Jun 22, 2013 — CANADA (SUN) — The residents of Shanka-kshetra, including five Shiva deities involved in Snana Yatra, which is observed on June 23rd.
Puri, also known as Srikshetra and Purushottama Kshetra, has been famed as a sacred place since time immemorial. The grand temple of Lord Jagannatha, Srimandira, is the focal point of this temple town. The main entrance to the town is from the west, linking it through the Jagannatha Sadaka, literally the Jagannatha Highway, supposed to have been constructed by Rani Lakshmibai in the middle ages.
The layout of the temple town and the locations of its numerous temples and holy sites are supposed to be according to a grand design in the shape of a sacred conch -- sankha -- that is one of the four ayudhas of Vishnu-Jagannatha. Thus, Puri is also known as the Sankha Kshetra.
The temples can be broadly grouped into three categories - Shiva temples, Shakti temples, and temples of Hanuman. Principal among the Shiva temples are Lokanatha, Jameswara, Nilakantheswara, Kapalamochana and Markandeswara. These five Deities are also strangely known as Pancha Pandava, the five heroes of the Mahabharata. They have an important role in joining the bathing festival of Lord Jagannatha, known as Snana Yatra.
The main Shakti temples in Puri, apart from Bimala inside the main temple precincts, are Shyamakali, Dakshinakali, Marichika and Harachandi. Of the many Hanuman temples, especially interesting are Bedi Hanuman and Siddha Mahavira. Hanuman associates the tirtha with Rama, the avatara of the Satya Yuga.
Salabega
The poet Salabega lived in the first half of the seventeenth century. Nilamani Mishra, who has written a comprehensive account of the poet and his works, determines the birth of Salabega to be between circa AD 1607-1608. Salabega was the son of the Mughal subedar Lalbeg, who was overcome with passion looking at a Brahmin widow returning from her bath at Dandamukundapur. He forcibly abducted and married her. Salabega was later born to this widow.
It is believe that the poet suffered from some incurable ailment and through prayers to Lord Jagannatha, as advised by his mother, he was miraculously cured. Salabega, being the son of a Muslim, was denied entry into the temple but his deep devotion was answered by his dear Lord in his manifestation as Patitapabana inside the Lion's Gate.
The poet identified Lord Jagannatha completely with Sri Krishna. The poet was always eager to witness the Ratha Yatra so he could get a glimpse of his Lord. Once he was held up on way while returning from Vrindavan and prayed earnestly to the Lord that he should wait for him on the Nandighosha chariot till he reached Puri. The Lord is said to have waited there and gave a darshan to his dear devotee Salabega on the Bada Danda, near Balagandi.
Salabega composed numerous devotional songs, but not all of them have survived. Most of his compositions are prayers and hymns to Lord Jagannatha and Krishna. A good number of these deal with the romantic dalliance of Krishna with the gopis and Radha, while a few are inspired by the vatsalya rasa, the sweet motherly feeling Yashoda had for child Krishna.
The spirit of unalloyed devotion for the Lord imbues each one of the hymns. His deep devotion has intensity and passion, rare even in the devotional literature of the Bhakti era and is evident in the unique and somewhat unusual metaphors and similes employed by the poet to express the same.
Although the poet was denied entry into the temple, his descriptions of the inner compound and the sanctum are among the most detailed and accurate in the devotional literature of Orissa. His song, "Ahe Neelagiri…" is perhaps the best description of Bedha Parikrama or the prescribed circumambulation of the Srimandira.
Many of the historical events of the period are recounted in his songs. The poet refers, with deep anguish, to the depredations of the marauders in their attacks on Puri and the repeated attempts to loot and desecrate the Srimandira. This frequently necessitated shifting the Deities outside the main sanctum and the poet captures the situation of one such event with graphic details in the song "Kene gheni jauchha Jagannathanku…"
