Thanks a lot, Supriya for passing the #XploreBharat Blog Train baton to me, to take it further. Today, we shall visit the Land of Mahaprabhu Sri Jagannath. In my previous post, we have visited Dwarka Nagari – the land of Dwapar Yug and Somnath Temple. We find the mention of these places in the Mahabharata. Today, we shall visit Puri. Both Dwarka and Puri are part of the Char-Dham Yatra.

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Few days before Vishwakarma Pujo, 2017 my father told me to book travel tickets and hotel for our trip to Puri. With days to go for Durga Pujo, we started our journey to Puri to spend the ‘extended weekend’.

History

Jagannath means ‘Lord of the Universe’ and is worshipped as a form of Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu is also known as the ‘preserver of the universe’. The Jagannath Temple was built in the 12th century by King Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty. Lord Jagannath along with his siblings – Balabhadra and Subhadra are the prime deities of the temple. Puri is also known as Shree Kshetra.

Travel Diary

We boarded the train on Wednesday night and reached Puri the next morning. Then, we checked into the hotel and came down after freshening up. We had our breakfast and started towards the Jagannath temple. It took us about 10 to 15 minutes by bus. There were temples of other deities inside the temple campus. We returned after 2 hours. We stepped out in the evening for a stroll and booked cars for sight-seeing. That was Day 1.

On Day 2, we got up at 5:30 AM in the morning and I saw something special. I rushed to the seabeach with my phone without waiting for a minute. It was the rising Sun. I wish I had woke up a bit earlier then I could have captured the sight of the sun rising from the horizon.

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Then we freshened up, had our breakfast and went ahead with the sightseeing program.

Local Sightseeing

We decided that we will visit the farthest point first and then we’ll visit those places that are close to Puri. Our first stop was Dhaulagiri. It took us about 70 minutes to reach Dhaulagiri (Dhuala hills). There we visited the Shanti Stupa, built by the Japan Buddha Sangha and Kalinga Nippon Buddha Sangh. Dhauli hills are located on the banks of the river Daya, the place where the Kalinga War was said to be fought. We spent about 30 minutes and saw the ‘Bird’s eye view’ of Bhubaneshwar city.

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Then, we entered the city of Bhubaneshwar and proceeded towards Lingaraj Temple. The temple is dedicated to Lord HariHara – a combined form of Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva. People say that visiting the Lingaraj Temple is similar to visiting all the jyotirlingas. The temple represents the quintessence of the Kalinga architecture and culminating the medieval stages of the architectural tradition at Bhubaneshwar. The temple had architectural similarities with that of Jagannath Temple. Our next stop was Udayagiri and Khandagiri.

Both Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves are two adjacent hills. Time passed like flowing water while visiting this site. We got to see the mesmerising view of the city from the hill-top. Then, we spent some time in the caves reading the inscriptions. From there, we went to the Nandankanan zoo. Before entering, we had our lunch. The place reminded me of the Alipore Zoo in Kolkata. But its more spacious. After spending a few hours, we proceeded towards the Konark Temple.

When we entered the Konark Sun Temple, we were amazed to see the massive architecture. King Narasingha Deva I built of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty built the temple in the 13th century. The temple is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We spent about 30 to 45 minutes and headed towards Chandrabhaga beach.

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Chandrabhaga Beach was the last spot. It’s between Konark and Puri. We Chandrabhaga around 5.30PM in the evening. The sun had set and there were very few people around. We spent some time in the beech, watching the continuous waves. The sight reminded me of my previous trip to Mumbai, Somnath and Dwarka, a few months back. The waves and sounds of the Arabian sea. We spent about 15 to 20 minutes, and this marks the end of the tour. We reached the hotel at around 6:45 PM. That’s all for Day 2.

On Day 3, we got up a bit late. After having our breakfast, we paid a visit to Jagannath Temple. We didn’t do anything that day. In the evening, we spent some time shopping, buying Puja gifts for our relatives. Then, we enjoyed the chilled breeze. We slept early that night because we had to board the train in the morning.
The next morning we the Jagannath temple for the final time and from there we proceeded towards the Puri station.

I would now like to pass the baton to Manas who would take you to Darjeeling.

This post is a part of the #XploreBharat Blog Train hosted by
Aditi, Esha, Maheshwaran, PraGun, Preeti, Saba, Sanjota, Sudip, Suhasini, Supriya

And a big shout out to our sponsor for taking this Blog Train (#XploreBharat Express) experience even further.

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