Tradition lives on at Marda Jagannath temple near Berhampur in Ganjam

• Lord Jagannath, Balabhatra and Devi Subhadra of Puri were kept here for two years to protect them from Mughal invaders
• To this day, no deity has been kept at the Marda temple
• Devotees throng the temple though no Rath Yatra is organised here

Hundreds of devotees thronged the ‘Jagannath temple' at Marda near Berhampur city in Ganjam district although no Rath Yatra was held here.

The people who visited Marda on July 13 had reached there to spend a day with the history related to Lord Jagannath. The temple at Marda has no deity but it depicts an important chapter of Oriya history. The deities of Jagannath temple in Puri were concealed here for more than two years to avoid sacrilege at the hands of Mughal invaders in the 18th century. The then king of Athagadapatna, Jagannath Harichandan had built up this rock temple for the deities. Even after the deities returned to Puri in 1736, Harichandan had preferred to keep the temple without deity to preserve the memory of this great event.

The visitors included people from different parts of Orissa as well as from near by Patahara village. The ancestors of inhabitants of Pathara village had built up the temple at Marda in a few months. Till now some families of Pathara are involved in stone carving. Unlike other temples even on the day of Rath Yatra no traditional musical instruments are played in this temple.

During the sojourn of the deities at this temple sound of these instruments was avoided to keep the temple hidden from the eyes of Mughal spies. The tradition lives on.

Source : The Hindu