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Shree Purusottama Dham is one among thechar-dhams( four divine abodes) in the holy

land of India and Shree Jagannatha Temple ofthe said place is considered unique sofar as the spiritual and cultural traditionof the world are concerned. LordShree Jagannatha has appeared in theNeelachala, i.e. the most sacred centreof pilgrimage, as a saviour for a vastconcourse of devotees. This is thereason for which Puri-dham and ShreeMandira bear the testimony of thegreatest spiritual and cultural heritageof the world.

Thousands of years agoNeelamadhava was found in theNilagiri mountain and later Heappeared in the name of ShreePurusottama and was worshippedthere uninterruptedly. According to informationavailable from different Puranas, in Satya Yugking Indradyumna of Malwa came to ShreeKshetra to have a glimpse of the God. Lo ! Hecould not find Neelamadhava as He chose tovanish. Then the king was informed through anoracle and as a result, he performed fire sacrificeat the present Gundicha Temple premises nearthe Indradyumna tank. According to history,Mantung in his book “Bhakta Mara-Stotra” had

Management of Shree Mandira :A Historic Perspective

Susanta Kumar Dash, Dr. Bhaskar Mishra

recorded that while he was eulogising JainTirthankar Rushabha Dev, he inadvertentlycompared him with Budhadev, Shankara(Shiba),

and Purusottama. M.Winternitz has translated thelast stanza of the verse of the said book as follows.

“Thou O Lord, art Purusottama, thehighest of all the beings”.

According to different scholars andresearchers Mantung lived between 3rd centuryAD to 8th Century. A Jain philosopher Mantungpropagated that Shree Purusottama was thegreatest of all Gods.

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King Mahashiva Gupta Yajati of Somadynasty in the early part of 10th centuryconstructed a temple near the dilapidated building(presently the Mukti Mandap) and consecratedShree Purusottama there. Before Yajati in the 9th

century AD a play viz, Anargha Raghavawritten by Murari Mishra was performed in frontof Shree Purusottama.

According to historians Ananta BurmanChodaganga Dev who had constructed the ShreeMandira reigned from 1078 to 1147 AD. Hiscoronation took place on the 17th February1078, Saturday which fell on Revati Nakshatraand during Mithuna Lagna ( Ascendant Gemini).He was 5 years old then. He got married toGundi Reddy, a girl child of Bira Choda. At 40,Chodaganga Dev the king of Kalinga shifted thecapital of his state from the shore of the riverBansadhara to Abhinabh Baranasi i.e. on the shoreof the Mahanadi. Because of the ableadministration of Chodagangadev for a longperiod of 70 years political stability as well asreligious tolerance could be maintained . The lastpart of his life was spent in Chudanga Sahi ofShree Kshetra. According to the templearchitectural text (Silpa Shastra) the temple(Shree Mandira) in the shape of five chariotsbelongs to rekha category and it was constructedunder his direct supervision. Ananga Bhima DevIII, his great grandson, a staunch Vaishnavitecompleted the construction of temple andconsecrated the deities in 1230 AD. This has beenmentioned in his Nagari Copper Plate.

During the reign of Ananga Bhima Devperformance of different rituals, provision ofservitors and above all the management of thetemple could be done in an effective andsystematic way. Since then the temple wasmanaged smoothly by independent Hindu Kingstill 1568. The temple administration in thesubsequent period remained under the control ofAfghan (1568-1588), Muslims (1588-1751),Marhatta (1751-1803) and English (1803-1947).

During Ganga and Surya dynasty hugelanded property, jewels and diamonds weredonated to the deities. For any lapse in themanagement of the temple the guilty was beingpunished. During the reign of Moghul, kingMansingh had given the responsibility of thekingdom to Ramachandra Dev, the king ofKhurdha in 1590. The Marahattas after takingover the administration of Odisha from NawabAlibardi Khan in the first part of the 18th centurykept Shree Mandira under their supervision. Theyhad made available vast landed property for theperformance of nitis, rites and rituals of the deities.During the reign of Moghuls so also Marahattas,pilgrim tax was levied on the pilgrims. SomeParichhas ( superintendents) were employed tomanage the administration of Shree Mandira.

While taking over the administration ofPuri and Shree Mandira Lord Welleselly had giventhe following command to the army.

“After reaching Shree Jagannatha Puriyou should be extremely careful so as to keep up

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the reputation of the Temple, Brahmins andservitors. You should not hurt the religious beliefof the pilgrims. Adequate security personnelshould be deployed for the safety and security ofJagannatha as well as other temples. Specialattentions should also be given for the smoothperformance of rituals, festivals etc.”. The peopleof Odisha were extremely happy as the Britishadministrators made provision for payment of cashtowards the management of Jagannatha Temple.The English government performed the nitis ofthe temple in the same way as was done by theMarahatta rule. After 3-4 years it was seen thatthe expenditure in the temple was more than theincome, hence the Government was obliged tofinance for the day to day rites and rituals of thetemple. In 1808 a regulation (No.4) wasintroduced and a committee comprising threePandits was formed. The said committee wasgiven the responsibility of management of thetemple. In 1858 the British Government severedthe management of temple from its clutch andhanded over a conglomeration of 156 villagesi.e. one ekharajat mahal to the king of Puri forsmooth management of the temple. The templeadministration was collecting 20% of the totalincome out of 138 villages and cent percent ofrent from the rest 18 villages. Besides this, anamount of Rs.27000/- that was collected as taxfrom 90 villages ( Sateisi Hazari Mahala) duringthe reign of Marahatta rule in 1843 was alsohanded over to the king of Puri. During the Britishrule the king of Khurda and subsequently theGajapati of Puri were appointed as superintendentof Shree Mandira for its smooth management.

In 1805 Charles Grome had submitted adetailed report on the management of temple. Inthe said report he had mentioned about theindiscipline and mismanagement prevailing in thetemple and suggested various remedial measures.

Similarly in 1902 Mr. Garret in his reporthad justified the formulation of certain laws forsmooth management of the temple. QueenSuryamani Patamahadei discharged theresponsibility of superintendent of temple from1860 to 1897. There was an amicable settlementbetween the Queen of Puri and the British ruleras a result of which the civil suit pending in thecourt was withdrawn. As per condition themanagement of temple administration would begiven to the King of Puri and an efficient managerwill be appointed to aid the King. The power andresponsibility of the manager was mentioned in adecree. On 15th December,1888 an agreementwas signed between the British ruler and QueenSuryamani Patamahadei. The broad outlines ofthe agreement are as follows :

a) King of Puri will be the superintendent ofthe temple.

b) Suryamani Patmahadei will be theguardian of the minor king.

c) The King has the authority to appoint anddismiss a manager of the temple.

d) If for some reason the post of managerremains vacant the same will be filled upby the British ruler.

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e) The day to day administration of thetemple will be given to the manager.

The following is the list of managers whoremained in charge of temple from 1889 to 1926.

Name Period of incumbency

Sri Harekrushna Das 1889 to 1890

Sri KrushnachandraMohanty 1890 to 1893

Sri R.K.Kundu 1893 ( for a few days )

Sri J.N.Choudhury 1893 to 1895

Sri Nityananda Das 1895 ( for a few days )

Mr. Price, Ex-ICS 1898 ( for a few days )

Mr. Price 1900 ( for a few days )

Sri Chintamani Pattnaik 1900 (from the monthof May to October)

Sri Rashabihari Nayak 1900 (for a few days )

Sri Rajkishore Das 1903 to 1913(from the month ofMay 1903 to May,1913)

Sri Gourisham Mohanty1913 (May) to 1917(May )

Sri Balamukunda 1917 (May )Kanungo to 1921 (May )

Sri Sakhichand 1921 (May) to 1925(May )

Sri Lala Ashutosh 1925 (May ) to 1926(August )

It is worth- mentioning that “Dewans”were appointed by the king of Puri to manage thetemple.

For various reasons mismanagement wasseen in the rituals and functioning of the temple inthe post- independent India as a result of whichState Govt. formulated “Puri JagannathaTemple(Administration) Act.1952”. As per thisAct, a Record of Rights indicating the duties andresponsibilities of various servitors with referenceto the rites, rituals, festivals etc. was prepared.One special officer in the rank of a District Judgewas appointed for this purpose. He submitted hisreport on 15th March,1954. Accordingly, an Actwas formulated in the year 1954. The validity ofthe said Act was challenged by Maharaja RamaChandra Dev IV and Birakishore Dev and thematter was subjudice. Subsequently the Kings ofPuri got defeated in the above case in the SupremeCourt.The “Shri Jagannath Temple Act, 1954”came into force in 1960. Thereafter Governmenttook over the administration of temple and SriAnanda Chandra Mohapatra was appointed asits first administrator. The following OAS Officerswere appointed as administrators of ShreeMandira in between 1960 to 2004.

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Name of the incumbency Period of Administrators

Sri Ananda Chandra Mohapatra 27.10.1960 to 16.11.1961Sri Laxman Mishra 17.11.1961 to 8.11.1965Sri Gopalkrushna Das 9.11.1965 to 16.3.1967Sri Ramesh Chandra Satapathy 17.3.1967 to 17.9.1967Sri Kahnu Charan Mohapatra 18.9.1967 to 15.7.1968Sri Paramananda Tripathy 16.7.1968 to 26.4.1971Sri Prafulla Chandra Panda 12.5.1971 to 6.7.1971Sri Purnendu Narayan Kar Short periodSri Ramesh Chandra Satapathy 15.1.1972 to 28.10.1974Sri Bihari Lal Pattnaik 15.1.1972 (short period )Sri Biranchi Narayan Dash 28.10.1974 to 25.3.1975Sri Ganeswar Praharaj 9.4.1975 to 10.11.1976Sri Giridhari Das 10.11.1976 to 8.9.1977Sri Prahallad Rath 9.9.1977 to 30.11.1978Sri Gadadhar Mishra 1.12.1978 to 31.12.1978Sri Gangadhar Das 1.1.79 to 16.6.1980Sri Kali Kumar Rath 17.6.1980 to 31.8.1984Sri Guru Prasad Mohanty 1.9.1984 to 7.7.1990Sri Sarat Chandra Mohapatra 7.7.1990 to 14.6.1991Sri Rabindra Narayan Mishra 14.6.1991 to 20.12.1992Sri Mahimohan Tripathy 15.5.1992 to 28.5.1992Sri Lombodar Nayak 20.12.1992 to 17.2.1993Sri Himadri Bihari Mishra 17.2.1993 to 2.6.1994Sri Mahi Mohan Tripathy 3.6.1994 to 24.3.1998Sri Jayanta Narayan Panda 24.3.1998 to 31.1.2000Sri Himanshu Sekhar Samantaray 1.1.2000 to 5.10.2001Sri Bhabani Shankar Panda 5.10.2001 to 20.2.2004Sri Rajendra Kumar Mohanty 20.2.2004 to 24.2.2005

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24 numbers of administrators wereappointed in Shree Jagannatha Temple during1960 till 2005.

As per Section 6 of Shree JagannathaTemple Act 1954, the King of Puri was declaredas hereditary chairman of the ManagingCommittee of the Shree Jagannatha Temple. On14th October, 1960 Law Department,Government of Odisha nominated the followingmembers for the Managing Committee .

King of Puri ChairmanSri Srinibas Ramanuja Das Mahanta, Emar Matha,

Puri-MemberSri Ramachandra Mohapatra Secretary, Mukti

Mandapa-MemberSwami Bichitrananda Das Advocate,

Dagarapada,Cuttack-Member

Sri Dwarikanath Patajoshi Harachandi Sahi,Mohapatra Puri-MemberSri Ramesh Chandra Mitra Retired Dist. Judge,

Puri-MemberDr. Parsurama Mishra Ex-Vice Chancellor,

Utkal University,Member

Sri Jagabandhu Mohapatra Balisahi, Puri-Member(Garabadu)

State Endowment Ex-Officio Member,Commissioner Odisha, CuttackSri Biswanatha Padhi Suar, Mahasuar Nijoga-

Puri, Nominated MemberAdministrator Ex Officio Member

The first meeting of Managing Committeewas held on 27.10.1960 at 7.30 a.m. GajapatiMaharaja was absent in the said meeting, henceSri Srinibas Ramanuja presided over the meeting.In the said meeting the administrator was giventhe authority to perform the niti, puja and festivalsof the temple as per the Record of Rights.

In the subsequent period the Temple Actwas amended slightly and the Collector, Puri andAdministrator, Shree Jagannatha TempleAdministration were kept as Vice-Chairman andMember -Secretary of the Committeerespectively. Again as per amendment in the saidAct in 2004, one Chief Administrator belongingto IAS in the rank of Commissioner wasappointed. For the first time in the history oftemple administration Sri S.C. Mohapatra, IASwas appointed as chief administrator on 24th

February,2005. The incumbency of different ChiefAdministrators is given below.

Name of Chief Administrator Period of IncumbencySri Suresh Chandra Mohapatra,IAS 24.2.2005 to 27.05.08Sri S.N.Sarangi,IAS 27.5.2008 to 24.2.09Sri A.K.Meena,IAS 27.2.2009 to 27.4.10Sri P.K.Mohapatra,IAS 27.4.2010 to 13.5.12

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Dr.A.K.Padhee,IAS 13.5.2012 to 28.10.14Sri Bikash Chandra Mohapatra,IAS 28.10.2014 to 9.3.15Sri Suresh Chandra Mohaptpra,IAS 9.3.2015 (continuing)

As per amendment in the Act,2004 one18 member Managing Committee has beenformed. The tenure of the said committee is 3years. Some ex-officio officials have also beenincluded in the committee. At present thefollowing are the members of the ManagingCommittee.

Gajapati Maharaja, Puri Chairman

Vacant Working Chairman

Chief Administrator Member-Secretary

Collector,Puri Member

Endowment Commissioner,Odisha Member

Additional Secretary,Law Deptt., Odisha Member

Superintendent of Police,Puri Member

Er.Baladev Singhari Member

Sri Premananda DasMohapatra Member

Sri Birakishore Mohapaptra Member

Sri Purna ChandraPujapanda Samanta Member

Sri Bhagaban Suar Member

Sri Jagannath Rath Member

Dr.Ram Charan Das Maharaj Member

Padma Bibhusan RaghunathMohapatra Member

Sri Mahimohan Tripathy Member

Dr. Bijoy Kumar Sahoo, FCA Member

In 1983 - the “Shree Jagannatha TempleAct” was amended and a “Foundation Fund” wascreated. The Chief Minister, Odisha is theChairman of the “Foundation Fund Committee”.The Law Minister of the State is the Vice-Chairman of the said committee. Besides this, theLaw Secretary, Finance Secretary and Collector,Puri are the members of the Committee and theChief Administrator, Jagannatha Temple acts asthe Member-Secretary. As per the saidAmendment a “Hundi” was installed in theJagamohan of the Temple on 23rd August,1983.

The comprehensiveness of niti, rituals,festive occasions etc. in Shree Jagannatha templeis unique. As per the Record of Rights of ShreeMandira around 85 to 90 servitors are engagedin the daily rituals. Around 1800 servitors areengaged for various rituals throughout the year.Cash awards are given to the Palia servitors forrendering seva puja to the deities.The templeadministration supplies materials for kotha bhoga.

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The employees of the temple are given salaryevery month. Besides this, since 1979 the ASI(Archaeological Survey of India) has beenentrusted with the responsibility of conservationand repair of the temple. Presently the annualbudget of temple is around Rs.240 crores. Asthe management of such a large institution is highlyimportant many high ranking officers of StateGovernment have been appointed to ensure itssmooth management. The temple administrationis now under the direct administrative control ofLaw Department, Government of Odisha.

To facilitate comfortable stay of thedevotees coming from different places toShreekshetra the temple Administration has builttwo residential clusters known as Bhaktanivas(2007) and Sri Gundicha Bhaktanivas (2012) onthe Grand road and near the Gundicha templerespectively.

References:

1. A History of Indian Literature. Vol-II,P.550

2. Purusottama Shree Jagannatha by Dr.Satyanaryana Rajguru, P.103

3. Shree Jagnnatha and Shree Kshetra Sanskrutiby Sarat Chandra Mohapatra, P.122, Publisher-Shree Jagannatha Research Centre, Puri-2

4. Purusottama Shree Jagannatha – P.104

5. Shree Jagannatha Mandira and Jagannatha Tatwaby Suryanaryana Das, P.198.

6. Shree Jagannathanka Sanskrutika Itihasa, by DrBhaskar Mishra – Publisher – SB. Publication,Cuttack, P.41

Susanta Kumar Dash & Dr. Bhaskar Mishra, CGM,IDCO, BBSR and OSD(JTA), Law Department, Puri.