I had a great time during the Christmas weekend. We went to Bhuvaneshwar(the temple city), Puri and Konark. One needs a whole week to see some of the popular places in Orissa but we had only 3 days and they were mostly devoted to see Lord Jagannath (or 'Jogannath' as it's pronounced in that part of our country).
We went on an OTDC (Orissa Tourism) package tour for 1 day to Puri and Konark. The worst part of Puri are the 'Pandas' or brahmins who are a greedy, unscrupulous lot. There's no government control at the temple and only money speaks. The temple was pretty crowded. The panda for our group gave us a brief history of the temple and would say loudly 'Jai Jogannath'!!! First timers would be lost without such guides or pandas. It's not very pilgrim-friendly. There are not many signboards that tell what's what.
There was a panda who was giving 'thirtha' and most of the time, counting money. While waiting for my turn in the queue for darshan, I watched him demand money from most everyone who stretched their arms for 'thirtha' to him.
One such guy gave some coins to him which was apparently less than what this greedy guy expected that he actually went back and threw it over his shoulder, in protest!!!! He would grab some guys by their shoulder if they didn't deposit money at his table!!!
Inside the main temple, it's better not to get distracted by more such rogues and simply concentrate on the magnificent, wooden idols of Krishna, Subhadra and Balabhadra. They are really beautiful and captivating. The Balabhadra idol is white in colour and to our left. To our right, is the Lord of Universe, Jagannath's idol in black. It has big black eyes and a beautiful smile. In the middle is their little sister Subhadra's idol. It is smaller than the other two. All 3 idols were beautifully decorated. They are placed on the 'ratna peetha'. Supposedly there are 10,80,000 saligramas (black stones found in the Gandaki river, Nepal), underneath the 'ratna peetha'.
The ornate work on the outside of the temple, especially the shikara or gopura is worth seeing. It's truly beautiful.
We collected our prasad and boarded the bus to proceed to Konark. The Sun temple is beautiful, although no puja was ever done there due to a tragedy that took place soon after it was constructed. There are 24 'chakras' that were actually used as sun-dial to tell time.
On the second day we went on a tour around the city of Bhuvaneshwar. There are so many temples here!!! Then there are the caves called Udaygiri and Khandgiri. We also went to the 'Shanti Stupa' at Dhauli. This is the place where Ashoka developed dispassion after the Kalinga war and embraced Buddhism. I remember reading about this in school.
Overall, it was a great experience.
We went on an OTDC (Orissa Tourism) package tour for 1 day to Puri and Konark. The worst part of Puri are the 'Pandas' or brahmins who are a greedy, unscrupulous lot. There's no government control at the temple and only money speaks. The temple was pretty crowded. The panda for our group gave us a brief history of the temple and would say loudly 'Jai Jogannath'!!! First timers would be lost without such guides or pandas. It's not very pilgrim-friendly. There are not many signboards that tell what's what.
There was a panda who was giving 'thirtha' and most of the time, counting money. While waiting for my turn in the queue for darshan, I watched him demand money from most everyone who stretched their arms for 'thirtha' to him.
One such guy gave some coins to him which was apparently less than what this greedy guy expected that he actually went back and threw it over his shoulder, in protest!!!! He would grab some guys by their shoulder if they didn't deposit money at his table!!!
Inside the main temple, it's better not to get distracted by more such rogues and simply concentrate on the magnificent, wooden idols of Krishna, Subhadra and Balabhadra. They are really beautiful and captivating. The Balabhadra idol is white in colour and to our left. To our right, is the Lord of Universe, Jagannath's idol in black. It has big black eyes and a beautiful smile. In the middle is their little sister Subhadra's idol. It is smaller than the other two. All 3 idols were beautifully decorated. They are placed on the 'ratna peetha'. Supposedly there are 10,80,000 saligramas (black stones found in the Gandaki river, Nepal), underneath the 'ratna peetha'.
The ornate work on the outside of the temple, especially the shikara or gopura is worth seeing. It's truly beautiful.
We collected our prasad and boarded the bus to proceed to Konark. The Sun temple is beautiful, although no puja was ever done there due to a tragedy that took place soon after it was constructed. There are 24 'chakras' that were actually used as sun-dial to tell time.
On the second day we went on a tour around the city of Bhuvaneshwar. There are so many temples here!!! Then there are the caves called Udaygiri and Khandgiri. We also went to the 'Shanti Stupa' at Dhauli. This is the place where Ashoka developed dispassion after the Kalinga war and embraced Buddhism. I remember reading about this in school.
Overall, it was a great experience.
2 comments:
Thanks! Gr8 Info!!
Thanks to you Vahini...
Post a Comment