Only a week or so ago, there was news about some local residents expressing grouse over the name of the temple town on sea Puri. They want to make Lord Jagannath even more known across mankind. The new name for the world-famous town should be ‘Jagannath Puri’. Without losing time, an opposing group of fairly educated and fairly eminent persons put their foot down saying ‘Puri’ is just good enough as it is synonymous with the Lord since ages. The name has remained an integral part of their lives; and over the ages the people across the globe have become extremely familiar with Puri as a little temple town on sea. Most foreign tourists from the Western and other developed countries including Japan are madly in love with Puri and they consider the cool location a preferred destination during their visit to India, particularly between November and March. The tourist guidebooks including Lonely Planet, Bradt, Rough Guides, Time Out, Footprint and more have made Puri as much popular as the festivals of Lord Jagannath. These international guidebooks have even introduced insignificant, nondescript roadside tea stalls and eateries where cheap yet very tasty food stuffs are available.
Besides, Puri is finely-portrayed not only as a place of high religious significance but also a highly-rated secular tourist destination. Puri, thus, is synonymous with the Jagannath Temple, car festival and a cool, calm clean, shallow-water coastline that’s very safe for bathing and having similar fun.
Amid the clamour by some to have the name changed to ‘Jagannath Puri’ and an equally-strong opposition, the layman who has no access to internet knowledge and scope to delve deeper, the name-change proponents have been harping on one single focused argument and logic that Lord Jagannath would become more famous and the town will get a suggestive name. The opponents say Puri and Lord Jagannath are synonymous; and lately, because of the car festival all over the world, Puri doesn’t require to have a qualifier in its name. The whole world knows for the last several centuries that ‘Puri’ means the abode of the Lord. But then, a few liberal academicians, maybe to oppose the big majority of orthodox people furious about a changed name, favour a middle path saying changing names of places is not a bad proposition.
The world has survived this long across changes only because they are inevitable as times and circumstances demand. Some of them suggest ‘Jagannath Dham’ instead of ‘Jagannath Puri’.
To this suggestion, the dissenters react saying then the whole of India will have to change, which would be plain ridiculous. If people force authorities to go on suffixing the age-old names to portray the principal deities of the plac, then countless shrine towns will have to change. Even until today, ‘Prayagraj’ in place of Allahabad hasn’t been accepted by many. Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha, has to become ‘Lingaraj Puri or Dham’. ‘Jagannath Puri’ would be as degenerate and small in stature as a little place of Delhi like Chanakyapuri or Janakpuri. Interestingly, New Delhi has been reduced to ‘Delhi’ only because it’s small and beautiful. The Government of India has to be forced by the Puri agitators to rename Delhi as ‘Indraprastha’ or something, and Madurai to ‘Minakshipuri’ and so on and on.
According to Alexander Cunningham, the eminent engineer-cum-heritage site explorer, the ancient name of Puri town was ‘Charitra’, mentioned by the Chinese discoverer Huien Tsang as Che-li-ta-lo, all of which are subject to more scientific research, though. The importance of the town as a seat of Vaisnavism increased when Chodaganga Dev constructed the temple of Purusottam Jagannath and installed the images of the deities. Thereafter, it became famous as the abode or Puri of Purusottam and was popularly called ‘Purusottama Kshetra’. The Purusottama name was applied to this town from the drama Anargharaghava Natakam attributed to cir. 9th century AD. In the Nagari Plate of Anangabhima III of the Saka year 1151-52, i.e., 1229-30 AD, the place is called Purusottama Kshetra. Interestingly, Kshetra was distorted by the Mughals to ‘Chhatar’ which was accepted by the Marathas as well as the early British rulers as mentioned in their official records. In Yoginitantra and Kalikapurana, the city is referred to as Purusottam. As many would not know, the Puri region was also known as Utkal which is nearly the modern Odisha of today, mainly the coastal and sub-coastal expanse. ‘Purusottama Puri’ was further contracted to the small and beautiful ‘Puri’, the original and main abode of Lord Purushottam.
In modern times, Puri has become the most popular name amongst all other names of this town.
In June 1804, what is now Odisha province had been divided into two divisions, Northern and Southern, with the river Mahanadi forming the boundary. Robert Ker and Charles Groeme were appointed as Judge, Magistrate and Collector in Northern and Southern Divisions respectively.
By 1805, both divisions were amalgamated and G Webb succeeded Groene as Collector and Robert Ker became the Judge and Magistrate of the whole province.
The revolting Raja of Khurdha was arrested in 1804 and placed in confinement in the Fort of Barabati at Cuttack. In 1807, he was released and permitted to live at Balisahi in the town of Puri to function as the superintendent of the temple of Jagannath. What many would not know is that Puri was the capital of the province of Odisha and the headquarters of the Collector till 1816. In 1806, there was a proposal to move the headquarters to Jajpur, but it didn’t get Government’s sanction. In August 1814, a part of the Collector’s establishment was moved to Cuttack, which was again brought back to Puri in December. By 1816, the headquarters was permanently shifted to Cuttack as established by the Mughals and Marathas. From 1813 to 1819, there was a joint Magistrate at Puri. On October 23, 1828, the province was divided into three Districts, Balasore, Cuttack and Jagannath, which was later known as Puri. H Ricketts, R Hunter and W Wilkinson were the first Magistrate and Collectors of Balasore, Cuttack and Puri Districts, respectively.
So, ‘Puri’ has become the most adorably-accepted name in the world atlas of geography and pilgrimage since a long, long time. The original abode of the Lord, Puri, means the residence of Lord Jagannath. Now if the name changes, for another decade or so millions of records will start taking beating. Most so, the foreign travellers who are crazy about Puri will hesitate several times over before planning a trip. The tourism industry will go haywire.
Lastly, what’s in a name if the erect, talking animal kingdom is happy with Puri. Jagannath, the Lord of the universe, doesn’t seek any more publicity, for sure. He is too well-known as the principal resident of ‘Puri’.