Skanda Purana According to the
Purushottama Kshetra Mahatmya () of the
Skanda Purana, the deity Yama requested Vishnu to disappear from the region of Purushottama Kshetra, dissatisfied with the direct salvation of those who lived in the region. Vishnu agreed to do so.
Indradyumna, the king of
Avanti, grew interested in venerating the deity
Nilamadhava, made of sapphire. He is described to have sent the younger brother of his royal priest, or sometimes a minister, Vidyapati, to locate the site of the deity's
image in the
Nilagiri region. Regional folklore states that the priest was welcomed by Vishvavasu, the chieftain of the Savara people. During the duration of his stay in the chieftain's house, the latter's daughter, Lalita, fell in love with him. Upon the chieftain's request, Vidyapati married her. He noticed that the chieftain would leave the house every evening, and only return the following noon. At his urging, Lalita revealed to him that these were her father's visits to the shrine of Nilamadhava, whose location was held secret within the community. Vidyapati persuaded his wife to ask Vishvavasu to take him along to see the image of the deity. The chieftain agreed to take Vidyapati with him, but on the condition that he be blindfolded during the journey so that the shrine's location remained undisclosed. Lalita helped her husband devise a plan: Vidyapati brought a bag of mustard seeds with him, scattering them all along the path to the shrine present in a cave, bearing witness to the deep blue image of Nilamadhava. Returning to Avanti, he reported his discovery of the shrine to Indradyumna. After a few months, following the mustards seeds that had since germinated into plants, the king and his retinue travelled to the shrine, unable to locate the image. After praying to Vishnu for three days and nights, they heard the deity's voice thunder from the heavens, rebuking them for their scheme and informing them of his omnipresence. He announced that he would manifest as a
dāru (wooden image) floating by the sea. He instructed them to construct a new
temple upon a mountain that stood beside the seashore for his worship. , Odisha In the
Skanda Purana, by the time Vidyapati returned to inform the king of the site of the shrine, a great storm had buried the image of Nilamadhava under the sand. Despite his best attempts, the king was unable to locate the image. Upon the counsel of the sage divinity
Narada, Indradyumna constructed a new temple, and performed a thousand
ashvamedha yajnas at the site. Receiving guidance in the form of a divine dream, a great tree floating in the sea was felled and used to create the three wooden images of the temple, those of Jagannatha,
Balarama, and
Subhadra. The king travelled to
Brahmaloka to invite
Brahma to inaugurate the temple. With the passage of time, a king named Gala claimed to have been the temple's real architect, but with the return of Indradyumna to earth, he withdrew this claim. After Brahma had inaugurated the temple, Indradyumna returned to Brahmaloka, entrusting the upkeep of the site to Gala. In
Nepal, a
Skanda Purana manuscripts dated to 9th century CE have been discovered. However, a comparison shows that the 9th century CE document is entirely different from versions of Skanda Purana that have been circulating in the
Indian subcontinent after the 12th century. The various Khandas in modern Skanda Purana have all been found in manuscripts after 12th century. Acharya
Sayana interpreted the term
apurusham as same as
Purushottama and this
Dara wood log being an inspiration for Jagannath, thus placing the origin of Jagannath in 2nd millennium BCE. Other scholars refute this interpretation stating that the correct context of the hymn is "Alakshmi Stava" of Arayi. According to Bijoy Misra, Puri natives do call Jagannatha as Purushottama, consider driftwood a savior symbol, and later Hindu texts of the region describe the Supreme Being as ever present in everything, pervasive in all animate and inanimate things. Therefore, while the Vedic connection is subject to interpretation, the overlap in the ideas exist. According to Vishnu Puran,
Purushottama Kshetra was in the ocean. The modern location was identified as
Purushottama Kshetra later. According to a copper plate grant by Rajaraja Deva III (father of
Anangabhima Deva III),
Lord Purushottama was in the ocean and
Chodaganga Deva constructed a suitable temple for him.
Buddhist origins .
Alexander Cunningham examined a sketch of these three symbols and believed the modern Jagannath and his siblings are based on this
Triratna symbol of Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha.
Harekrushna Mahatab also believes the idol triad to be the wooden transformation of the Buddhist Triratna. But Starza argues that these Buddhist symbols bear little resemblance to the modern Jagannath triad. Theories suggesting
Buddhist origins of Jagannatha stems from the
relic worship associated with Jagannatha, a concept integral to Buddhism but alien to Hinduism. For example, there exists an unexamined relic in the Jagannath shrine in Puri, and the local legends state that the shrine relic contains a tooth of
Gautama Buddha – a feature common to many cherished Theravada Buddhist shrines in and outside India. Buddhism anciently prevailed in Odisha as appears from the Buddhist remains still existing. The idols of Jagannatha is believed to contain the bones of Krishna even though it forms no part of the Brahmanical religion to collect and adore dead men's bones while it is a most meritorious act among the Buddhists to collect and preserve the relics of departed saints, and the places that contain them are esteemed peculiarly holy. In Buddhism, preserving
cetiya or skeletal parts such as "Buddha's tooth" or relics of dead saints is a thriving tradition. The existence of these legends, state some scholars such as Stevenson, suggests that Jagannath may have a Buddhist origin. In ancient times, the place of Purī was known as Danta-Pura, i.e., the city where the sacred tooth of Buddha has been preserved.
Swami Vivekananda in his book
Lectures from Colombo to Almora mentioned that Jagannath temple was once a Buddhist temple. Another evidence that links Jagannath to Buddhism is the
Ratha-Yatra festival for Jagannath, the stupa-like shape of the temple and a dharmachakra-like discus (
chakra) at the top of the spire. The major annual procession festival has many features found in the
Mahayana Buddhism traditions.
Faxian (c. 400 CE), the ancient Chinese pilgrim and visitor to India wrote about a Buddhist procession in his memoir, and this has very close resemblances with the Jagannath festivities. Further the season in which the
Ratha-Yatra festival is observed is about the same time when the historic public processions welcomed Buddhist monks for their temporary, annual monsoon-season retirement. There is no distinction of caste inside the Jagganath temple, many day-to-day services (Vidhis) of Lord Jagannatha owe their origin either to Jainism or to Buddhism or the combination of both, the local legends link the idols with aboriginal tribes and the
daitapatis (servitors) claim to be descendants of the aboriginals. Majority of rituals are based on
Oddiyana Tantras which are the refined versions of Mahayana Tantras as well as Shabari Tantras which are evolved from
Tantric Buddhism and tribal believes respectively. According to Starza, these practices are also connected to
Tantric practices. Buddha was assimilated as Vishnu's ninth avatar in
Vishnu Puran as a divinely incarnated purveyor of illusion. It states that Vishnu's descent as the
Buddhavatara was accomplished so that the wicked and demonic could be only further misled away from the truth in
kali yuga. This assimilation and the consequent "disingenuous interpretation" or rationale for his inclusion aptly articulate the considerable ambivalence characteristic of Hindu attitudes towards Buddhism, "undermining his historicity", to "make him an appendage" of the Vaisnava mythic hierarchy. But in the opening chapter of his
Gita Govinda, the poet
Jayadeva claims that Vishnu reincarnated as the Buddha to condemn the animal sacrifices prevalent in Vedic times. In the Jagannath cult, Jagannath is sometimes represented as the ninth avatar of Vishnu substituting Buddha, when it could have been substituted for any other avatar. Buddha is even now called Jagannath in
Nepalese Buddhism. The association of Jagannath with the ninth avatar Buddha continued until 15th century. In a
Kabir panth scripture Laxmanbodh in Kabir Sagar by
Dharamdas, disciple of
Kabir, Jagannath is identified as a form of Buddha. }} }} According to Starza, these manifestations of the Jagannath cult, such as the supposed tooth relic of Buddha, the
Ratha-Yatra, the absence of caste rules in the temple, and the identification of Jagannath with the Buddha, are not sufficient to establish a Buddhist origin of the worship of Jagannath.
Indrabhuti, the ancient Buddhist king of
Oddiyana, describes Jagannath as a Buddhist deity in
Jñānasiddhi. This is the oldest known direct mention of the deity. Abhinav Patra argues that it has not been historically ascertained whether the deity Jagannath as worshipped by Indrabhuti was just a coincidental homonym with the present Jagannath or referred to the same deity. The 10th century era text
Kubjikāmatatantra, mentions
Biraja (ancient capital of
Utkala) as the goddess of Oddiyana, with which Indrabhuti's son
Padmasambhava is associated with. The
Saddharmapundarika records a prophecy in which the Lord assures
Śāriputra, that he would be in a distant future time a Buddha under the name of Padmaprabha, and that his place of enlightenment would be Biraja. Padmasambhava and Tārā, along with other deities are invoked in an inscription of 25 lines incised in nail-headed characters of the late 8th-9th century on the back of an image of
Avalokiteśvara/
Mahākaruṇā at
Udaygiri not far from
Jajpur, which states that a
stupa with a relic inside and dwelt in by the
Tathāgata was set up on that very spot. The stupa is believed to have contained the relics of Padmasambhava. Though the site is only partially excavated, at least one stupa has been unearthed. According to Nabin Kumar Sahu, this mass of evidence, supports the belief that Indrabhuti was the king of Odisha which is same as Oddiyana or Odra-
pitha, of which the main deities are Jagganath and Viraja. Some scholars argue that evidences of Jagannatha's Buddhist nature are found from medieval
Odia literature. Many medieval Odia poets suggest to their readers, that they wrote their books on the commands of a formless god-like personality, identifying the Buddhist principles of
Śūnya (The great void) and
Alekha (The formless one) with Jagannath himself. The idols of Jagannath triad are not anthropomorphic like
Hindu idols, but instead are stumps of wood with crude symbolic facial features and stumpy obtrusions for limbs. Odia poet
Sarala Dasa of 15th century in his Mahabharata, describes Lord Jagannatha as a form of Buddha. {{Blockquote {{Blockquote {{Blockquote At another part in
Adi Parva he also says: Glory be to Rama-Krishna-Brahma as Subhadra and to the great soul Buddha... Satyabrata Das believes this to be the wonderful integration of all faiths.
Jain origins Pandit Nilakantha Das suggested that Jagannath was a deity of
Jain origin because of the appending of
Nath to many Jain
Tirthankars. He felt Jagannath meant the 'World personified' in the Jain context and was derived from
Jinanath. Evidence of the Jain terminology such as of
Kaivalya, which means
moksha or salvation, is found in the Jagannath tradition. Similarly, the twenty two steps leading to the temple, called the
Baisi Pahacha, have been proposed as symbolic reverence for the first 22 of the 24 Tirthankaras of Jainism. According to Annirudh Das, the original Jagannath deity was influenced by Jainism and is none other than the
Jina of Kalinga taken to
Magadha by
Mahapadma Nanda. The theory of Jain origins is supported by the Jain
Hathigumpha inscription. It mentions the worship of a relic memorial in Khandagiri-Udayagiri, on the Kumara hill. This location is stated to be same as the Jagannath temple site. However, states Starza, a Jain text mentions the Jagannath shrine was restored by Jains, but the authenticity and date of this text is unclear. Another circumstantial evidence supporting the Jain origins proposal is the discovery of Jain images inside as well as near the massive Puri temple complex, including those carved into the walls. However, this could also be a later addition, or suggestive of tolerance, mutual support or close relationship between the Jains and the Hindus. According to Starza, the Jain influence on the Jagannath tradition is difficult to assess given the sketchy uncertain evidence. Nothing establishes that the Jagannath tradition has a Jain origin.
Vaishnava origins ,
Odisha.
Shrila Bhakti Vinod Thakur's great forefather
Krishnanada started worshipping this deity in mid-14th century AD. The Vaishnava origin theories rely on the iconographic details and the typical presence of the triad of deities, based on original scriptures of Hinduism. The colors, state the scholars of the Vaishnava origin theory, link to black-colored Krishna and white-colored Balarama. They add that the goddess originally was Ekanamsa (Durga of Shaiva-Shakti tradition, sister of Krishna through his foster family). She was later renamed to Shubhadra (Lakshmi) per Vaishnava terminology for the divine feminine. It is certainly true that the Vaishnava Hindus in the eastern region of India worshipped the triad of Balarama, Ekanamsa and Krishna. There are many scriptural references to support the same. Further, in many Jagannath temples of central and eastern regions of India, the Shiva icons such as the
Linga-yoni are reverentially incorporated, since Lord Shiva is a Vaishnav according to the conclusion of Srimad Bhagavatam, he protects Sri Jagannath Temple from external calamities, just like he does so in his form of Hanuman for the palace of Sri Ram.
Tribal origins or Nrusingha Besha in
Koraput The tribal origin theories rely on circumstantial evidence and inferences such as the Jagannath icon is non-anthropomorphic and non-zoomorphic. The original tribal deity, states Elwin, was
Kittung which too is made from wood. According to the Polish Indologist Olgierd M. Starza, this is an interesting parallel but a flawed one because the
Kittung deity is produced by burning a piece of wood and too different in its specifics to be the origin of Jagannath. According to another proposal by
Stella Kramrisch, log as a symbol of
Anga pen deity is found in central Indian tribes and they have used it to represent features of the Hindu goddess
Kali with it. However, states Starza, this theory is weak because the
Anga pen features a bird or snake like attached head along with other details that make the tribal deity unlike the Jagannath. Some scholars such as Kulke and Tripathi have proposed tribal deities such as Stambhesveri or Kambhesvari to be a possible contributor to the Jagannath triad. However, according to Starza, these are not really tribal deities, but Shaiva deities adopted by tribes in eastern states of India. Yet another proposal for tribal origins is through the medieval era cult of Lakshmi-
Narasimha. This hypothesis relies on the unusual flat head, curved mouth and large eyes of Jagannath, which may be an attempt to abstract an image of a lion's head ready to attack. While the tribal Narasimha theory is attractive states Starza, a weakness of this proposal is that the abstract Narasimha representation in the form does not appear similar to the images of Narasimha in nearby
Konark and
Kalinga temple artworks. In contemporary Odisha, there are many Dadhivaman temples with a wooden pillar god, and this may be same as Jagannath.
Syncretic origins According to H.S. Patnaik and others, Jagannath is a syncretic/synthetic deity that combined aspects of major faiths like
Shaivism,
Shaktism,
Vaishnavism,
Jainism, and
Buddhism. In Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, Balabhadra is the elder brother
Balarama, Jagannath is the younger brother
Krishna, and Subhadra is the youngest sister. Finally the fourth deity, Sudarshana
Chakra symbolizes the wheel of the sun's chariot, a syncretic absorption of the Saura (
Surya-centric) tradition of Hinduism. The conglomerate of Jagannath, Balabhadra, Subhadra, and Sudarshana Chakra worshipped together on a common platform are called the Chaturdhamurti or the "four-fold form". O.M. Starza states that the Jagannath Ratha Yatra may have evolved from the syncretism of procession rituals for Shiva lingas, Vaishnava pillars, and tribal folk festivities. The
Shaiva element in the tradition of Jagannath overlap with the rites and doctrines of
Tantrism and
Shaktism. According to the Shaivas, Jagannath is Bhairava. The
Shiva Purana mentions Jagannatha as one of the
108 names of Shiva. The Tantric literary texts identify Jagannath with Mahabhairava. Another evidence that supports syncretism thesis is the fact that Jagannath sits on the abstract tantric symbols of the
Shri Yantra. Further, his Shri Chakra ("holy wheel") is worshipped in the
bijamantra 'klim', which is also the bijamantra of Kali or Shakti. The representation of Balarama as
Sheshanaga or Sankarsana bears testimony to the influence of Shaivism on the cult of Jagannath. The third deity, Devi Subhadra, who represents the Sakti element is still worshipped with the Bhuvaneshvari Mantra.
Transformation from unitary icon to triad The
Madala Panji observes that Nila Madhava transformed into Jagannath and was worshipped alone as a unitary figure, not as the part of a triad. It is significant to note that the early epigraphic and literary sources refer only to a unitary deity
Purushottama Jagannath. The Sanskrit play "Anargharaghava" composed by Murari mentioned only Purushottama Jagannath and his consort
Lakshmi with no references to Balabhadra and Subhadra. The Dasgoba copper plated inscription dating to 1198 also mentions only Purushottama Jagannath in the context that the Puri temple had been originally built by Ganga king
Anantavarman Chodaganga (1078–1147) for Vishnu and Lakshmi. These sources are silent on the existence of Balabhadra and Subhadra. Such state of affairs has led to arguments that Purushottama was the original deity and Balabhadra and Subhadra were subsequently drawn in as additions to a unitary figure and formed a triad. During the rule of
Anangabhima III [1211–1239], Balabhadra and Subhadra find the earliest known mention in the Pataleshwara inscription of 1237 CE. According to the German Indologist Kulke, Anangibhima III was the originator of the triad of Jagannath, Balabhadra, and Subhadra suggesting that Balabhadra was added after Lakshmi's transformation into Subhadra. ==Theology==