At the very outset, it has to be made clear that the Gajapati is not the King of Puri as the temple city was not a kingdom ever. In 1174 AD, Ananga Bhima Deva of Ganga Dynasty completed the construction of the majestic Jagannath Temple, one of the most impressive monuments of the India, which was founded by the famous king of the same dynasty Ananta Varman Chodaganga Deva in 1161 AD.
Lord Jagannath, with His brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra, visit the Gundicha Temple every year as promised to Queen Gundicha by King Indradyumna. The present statues of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra were carved out of Neem logs by Lord Vishwkarma at a workshop venue now called Gundicha Temple. After many months of making, when suddenly the usual sound of carving stopped, Queen Gundicha, frantic to know what went wrong, opened the workshop door and Lord Vishwakarma disappeared leaving the statues in the shape we see today. For this simple reason, the Gundicha Temple is also known as the birthplace of the deities.
Saint Ramanujacharya of Perumbudur of the modern day Tamil Nadu, who was a Hindu philosopher, guru and a social reformer, was one of the most important exponents of the Sri Vaishnavism tradition within Hinduism. His philosophical foundations for devotion have influenced the Bhakti movement immensely. He lived meaningfully for 120 years between 1017 and 1137. He visited the temple to pay obeisance to the deities as did sage Chaitnya later. A legend suddenly made popular in the last 25 years that during the post-Snan Yatra Anavasar when Jagannath and His sibling deities are taken away into the middle interior space and treated secretly for fever, secret chamber for 15 days, the sage and the saint crazy to have a glimpse of the deities, started visiting Lord Alarnath at Brahmagiri on Lord’s dream command. Many religious researchers opine that ‘Alvars’ once visited this place though there is no mention of it at all even in the highly-revered ‘Divyaprabandam’, a collection of 4,000 Tamil verses composed by the 12 Alvars. It was compiled in its present form by Nathamuni. Alvar, also spelled Azhvar, is any of a group of South Indian mystics between the 7th and the 10th centuries wandered from temple to temple singing ecstatic hymns in adoration of God Vishnu. Their counterparts among the followers of God Shiva were the Nayanars between 601 and 1000.
More interestingly, according to the Record-of-Rights (experts say rites) drafted in 1956 mentions on pp.7-10 that there are 118 categories of the temple servitors performing different religious and ritual duties/ services in the majestic temple at Puri besides the specific services performed by different monasteries and by individuals. Out of these 118 categories of temple servitors/ servants, only a few perform the priestly services while the others perform some other kinds of services such as keeping the store, watching the temple premises and beating the drums, etc. They belong to different non-Brahmin castes. It seems that from among the priests, performing the priestly services the Daitas, who perform some kind of specific non-priestly duties among the temple servants, are believed to be of tribal origin. They claim to be the descendants of the original tribal worshippers or priests of the deities.
The temple’s records like the Sevakarmani as well as a paper manuscript found in the Gopala Tirtha Mutt of Bhubaneswar, which is closely related to the former, mention that the Daitas are of tribal origin descendants of the original Savara tribal worshipper or priest. Secondly, in the text of Sarala Mahabharata, ‘Deula Tola’ texts by (Sisu) Krsna Das and Magunia Das, the tribal origin of the ‘Daitas’ as well as the Sudha Suaras has been mentioned. Sarala Mahabharata recognises only two broad categories of the temple servants or the real priests of the Jagannatha Temple: The Brahmanas, the descendants of the Brahmana explorer Basu (the corresponding Sanskrit form being Vasu or Visva Vasu clearly mentioned in the Musali Parba, (12/153), p.117). The Daitas are the descendants of the original Savara worshipper / priest ‘Jara’ alias ‘Basu’ the corresponding Sanskrit form for Visva Vasu as vividly explained in the Sarala Mahabharata, Musali Parba, (12/151), p.117).
Deula Tola by (Sisu) Krsna Das, however, mentions three major categories of the temple servants on the basis of their origins:
What needs to be known is the Daita community is not the descendants of the Lord but those of the tribal worshippers. The Sudha Suaras are superior by caste for having been born of Brahmin Vidyapati and tribal girl Lalita.
As is customary, Daitas are formally barred from touching the deities except during the period of illness when they perform the duties of masseur, nurse and cleanliness keeper. Like in hospitals, no caste pollutes a patient ritually, Daitas too are free to take care of the patient deities without being treated as untouchables.
The most amusing fact of today is that some Daita community members have no shame in posing as senior priests by donning the robes of the Brahmin priests. They identify themselves as ‘Pandas’, a very specific expression used for the priestly class servitors who can touch the deities throughout the year. The Daita community, therefore, has only one-month duty in a year between Snan Purnima, the ceremonial bath, and Niladri Bije, the day of return of the deities into the temple.
The last most laughable suffix Daitas have lately been using for themselves is ‘Pati’ meaning the one single leader. All Daitas introduce themselves as ‘Daitapatis’ though actually they are all ‘Daitas’ only. Ignorant media too introduces them as ‘Daitapatis’ which means all are leaders without a single ordinary follower.