Narendra Tank in Legend and Historymagazines.odisha.gov.in/Orissareview/jun2004/englishpdf/...for her , after the name of her late husband Veer Narendra Dev . To fulfil the desire

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Orissa Review June - 2004

Narendra Tank in Legendand History

Santosh Kumar Rath

The most celebrated, picturesque and oneof the large tanks of Orissa perhaps is the

Narendra Tank. Because of its closerelationship with Jagannath Temple it isconsidered a holy tank among the pious Hindus.According to one legend 'Narendra Deva'brother of Gajapati Kapilendra Deva excavatedthis tank and it was named after him. This holytank is also known as 'Chandana Puskarini'because the famous 'Chandana Yatra' of LordJagannath is celebrated annually in this tank.Many medieval Oriya texts described the fameof this holy tank.

This largest tank of Puri is 2 km. far fromJagannath Temple. It is situated on the left sideof the Grand Road running from JagannathTemple to Gundicha Temple. A good approachroad is running from Grand Road through'Dandimala Sahi' to this tank. The surroundingarea of this tank gives a picturesqueappearance to this place. On the east of thetank there is Grand Road, Markandeswar Sahiand Temple of Bisoi Thakurani on the west,Brahmagiri Road and Jatia Baba Math on theNorth and Jagannath Ballabh Math on the south.

According to one legend during the reignof Gajapati Kapilendra Dev, Veer NarendraDev, his younger brother sacrificed his life forthe sake of his motherland. His wife KalandiMahadevi after the death of her husbandrenounced all worldly pleasure and resided in

a garden inbetween Jagannath Ballabha andBalabhadra Ballabha garden. She worshippedLord Siva and Krishna in that place. BabajiGovinda Das was her guru. Once the guruoffered a pumpkin seed to the queen. The queenplanted the seed. The vegitative growth of thepumpkin creeper was so luxuriant that it spreadin an area of 1350." Hundreds of pumpkin wereproduced from it. Those pumpkins wereutilised for preparation of Mahaprasada in thetemple. It was a talk of the town at that time.The fame of Kalandi Devi and the miraculouspumpkin plant reached the ear of GajapatiKapilendra Dev. The fourteen sons of queenKalandi Devi came to her mother who wasstaying alone. One day Gajapati KapilendraDev accompanied by his guru Mahadev Brahmapaid a visit to the residential garden of thequeen Kalandi Mahadevi. At that time GovindaDas, the guru of Kalandi Devi was engaged inthe worship of Lord Gopinath. Guru GovindDas blessed the king who was eager to meetqueen Kalandi Devi. Guru Govind Dasrequested the king to excavate a famous tankfor her, after the name of her late husband VeerNarendra Dev. To fulfil the desire of the queenhe also requested the king to name the mainghata after Narendra Dev, the next one in thename of queen Kalandi Devi. The king alsoconstructed fourteen ghatas after the name offourteen sons of Narendra Dev. Chandana bijeghata (Lamba Chakada) was constructed for

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the purpose of 'Chandana bije' of LordJagannath. This Chakada is named afterNarendra Dev. Apart to all this the kingKapilendra Dev constructed a temple forKalandisvara Shiva and Gopinath on the bankof this holy tank. The Brahma Jaga after thename of Narahari Brahma (court poet) alsoestablished. Thus the famous 'Chandan Yatra'of Lord Jagannath is being observed in pompand ceremony in the holy Narendra tank fromthose days.1

From the old administrative records ofSrimandir it is known that the creation ofNarendra tank is due to the seed of pumpkin.The story is as follows :

"During the reign of King Narendra Devof the vassal state Ranpur had very goodrelationship with the Gajapati king of Puri.King Narendra Dev was a great devotee ofLord Jagannath. Once he got a pumpkin seedwhile moving leasurely in the countryard ofhis palace. The king in his jolly mood gave theseed to a Sarbarakara (Revenue Collector). Hetold the Sarbarakara to plant the seed in thename of Lord Jagannath and to offer all thepumpkins produced to the Lord. TheSarbarakara planted the seed in the name ofLord Jagannath with full devotion.Astonishingly the growth of the pumpkincreeper was luxurant and covered an area of14 acres. This creeper had a life of 5 years.Lakhs of pumpkins were produced. Thesarbarakara sold all the pumpkins worth lakhsof rupees. The Sarbarakara deposited all themoney to the king Narendra Dev. KingNarendra Dev offered the money to GajapatiKing of Puri. Both the kings decided toconstruct a tank at Srikshetra out of this fund.The tank was of the area of 14 acres same tothe area the creeper covered.2 This is the tankof present famous Narendra.

Narendra is the biggest and historicaltank of Srikshetra. From historical point ofview it was established in 14th-15th c.A.D.Madala Panji mentions about Narendra tank,that 'Lakhaposa Narendra Mohapatra', theminister of Ganga King Veer Narasingha Devexcavated the 'Narendra Saucha' tank.3 Fromthe very word 'Narendra Saucha' it is knownthat this tank was built for the purpose of dailyuse.

It is clear from the above description thatthis tank was built during Ganga period. 'CharaGanesha' is worshipped in a nearby Jaga closeto this tank. Tradition says that the scaffoldingwas done to carry big stone slabs for theconstruction of the great temple from here.

From another account it is known thatthe brother of Gajapati Kailendra Deva haddug this tank. So this tank was created in themiddle of 15th c.A.D. (Suryavamsi Period).

Narendra tank is situated at MauzaDandimala Sahi. This tank stands on therevenue plot No.117 and 199 respectively. Thetank covers an area of 14.533 acres. The waterlevel of the tank is about 10 feet below thepresent road level. There are 16 ghatas of thetank. Among these ghatas 14 are named afterthe 14 sons of Narendra Deva, one after hisqueen Kalandi Devi Kalandiswar ghata and themain ghata i.e. Narendra Chakada ghata afterNarendra Deva, brother of Gajapati KapilendraDev.4 There are 3 ghatas in the east, 4 in thewest, 3 in the north and 6 in the south (includingthe chief ghata) respectively. The main ghatacontains a flight of steps made of Khondalitestone. The approximate depth of the tank is 28."The size of the tank is nearly square measuring834" by 873."5 The tank has an island in itscentre bearing a small temple of later periodcalled Chandana mandapa (50" x 12")connected with the south bank with a bridge to

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Orissa Review June - 2004

which Madanamohana, the moving deity ofLord Jagannath, is brought for 21 days duringChandan Yatra.

The tank was previously a fine sheet ofwater which was kept clean by flushings fromthe Madhupur river (Mitiani river) during therains through a channel in the western corner.6Over this Madhupur river stands the famousAtharanala Bridge. It is the entrace of Puritown. Presently both the inlet and the outlet ofthe tank are completely choked up and thesystem no longer works. The water as a resulthas turned filthy. On the bank of Narendra,Chara Ganesh, Gopinath Ballabha Matha,Brahma Jaga and Jatia Baba Matha are situated.

The historical study of the tank wouldbe incomplete without the study of CharaGanesha and Brahma Jaga.

Chara Ganesha

Close to Narendra Tank, a smallGanesha image exists in 'Ganesha Guruja Jaga'even now which is known as Chara Ganeshaand is indicative of the fact that the scaffoldingto carry big stone slabs for the construction ofthe Great temple started from this place. Hindutradition confirms that in the beginning of everyauspicious work, Ganesha who is known asSiddhidata (a deity granting success) has to beworshipped. It appeals to reason that in a sandytract like Puri where massive stones are a rarebuilding material, they must have been broughtin water route (either through Mahanadi orthrough Chilika) to Narendra tank from wherethese stones were taken to the tmepleconstruction site through a scaffold which iscalled Chara in Oriya. As a scaffold or Charais usually made of seasoned palm wood and itis still used in chariots during Car Festival toenable the heavy idols to be raised from theground to the platform on the chariots.7 Inearlier days there was a big door near Chara

Ganesha known as 'Bada Duara'. Besides CharaGanesha, Brahma Jaga is also culturallyrelated with Narendra tank. Its description isas follows :

Brahma Jaga

This Jaga is situated in the eastern sideof the Narendra Tank. It is described in theChakada that Pandit Narahari Brahma was thecourt poet of Gajapati Kapilendra Deva. Laterthe Gajapati established a Jaga in the name ofPandit Narahari Brahma. There was amandapa named 'Brahma Jaga Alinda' fromwhere the king, queen and royal membersviewed the famous Chandan Yatra. Thepresiding deity of this Jaga is Lord Hanuman.8

From all these descriptions it is evidentthat this tank is quite significant from historicalpoint of view.

References :1. Srimadira Samachar, Narendra Sarovarara

Aitihya (Oriya), p.2, Puri, January 28, 1970.

2. Sri Jagannath Temple Administration, FileReference No.1033, p.112, Puri.

3. Mohanty, A.B. (Ed), Madala Panji (Oriya),reprint, p.26, Cuttack, 2001.

4. Srimandira Samachar, op.cit.

5. Senapati, Nilamani, Puri district Gazetteer,p-789, Bhubaneswar, 1977.

6. Ibid.

7. Mishra, K.C. (Ed), Studies in the Cult ofJagannath, p.108, Bhubaneswar

8. Rathasharma, Sadasiva, Srikshetrare AkhadaO Jaga, Srikshetra-Sri Jagannath (Oriya),Vol. III, p.338, Cuttack, 1982.

Santosh Kumar Rath is a Research Scholar in theDepartment of Ancient Indian History, Culture andArchaeology, Utkal Univesity, Bhubaneswar.