First Jagatsinghpur Heritage Walks starts from abode of Maa Sarala

Jagatsinghpur, Feb 3: The first heritage walks under the aegis of Jagatsinghpur Heritage Walks (JHW) was successfully held on auspicious Saraswati Puja day from the premise of Maa Sarala Temple with participation of more than 35 heritage enthusiasts from across the state. Srikanta Singh, the convenor  of JHW welcomed all the participants and explained about the mission and vision behind JHW.

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Jagatsinghpur has a history of its own dating back to the 6th Century AD, having contemporary with the Prachi Valley Civilization. Its archaeological remains, navigation network, inland and overseas trade, fabric manufacturing & designing, religious tolerance and epoch-making glorious role in freedom struggle; have a savor of distinctiveness. The group was addressed by Pandit Ranjan Panda the Chief Priest of the temple and author of the book “Shri Chandi Sarala Madala” and Dr. Ajay Kumar Mishra, eminent researcher and author of book “Chitramaheswari”.

According to Sarala Das authored Mahabharata, during 15th Century, near by the river of Prachi and Chandrabhaga in the village Sarola, Maa Sarola Chandi temple as well as Sarala Das' house was there.

Maa Sarala was initially worshiped at near by Landa Deula Temple, where now only Lord Shree Ganesh is worshiped. The “Bali Ratha” was completely stopped from the year 1946. Both the speakers also spoke about Sarala Bila, Charakhai Padia and how the temple peak was broken by Kalapahada and the second attack on temple during Aurngazeb's regime. The current temple was probably built in two phases, the main temple was constructed around 1890/95 and Parshwadevatas were put in the year 1914.

Both the speakers took the visitors through the epic Mahabharata written by Sarala Das, which is also translated to Bengali and Telugu. They also enlighten the walkers about the confusion on the names of Sarala Das as well regarding Mahabharata.

The Chief Priest also took the visitors through that daily rituals carried out in temple and how amalgamation of Buddhism, Tantrism, Saivisim and Vaishnavite philosophies happened in this place.

Prominent participants in the first JHW included Cuttack Heritage Walks (CHW) convenor Dipak Samantrai, Puri Heritage Walks (PHW) convenor Sanjay Baral, Founding member of Dhenkanal Heritage Walks Biswa Ranjan Dehury and Publisher of Divya Duta Publication Prabhanshu Santarai along with local college going students.