Rajesh Kumar Behera
The arch stone (Dadhinauti) of the under construction Laxmi temple was fixed at the premises of Tulashi Khetra on Thursday amid religious fervour by the fishermen community of undivided Cuttack district .
While in many parts of Orissa scheduled caste persons are still treated as untouchable and were restricted by upper caste people to enter into the sanctum sanctorum of several Hindu temple in these parts, but in a break from tradition , the scheduled caste people of a particular community of undivided Cuttack district has dared to construct a shrine for their own inside the premises of Baladevjew temple at Tulashi khetra of Ichhapur located outskirts of the township area possibly in order to put an end to the Dalit’s temple entry row and also to allow all the upper caste people to worship the deity .Now the temple construction work is going on in full fledged amid the co-operation of Baladevjew Endowment committee members.
If sources are to be believed, the scheduled caste community especially the Kaibartya Samaj (fishermen Society) of undivided Cuttack district have started the temple construction work of the Goddess of Wealth “Laxmi” inside the premises of Kendrapara’s Baladevjew temple since last 82 years . But due to the paucity of funds the temple construction work was delayed .since last 2008 the pace of temple construction work was going on and the arch stone was established in the temple on Thursday.
According to Arjuna Charan Behera, the president of Laxmi temple construction committee, while other scheduled caste community have constructed their own temple either outside or in a distance place from Baladevjew temple premises but their fishermen community has got the exclusive rights from the then Temple Managing Trust to construct a Laxmi temple inside the Baladevjew temple on1927.
Keeping in mind the necessity of Laxmi temple inside the premises of Baldevjew temple at Tulashi Khetra, their predecessors had decided to construct a Laxmi temple as it sans in the Baladevjew temple though the deity has been worshipped in the sanctum sanctorum with Lord Baladev, Subhadra and Lord Jagannath in the pedestal .
Another reason behind constructing Laxmi temple by the fishermen community is that Goddess Laxmi symbolizes the goddess of both upper caste and lower caste communities .She made Lord Jagannath promise that there would be no distinction between low-caste and high-caste for honoring Jagannatli prasada for which they had decided to erect a temple for the deity. By taking the Wealth Goddess as their community presiding deity , they planned to erect a temple for the deity.
According to members of fishermen society ,last year, the Gajapati maharaj , Sri Sri Dibya Singh Deb, visited to Tulashi Khetra to worship the deity . The priests of the temple offered the Gajapati to take Prasad ,but when Gajapati discovered that tulashi khetra sans Laxmi temple , he returned back without eating anna Prasad (rice bhoga) .
According to Annanta Charan Dalai, a fisherman, In 1927 their predecessor had taken the task of setting up a Laxmi temple .Later due to funds crunch ,the temple remained incomplete. Later, on 16th February 1933 the fishermen of undivided Cuttack under the fold of ‘Chaunri Samiti ‘ formed a “Nikhila Utkala Kaibartya Sangha” and had entrusted the sangha to complete the temple .Due to slipshod attitude of their fellow community brethrens and shortage of funds has made the temple constructed work move on a snail pace though more than eight decades have been passed to the foundation stone laid for the purpose of constructing Laxmi temple .
“The temple has been built with the help of contributions made over a long period of time by each fishermen family of the undivided Cuttack district . The Fisherman Society has collected funds from every household of undivided Cuttack for this purpose .Even the Fisherman society had also collected funds from well settled persons of their community in and outside the state “, said Brahmanada Behera, a member of Fisherman Society (Kaibartya Samaj) of Undivided Cuttack.
The fishermen community have already spent 12 lakhs of rupees,which they have collectedfrom their community members , for establishing Laxmi temple .Neither they have taken a single rupee from other community members nor from any MP, MLAs ,added Bishnu charan Behera, a member of the Laxmi temple construction committee.
“We are hopeful, the temple construction work would be completed in 2010. Later, we would erect a white mugni stone image of Laxmi Devi ,which we would bring from outside the state “,told Arjuna charan Behera.
The construction of a Laxmi temple inside the temple premises ,which has undertaken by the fisherman community by donating rupees from there own pockets, is really praise worthy one .Now people from all strata of life would get opportunity to worship the Laxmi temple on daily basis which was earlier not available in the Baldevjew temple premise , informed Nrusingha Charan Patri , the pujapanda of Baldevjew temple in Tulashi khetra.
