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The Jagannath Temple Of Delhi And Its Community
Like the saying “Jagannatha Jagatara Natha” (Jagannath is the lord of the universe), devotees believe he is everywhere. Over the last few decades, seeing the large variety of devotees from all over the world, one can definitely guess how much influence the lord has on his beloved devotees. Out of all the Jagannath temples outside Odisha and within India, one of the oldest temples is in Delhi NCR. It is almost 60 years old. Every day the temple witnesses 500-700 footfalls and on weekends the number increases by 3000-4000 devotees.
My City Links interacted with the Joint Secretary of the temple committee, Pradyumna Palai, who works for an MNC and utilizes his leisure time to serve the Lord and the Odia community. The temple committee has 16 working members which include Dilip Ray, Founder and CMD of Mayfair Group as the President.
Situated in Tyagraj Nagar, Jagannath Road (named after the temple), Kotla Mubarakpur, South Delhi, the temple is a manifestation of the combined efforts of Odias living in New Delhi. Spread over an area of more than 1 acre, the temple has its own Dharamshala which has more than 25 rooms for the devotees, a mandap for conducting marriage ceremonies and other family functions that has a capacity to host 300 people and a conference room for official meetings.
Paarshwa Devata temples inside the premises include a Shiva temple, a Bimala temple, a Hanuman temple, a Surya temple, a Sani temple, a Narasingha temple, a Ganesh temple, a Tarini temple, and more. The committee is planning to build a Samaleswari temple very soon.
The committee members have made sure that the rituals of the temple should match those of the Puri Jagannath Temple. For that purpose, they have appointed about 43 people having knowledge about the customs, rituals and the recipes of our state Odisha and especially of Lord Jagannath. And to guide the committee Jagannath cult researcher Surya Narayan Rath Sharma and veteran actor Kuna Tripathy, who is well-known as a true Odia for his knowledge and love for Odisha and Lord Jagannath has been playing the role of patron members.
In Odisha, there is a saying- “Bara Masa, Tera Parba”, which means Odisha celebrates thirteen festivals in twelve months. Here also they try to celebrate each and every Odia occasion. While Rath Yatra is the centre of attraction, the committee also celebrates festivals like Shiva Vivah, Khudurukuni Osha, Ganesh Puja, Pana Sankranti, Nuakhai, Aghira Purnami, Snana Purnima, Kartika Purnami and many more. During Kartika Purnami they make an artificial pond where more than 5000 devotees sail traditional boats made out of banana stems. In the ‘Baisi Pahacha’ of the temple, there are arrangements for ‘Sradha Kriya’ during the festival of Mahalaya. Thousands of people come and offer prayers to the lord and their ancestors during that time.
More than 40,000 devotees attend Rath Yatra every year. For space issues, the committee has made a small Mausima Temple inside the premises of the Jagannath Temple. The three chariots take a u-turn from the INA market and complete the journey after reaching the temple. “We have requested the Delhi government for land to make a Mausima Temple in near future. Recently, Deputy CM of New Delhi, Manish Sisodia has visited us and assured us that certain things will happen in near future,” said Pradyumna.
Like Puri, here also the lord is offered ‘Chhapan Bhog’. The Prasad thali includes dishes like Arna, Dali, Ghanta, Dalma, Paneer, Saga-Muga, Khata and Khiri and the price per thali is Rs. 90 only. They also have online home delivery of Mahaprasad within a radius of 6 km. “We don’t use apps like Zomato or Swiggy as they also deliver non-veg foods. With an aim to make Mahaprasad reach the lord’s devotees, we charge very minimally, as we are not making it for the purpose of profit,” added Pradyumna.
The temple also has a vegetarian (without onion and garlic) restaurant named ‘Dish of Odisha’. It offers typical Odia dishes like Dahibara-Aludam, Bara, Aluchop, Chena Tadia, Chenapoda, Dalma, Pakhala Bhat and many more such mouthwatering food. All the cooks in the restaurant are from Odisha.
Many years ago, a Sadhu used to live here and built a small temple. He was a miraculous person. Then a few Odia people made an Odia club here and started developing the temple. The beginning of the club started with plumbers basically. They were not economically sound then, so they used to collect sand, bricks and cement from the places they worked and that’s how they started developing the temple gradually.
The committee is providing help for Odia people who are not in a condition to afford the medical expenses of their family members. They take them to AIIMS and take care of everything a patient and his family need. The AIIMS hospital is only 5 minutes away from the temple. There are a few Odia doctors working here. The team personally meets the doctors and they also cooperate a lot in helping the needy people. The committee also helps poor people by providing free cost mandap and other facilities for marriage and other important events. There is a slum at Prem Nagar near the temple where the committee makes free food drives during weekends and plans to make an arrangement to educate the kids living there.
A team of five members of the committee has recently visited Odisha to find out places that will be suitable for non-Odia guests to visit and also the team is now trying to get associated with some hotels for smoother accommodation facilities for them. In the near future, they are planning to make some affordable and complete packages for tourists to explore Odisha in the easiest way possible. The main motto behind this is to promote the state, its rich heritage and culture by making more people aware of it.
There are many miraculous stories attached to the devotees and the temple. Here is one of them. One day a tumour was found in the head of a six-year-old boy from Odisha, the doctor had already informed him that the operation is risky and there may be a threat to the boy’s life. But after staying here in the Jagannath Temple for 3-4 days with his parents and worshipping the Lord, when he again went for tests, surprisingly the doctor said that there was no tumour at all. Now he is 17 years old. Every year he comes here and stays for 5-7 days and participates in the prayers and rituals. He is completely fit and fine. In another instance, a lady cancer patient got cured miraculously. So the devotees here believe that Jagannath is truly present in the temple.
