Jagannatha in Historical Perspectives
Contents: Foreword. Preface. Jagannatha in historical perspectives: an introduction/Rabinarayan Dash. 1. Hints on the significance and history of Jagannatha/Pandit Nilakantha Das. 2. The temples of Jagannatha in Bengal/D.R. Das, Rajat Sanyal and Sharmila Saha. 3. Jagannatha : a few sidelights in Persian accounts/Lalatendu Das Mohapatra. 4. Concept of Jagannath among the Assamese Hindus/Birinchi K. Medhi. 5. Art and architecture of Lord Jagannath Temple, Puri/G.C. Chaubey. 6. The development of Purushottama Jagannath or The Jagannath Cult in the inscriptions of Orissa (261 BC-1533 AD)/Rabinarayan Dash. 7. Sri Jagannatha : the Upanisadic Brahman/Braja Kishore Swain. 8. Purusottamaksetra : a review/Bijayananda Kar. 9. Subsidiary shrines in Sri Jagannath Temple premises/Jagabandhu Padhi. 10. The Shiva aspects of Purusottama Jagannatha/Lakshman Kumar Panda. 11. Purusottama-Jagannatha in Skanda Purana/Gopinath Mahapatra. 12. Imprints of Jainism on the Cult of Jagannatha/U.K. Subuddhi. 13. Sri Jagannath Temples in Orissa: a socio-cultural study/Surendra Nath Dash. 14. Management of Jagannath Temple during the 19 century/Bhagirathi Mohapatra. 15. Niladrimahodaya : a record of the traditions and customs of Orissa/Basudev Mishra. 16. Lord Jagannatha and the Great Temple as reflected in Gangavamsanucarita Campu/Raghunath Panda and Pranati Mishra. 17. Navakalevara through the ages/Prafulla K. Mishra. 18. Human elements in the daily rituals of Sri Jagannath Temple/Ramchandra Mishra. 19. The Cult of Jagannath : the Round-Eyed Lord of the Universe/Rai Charan Das. 20. Evolution of Shri Jagannath Temple Management/Sarat Chandra Mahapatra. 21. The daily rituals in the Sri Jagannath Temple, Puri/Mahimohan Tripathy. 22. Different names of Lord Jagannatha depicted in Sanskrit Dramas/Trinath Hota. 23. Jagannath : the evolutionary form of Nilamadhava Durgamadhav and Radhamadhava/Gopal Krishna Srichandan. 24. The sociological and universal heritage of Sri Jagannath Cult/Jagannath Mohanty. 25. Sri Jagannath in Oriya Lyric Poetry/Balaram Das. 26. The origin, antiquity and the evolution of Lord Purusotham Jagannatha: a study through placenames/Asutosh Prasad Patnaik. 27. Jagannatha in art and paintings/Dinanath Pathy. 28. Jagannatha in Oriya Prose literature/L.K. Parida. 29. Shrines inside the Lord Jagannatha Temple Complex, Puri/Shshanta Kumar Kar. Illustrations.
"Through different phases of history, Jagannatha culture has attracted not only the pilgrims and the believers, but also has been a focal point of research in terms of historical antecedents, processes and cultural ramifications. Eclectic as well as syncretistic by nature, the Jagannath culture cannot be understood in terms of one single cult. This has been emphasized in the present monograph in various papers written by scholars of history, archaeology, anthropology and Sanskrit literature etc. Critical use of different kinds of sources - archaeological, epigraphic, literary and archival - is an important aspect of this volume.
Emphasis has been put on the influence of Vaishnavite, Saivite, Jaina and Buddhist traditions in the making of Jagannatha culture. Besides, issues relating to other shrines in Jagannath Temple Complex, management of the temple in different periods, and various rituals followed are also discussed.
An account of various Jagannatha temples in West Bengal and importance of Jagannatha among Assamese Hindus imply the pan-Indian network of the Jagannatha culture.
Thus, this volume tries to incorporate multiple historical perspectives associated with the Jagannatha culture." (jacket)
