Book Of Jagannath Culture

Jagannath Culture -The principle of SarvaDharma samanwaya

Orissa is the land of Jagannath culture. It represents the religious worships of orissa. It has unique and valuable religious tourism resources. The state has something for everyone. The monuments- the sun temple at Konark, the Jagannath temple at Puri, the Lingraj temple at Bhubaneswar are the sacred places of Orissa attract thousand of pilgrimages from the different parts of world in recent time. The beautiful yatra, Car festivals of Lord Jagannath motivate many devotees from different parts of the world. There are many spots of Orissa, which deserve to be publicized worldwide by international tourism. The temple architect and sculpture of Orissa are world famous. Apart from Indian culture, Orissa like any other region of the country have no separate culture of own. Lord Jagannath is the presiding deity of Orissa culture. It became the symbol of unified religion and culture among the Jainism, Buddhism, shaivism, vaishnavism and Shaktism from time to time. But Jagannath is the lord of universe, almighty and omnipresent. The sacred place, Puri of Orissa is prominent as purusottam kshetra. In the Hindu belief it is one of the four centers of salvation from ancient times ,the people of India regarded four places, namely, Badrinathin the north, Rameswaram in the south, Dwaraka in the west, and Puri on the eastern sea cost as their destinations for pilgrimage. Puri was thus recognized as one of the most sacred places of India from an immemorial past. It is also known as 'Shreekshetra1, Niladri, Sankha kshetra and Martya-baikuntha.

According to Vedas and the Puranas the Purusottam appears in the Puri. Therefore it is called Purusottamkshetra, the place of Jagannath or Purusottam, i.e., the Supreme Being or the Lord of the universe is a place of great antequity. According to old tradition, Sanskrit Brahma Purana and Scandha Purana as well as in Oriya Mahabharata of Adikavi Sarala Das and Darubrahma Gita of Jagannath Das, a Savara leader named Biswabasu worshipped the image of Nilamadhava at a secret place named Nilakandara on the eastern seashore.

The king of Malawa, Indradyumna "advanced towards Utkal to take possession of that divine Image. But Nilamadhava disappeared from his original place and floated in the sea in form of a huge log of wood.