Markandeshwartank is situated to the north of the Jagannath Temple.
This tank is also
important as it is connected with a lot of rituals associated with Lord
Jagannatha, the most important being Chandan yatra. The temple bears ancient
stone inscriptions pertaining to the Ganga Dynasty.
The
Narendra sarovar at Puri is one of the most sacred tanks in Orissa. It covers
an area of 3.24 hectares and is situated in the picturesque area about 2
kilometre north-east of the famous Puri Jagannath temple. Within this tank is a
small temple on an island dedicated to Lord Jagannath, Balarama and Subhadra.
During the Chandana yatra, the boat festival is held in the tank. Lord
Madanamohana (the representative of Lord Jagannath) goes for a boat ride on a
decorated float, locally known as “chapa”.
This
tank is also called the Chandana pushkarani after the famous yatra of the same
name. Many medieval Oriya texts have
described this tank. According to one
legend, Narendra Deva, the brother of Gajapati Kapilendra Deva excavated this
tank and it was so named after him. It
is said that Veer Narendra Deva, his younger brother sacrificed his life for
the sake of his motherland. After his
death, his wife Kalandi Mahadevi took up sanyas and began to live in a
garden. She was a devotee of Lord Shiva
and Lord Krishna. Babaji Govinda Das was
her Guru.
One day the Guru gave a
pumpkin seed to the queen. The growth of
the plant was so luxurious that it spread out over a large area. Hundreds of pumpkins were produced. These pumpkins were used for preparing the
maha prasada at the temple. The news
spread far and wide. Gajapati Kapilendra
Deva heard about it and visited the garden accompanied by his Guru, Mahadev
Brahma.
At that time Babaji Govinda Das was engaged in the worship of Lord Gopinath. Govinda Das blessed the king and requested him to excavate a tank named after her late husband, Veer Narendra Deva. He also requested him to name two ghats after Narendra Deva and his queen Kalandi Devi. The king also constructed fourteen ghats named after the fourteen sons of Narendra Dev. The Chandana bije ghat (Lamba chakada) was constructed for the purpose of conducting “Chandan bije” of Lord Jagannath.
This chakada is named after
Narendra Deva. He also constructed a temple of Kalandishvara Shiva and Gopinath
on the bank of the holy tank. The Brahma
jaga, named after the court poet Narahari Brahma, was also established. The famous Chandan yatra of Lord Jagannath is
being observed with pomp and ceremony since those days.
There
is also a legend that the creation of the Narendra is due to a pumpkin
seed. The story goes as follows: King Narendra Deva was a great devotee of
Lord Jagannath. Once he found a pumpkin seed in the courtyard of his palace. He gave the seed to his sarbarakara (Revenue
Collector) to plant the seed in the name of Lord Jagannath and to offer all the
pumpkins thus produced to the Lord. The
sabarakara did as instructed.
The
pumpkin creeper grew to such an extent that it covered an area of fourteen
acres. This creeper produced lakhs of
pumpkins. The sabarakara sold the
pumpkins and deposited the money to the king.
King Narendra Deva, in turn, offered the money to the Gajapati king of
Puri. Subsequently, both the kings
decided to construct a tank at Shrikshetra out of this fund. The tank was to cover an area of fourteen
acres, the equivalent of the area covered by the pumpkin creeper. Thus the famous Narendra Tank came into
existence (Rath, 2004).
This
tank is the biggest one at Shrikshetra, established in the 14th - 15th
centuries A.D., during the Ganga period.
Chara Ganesha is worshipped in the nearby temple. The tank covers an area of 14.533 acres. There are sixteen ghats of the tank. Fourteen are named after the fourteen sons of
Narendra Deva, one after the queen Kalandi Devi and one after Narendra
Deva.
There are three ghats on the east,
three on the north, six on the south and four on the west. The tank has an island in the centre in which
there is a small temple called “Chandana Mandapa”. During the Chandana yatra, Madanamohana, the
moving deity of Lord Jagannath is kept here for twenty one days.
http://www.cpreecenvis.nic.in/Home.aspx
http://www.cpreecenvis.nic.in/Database/Sacred_waterbodies_928.aspx
No comments:
Post a Comment