Puri - An Overview || Historical Background of Puri
PURI - THE HOLY CITY
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Puri the spiritual capital of the state and popularly known as Jagannath Puri, Jagannath Dham, Nilachala, Nilagiri, Niladri, Purusottam Khetra, Srikhetra, Shreekhetra and Sankha Khetra, occupies a significant place in the map of torism and field of spiritualism of the country for its magnificent culture and striking beauty. In the 8th century A.D. Adi Sankaracharya toured this entire country on foot to unite it culturally by generating an atmosphere of mutual understanding and reciprocal fellowfelling and in course of this journey, he visited this temple city perhaps in the year 810 A.D. and established a 'Matha' known as 'Govardhan Pitha' which still reminds the tourists regarding the great tradition of this sacred city and unparalleled philosophy of 'Advaitavada' or monism of Acharya Sankar. Adi Sankaracharya also took adequete care of the temple of Lord Jagannath, which, as per mythological narrations, was existent in this Neeladri or blue mountain from time immemorials and introduced a svstematic ritualistic procedure inside the temple as a result of which the idols of Sankaracharya and his disciple, Sri Padmapadacharya, who adorned the Govardhan pith as its first pointiff were installed on the 'Ratnasinghasana' of Lord Jagannath. But subsqueneely these idols were removed probably during the invasion of Muslims and Marahattas. Prior to the advent of Adi Sankaracharya, Lord Jagannath was worshipped as 'Buddha', the incarnation of enlightenment and wisdom, which is evident from the scripture janasiddha of Indrabhuti.
Although Puri is famous for Lord Jagannath and known as Jagannath Puri, other deities like Shubhadra, Balabhadra and Sudarshan are also worshipped in the main temple. All these four deities are called 'Chaturdha Murty'.
Puri - An Overview
Puri, the sacred place of pilgrimage, is situated on the sea i.e. Bay of Bengal. The climate of this temple city is neither too hot in summer nor too cold in winter. The main two attractions of this city are famous Jagannath Temple and finest Sea beach . Not only is the temple holy, but the whole of its surroundings, the Khetra, extending over metres has been extolled as holy in the Puranas. The Khetra, according to the sanskrit writers, extends from the temple of Lokanath on the west to that of Vilveswar on the east and from the eternal sea to the Matianadi, a small stream. But as two krosas out of the five have been, it is said, engulfed by the sea, the remainder very closely represents the present extent.This sacred tract is said to resemble in shape a conch-shell, Sankha, which is one of the four ayudhas of Vishnu, others being Chakra (discus), Gada (mace) and Padma (lotus). Puri is known as Sankhakhetra and Bhubaneswar, Jajpur and Konark are respectively called Chakrakhetra, Gadakhetra, and Padmakhetra.
In the early years of the British rule, in the Government records, Puri has been described as the City of Jagannath and the district was also given the same name. As the present name Puri was not used formerly either by the Christians, the question naturally arises as to how it came into vogue. It appears that after the British conquest, the town was sometimes called Jagannath-Pooree; and William Hamilton in his 'Description of Hindostan'(1820) mentions the City as Juggarnath, Juggarnathpoor, and Pooree. Andrew Stirling in his 'Account of Odisha'(1824), uses both Jagannath-Pooree and simply Pooree. Evidently, therefore, the latter name commended itself to popular taste as a handy abbreviation and displaced the older and more appropriate name.
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