Puri: The only Jagannath Dham

Amid a row over the West Bengal government's portrayal of the newly inaugurated Digha temple as 'Jagannath Dham' and alleged use of surplus wood of the Puri shrine in the construction of idols there, state Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan Friday asked the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) to inquire into the matter.

- POST NEWS NETWORK

West Bengal's naming of a newly-built Jagannath temple at Digha as 'Jagannath Dham' has come in for severe flak from devotees, priests and researchers, who have called for the removal of this 'self-styled' title as it hurts the sentiments of millions of devotees of Lord Jagannath across the world. They assert that only Puri should be referred to as 'Jagannath Dham' as is mentioned in scriptures and has been the practice over centuries. Scholars contend that it was Adi Shankaracharya who established four 'Dhams' in four corners of India - Puri in east, Dwarka in west, Badrinath in north and Rameswaram in south-and renaming any other temple as 'Dham' goes against the tradition and tenets of Hindu beliefs

The state government’s move came after local media reported that some Puri servitors had attended the consecration ceremony at the Digha temple and used leftover ‘neem’ wood from the 2015 ‘Nabakalebara’ to make the idols for the shrine in the neighbouring state.