Gandhiji had arrived at Puri on May 7, 1934 by train. He announced the next day about his Harijan Padayatra for removal of untouchability. He started his padayatra from the Singhadwar at 5.30 am on May 9. He was accompanied by Miraben, Amritlal Thakur, Sushila Behn, Uma Bajaj (daughter of Jamnalal Bajaj), Padmabati Devi (wife of Jaya Prakash Narayan), BG Desai, Gopabandhu Choudhury, Rama Devi, HK Mahtab, Nilakantha Das, Jadumani Mangaraj, Bichitrananda Das, Binode Kanungo, Surendra Pattanaik, Sahadeb Das and a German journalist Kurt Butow. He visited many Harijan villages on his way to Cuttack. His first stop was at Kadua where he had stayed in the Harijan boarding there.
On May 10, Gandhiji arrived at Dandamukundpur, where a public meeting. He had stayed at the two storied house of Rama Sahu, a rich landlord from Cuttack. The house was inside the premises of the Murli Manohar Matha, which the Zamindar had made in the Basudevpur village, just half a km from the Jagannath Sadak.
Gandhiji stayed in the upper floor. Chintamani Panigrahi was in attendance. At 4 am Gandhiji came down and had his bath in a small pond just behind the house and then after a frugal breakfast commenced his padayatra towards Pipili. Earlier in the night, he had written a letter to M Visvesvaraya, an eminent engineer of the time, asking him to come to Odisha and make assessment for projects for flood control.
Today, the house sits decrepit among the rice fields. It is a silent reminder of the Mahatma’s visit, which was a turning point in the freedom struggle of India. The family has abandoned the house and even though in ruins, it still is a majestic structure. The pond and the very steps on which the Mahatma had his bath are still intact.
The house was discovered by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) team while surveying the Jagganath Sadak Project. The INTACH has launched a project “listing and Documenting the Monuments of the Jagganath Sadak in Odisha”, in which all the remnants of the old road are being documented. The project is being undertaken to highlight the sad plight of this once great and now forgotten road on which the pilgrims travelled to visit the gods at Puri. The report will be released before the Nabakalebar of the lord this year.
State convener of INTACH AB Tripathy said that the building should be preserved as a heritage structure. He also disclosed that he will write to the Government and the Gandhi Foundation for taking steps to restore and conserve the building.
INTACH Bhubaneswar Chapter convener H Balakrishnan said that the Jagannath Sadak Project has opened up new chapters in the matter of the spread of Jagannath culture and the social development of the State.
The State Government and the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi should develop a Gandhi Circuit in the State, as there are many important places which mark the Mahatma’s visit, said former Chief Secretary Sanjib Hota.