The Eternal Siblings

Three idols. One eternal bond. Rooted in mythology, resplendent in mystery - the story of Jagannath, Balaram, and Subhadra is not just a tale from the past, but a living, breathing narrative of India's spiritual imagination

- PRIYAM MARIK

In the coastal town of Puri, Odisha, chariots roll through the streets each year carrying not just deities, but history, emotion, and cosmic philosophy. Lord Jagannath, his elder brother Balaram (also called Balabhadra), and sister Subhadra are not remote, all-powerful gods locked in divine aloofness. They are, quite literally, apna log — family.

Their idols are made of neem wood, replaced every 12 to 19 years in a ritual called Navakalevara (new embodiment), and unlike other Hindu deities, their forms are deliberately unfinished — wide-eyed, stumpy, without hands or legs. But within this abstraction lies a world of profound meaning.

These three deities represent not just divine forces but sibling love, harmony, and the powerful idea that God is both near and dear — ever ready to descend from sanctum to street, temple to threshold.

Origins in Myth and Mystery

The origins of Jagannath are not monolithic; they emerge from multiple streams — Vaishnavism, Shaivism, tribal worship, and Buddhist influences. The deity is widely accepted as a form of Vishnu, particularly Krishna, though he transcends that identity to become the Lord of the Universe — literally what Jagannath means.

In the Skanda Purana, Brahma Purana and Padma Purana, we find descriptions of a sacred image worshipped by King Indradyumna, who dreamt of a divine figure washed ashore. That figure would eventually be installed as Jagannath. According to legend, Vishwakarma, the divine architect, agreed to carve the idols on the condition that he not be disturbed. The king, anxious and impatient, broke the rule, entering the chamber too soon — and the idols remained unfinished.

Yet the “incompleteness” has endured, revered not as a defect but design — signifying the infinite, the unknowable, and the universal.