History
Of The Deities:
The
deities of the Puri temple are generally known
as the Trimurti(Trinity) though, to the scholars,
they are Chaturdhaa murtis (or images, 4 in
number). Some think that originally there
was only Jagannath as the object of worship
and when Neela Madhava disappeared, King Indradyumna
fabricated the body of Jagannath out of a
log of wood that was picked up from the sea,
as per a divine direction received by the
King. Scholars holding the view that originally
the Present-day Trinity was not there, cite
the example of a Temple found in the Cuttack
District in Orissa (belonging perhaps to the
seventh century A.D.) where the images only
of Jagannath and Balabhadra have been carved
and Subhadra is not to be seen there.
It
is, therefore, believed that when there was
a great resurgence of Saktism from the 7th
century onwards, there was a successful attempt
to install an image of the Mother Goddess
(Durga or Sakti) in the Puri Temple by the
side of Jagannath. According to some others,
installation of the image of Durga or Sakti
(who is also known as Bhadraa, Mangalaa etc.)
might have taken place during the visit of
Sankaraachaarya to Puri. In the Konarka Temple
built in the 13th century A.D. (about a century
later than the Puri Temple), there is a panel
of three images. Jagannath is seen in the
middle and to His left is the Mother Goddess,
while to His right is a Linga (phallus). From
this, it is deduced by some that this might
have been the “Trio” of the Puri
Temple, indicating the equal importance of
Vaishnavism, Saktism and Saivism.
There
is another hypothesis that Bhadraa or Mangalaa
(Durga) came to be called as Subhadra and
at the time of Vaishnavite preponderance,
she was introduced as Srikrishna’s sister,
whose name also is Subhadra. Similarly one
of the names of Lord Siva is Veerabhadra.
Somehow, at a time of Vaishnavic efflorescence,
He was transformed into Balabhadra. (The second
half of this name i.e., ‘Bhadra’
was retained and the first half was substituted
by Bala). When HE was thus called Balabhadra,
He, was introduced as the elder brother of
Srikrishna.
