No sacred wood used in Digha temple: Minister

Bhubaneswar: Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan Monday said that according to an interim investigation report, no sacred wood from Puri Srimandir was used to make the idols installed at a temple in Digha in West Bengal, as alleged by various quarters.

The titular king of Puri, Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb, and the Odisha government also urged the West Bengal authorities to refrain from using ‘dham’ with newly-built Jagannath temple at Digha and stop projecting the sea there as ‘Mahodadhi’ (the great ocean).

Though both seas at Digha and Puri are same, the Bay of Bengal, the one at Puri is called ‘Mahodadhi’ as the Odisha town with the 12th-century Jagannath shrine is considered a sacred place of pilgrimage.

The minister also threatened to take legal steps against the Bengal government if it does not stop referring to the Digha temple as a ‘Jagannath Dham’.

Following allegations of theft and use of sacred wood from Puri temple in crafting idols of the shrine at Digha, the minister had May 2 asked the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) to investigate the matter.

“I have received the interim report from SJTA chief administrator and the Law department secretary. It was found that the senior Daitapati servitor (Ramakrushna Dasmohapatra) had crafted the idols of Lord Balabhadra, Devi Subhadra and Lord Jagannath in Odisha and taken them to Digha,” Harichandan said.

Those idols were made by a carpenter in Bhubaneswar by using neem wood and not the sacred wood stored in Daru Gruha of Srimandir, as alleged, the minister mentioned.

PNN

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