit Mahasabha in 1972) and also Niladri Him as the embodiment of Vaishnavism. To the Mahodaya (Published by Maharaja of Sonepur in 1970). The Pujaripali inscription11 of Gopal outside world and in a general sense, “The th national reverence of the Hindus for holy places (11 century A.D) mentions Purushottam as an has been, for ages, concentrated at Puri, sacred important tirtha of India. In the inscription 12 to Vishnu under His title Jagannath, the Lord of discovered from Govindpur (in Nawdah Subdivision of Gaya District, Bihar) poet the world.”4 In respect of its hold on the Hindu mind, Puri is considered by some as the most Gangadhara states that his father Manoratha visited Purushottam. As the inscription is dated in sacred shrine in India, even more sacred than Saka year 1059 (1137-38A.D), this proves the Varanasi. Named after Purusottama Jagannath, the city is also known as Niladri, Sri Ksetra, popularity of Purushottama as a tirtha and the close religious contacts between Bihar and Odisha Sankha Ksetra, Jamanika Ksetra and Martya in the twelfth century A.D. The Edilpur grant of Baikuntha or the heaven on earth.5 Purusottama Kesava Sena says that Laksmana Sena (1179- Jagannath is supposed to be above sectarian 1205A.D) established a sacrificial pillar at considerations and distinctions of caste and creed. Purushottama.13 The ‘Pujaripalli’ inscription of Gopalvir Deva belonging to the 11 th century indicate that The Kapil Samhita refers to the land as Purusottama Ksetra was considered as a sacred the one “that takes away sin”.14 The Matsya shrine among ‘Kedar, Prayaga and Puskara’ etc. Purana, among the oldest of the Puranas, refers The book ‘Abhidhana Chintamani’ of to Purushottama Ksetra twice.15 The sacred tract Hemachandra (1081-1173), alludes to the is also known as Sankha Ksetra in the Utkal popularity of Jagannath. This Ksetra also finds Khanda of Skanda Purana, one conspicuous point reference in Satananda’s Ratnamalika of the 11th of “Purushottama Ksetra Prasasti” of this Purana, century. The 12th century inscription of Malava as also of Niladri Purana, is that these speak of Raja of Nagpur includes a reference to Jagannath being established on Nrsinga’s Purusottama Ksetra. The Barhaspatya mantras.16 Purushottama in Odra is mentioned in Arthasastra of 11th century refers to Purusottama the Saradadevi temple inscription (c.10th century as one of the eight Vaishnava Tirthas of India.6 In A.D) at Maihar in the Satna district of Madhya the ‘Tirtha Vivechana Khandam’ of the Kritya Pradesh.17 The sanctity of this place and of its 71 Odisha Review June - 2014 presiding deity must have gained wider under the rule of Imperial Gangas (1078- acceptance after the construction of the temple, 1435A.D). Sri Jagannath worship was renewed as is apparent from the Kapilasa inscription of and reached at its climax particularly Vaishnavism Narasimha I (1246-53 A.D) which describes with the Bhakti movement of Sri Chaitanya. From Purushottama as Chaturdasa Bhuvanadhipati or first part of 16th century, the pilgrim movement to the Lord of the fourteen worlds.18 The Puri was grown and it became the epi-centre of Barhaspatya sutram (C.6-7 century A.D) speaks Vaishnava culture in the whole of eastern-India. of Purushottama Ksetra as a conspicuous centre The rituals like Nagar Kirtan brought the medium of Vaishnavism and specifies its distance from for popularization of Jagannath culture and rested Dwaraka.19 The Nagari plate of Anangabhima deep into heart and mind of the common people. Dev III (of Saka era 1152-53 i.e., 1229-30A.D) Jagannath worship on the principle of Prema describes the place of Purushottama Ksetra. “This Bhakti or devotion by love was only the way to name (Purushottama Ksetra) in the form of attain mukti and became the culture of mass and Purushottama Chhatar or only in the form of thus the culture was spread over Odisha, Bengal Chhatar was used by the Mughal, the Maratha etc. For millions of devotees, Jagannath is not as well as the early British rulers in their official merely a local deity of Odisha; He is considered records”.20 The city is referred to as Purushottama as a manifestation of the Supreme Being. He in Kalika Purana and in Yoginitantra.21 Puri region occupies a pivotal position in the religious life of was also known as Utkal.22 “The name Hindu-world, and it is admitted that His culture, Purushottama Ksetra was also sometime known in the present form, has a distant message for the as Purushottama Puri and the word Purushottama Indian People. In one senses the Jagannath cult Ksetra or Chhatra so also Purushottama Puri was can be described as a transcendental secularism expressed in the contracted form”23 of for the fact that many individual religious faiths Purushottama or Puri. Kurma Purana mentions appear to have been transcended and synthesized that Purushottama tirtha belongs to Narayana in it. The Jagannath cult is more than an amalgam although, it is named after Purushottama. The of Buddhism, Jainism, Saivism and Vaisnavism, supreme Purusa Narayana resides here with all etc. Thus the influences of various sects on glory. A pilgrim after taking holy bath in this sacred Jagannath cult are discernible. “Jagannath cult has tirtha and worshipping supreme Vishnu welcomed all and embraced all, but been (Narayana) and feeding the Brahmanas secures overwhelmed by none and has lost itself in the abode of Vishnu. Puri has the Lord Jagannath none.”24 The cult of Jagannath is an elective Temple, the roaming ocean Mahodadhi and the system that has “assimilated and incorporated in grand festival, famous Rath Yatra and the its fold the influences of divergent religious creeds presence of Vishnu. and sects.” But Jagannath is never a sectarian deity. He supersedes sectarian considerations and Puri emerges as a tirtha having pan- comprehensions. His image is crude and Indian character since early part of 12th century unanthropomorphic. The mode of worship of the A.D., with the increasing process of ritual deities is also diverse. The Mahaprasad is above royalization of the deity Lord Jagannath. It was caste barriers. There is seldom sect that dose not during 12th century A.D, that the temple town Puri deify Jagannath and claim Him to be its own at might have assumed the greatest prominence Puri. It leads one to wonder whether the 72 June - 2014 Odisha Review simultaneous prevalence of divergent faiths itself with the Jagannath cult and spawned forth (Buddhism, Jainism, Vaishnavism ,Saivism, the cult of Jagannath on a concrete basis. Saktism) show a heterogeneous society, too varied to be unitary. References : 1. Purushottama Mahatmya 36/10, 1/36 The Jagannath cult is an attempted 2. Ibid 1/37.