Kalahandi
and Balangir districts of Odisha are often in news for wrong reasons. In 1985,
poverty forced Fans Punji to sell her sister in law Banita for Rs 40 only, that
exposed the stark poverty of the region and attracted the attention of national,
even international media. The Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi along with his wife
had visited the place and met Fans. On 2 October, this year, on the birth day
of Mahatma Gandhi, when the world observed the day as day of non violence,
around twenty thousand animals and birds were slaughtered on the occasion of
Chhatar yatra of Goddess Manikeswari at Bhawaniptna. The road of Bhawanipatna was
flooded with blood. A few days back, in the last week of September, one Bankee
Behera of a village near Bangomunda block killed an innocent seven year old boy
to propitiate Goddess for his good health. But Kalahandi and Balangir districts
have a rich heritage and a glorious past that goes unnoticed in the midst of
poverty, superstition and black magic. Ranipur-Jharial where one finds ancient
monuments and reminiscence of Saivism, Vaishnvism, Tantra and Buddhism, is
testimony to the richness of the past, which speaks of affluence of the region
in earlier times.
Ranipur-Jharial
is in Bangomunda block, around 110 kms from Balangir. On the day of Vijaya
Dasami, 4 October, 2014, when we reached Ranipur in the afternoon, Jagmohan
Tripathy, the priest of Someswar temple was inside the temple worshipping for a
few devotees. He was informed of our visit earlier by a common friend. On
seeing us, he came out to act as our guide handing over his charge to his young
assistant.
Someswar
temple is situated beside Someswar sagar. The place is known as Somatirtha,
which finds mention in the puranas of 3rd- 4th century
AD. It is said one Saiva Acharya, Gagan Shiva had built the temple, whose name
has been mentioned in an inscription found on the lintel of the temple. The
inscription also mentions the place as Somatirtha. Tripathy showed us an image
engraved on the inner side of the wall to be of a Shaiva saint that might be of
Gagan Shiva.
On
a rock surface of around two square kms there are 51 temples of varied shape
and size standing in dilapidated condition. In 1874-75, archeologist J D Beglar
had visited the place and counted 57 temples, and noted there might be around
120 temples in earlier times. The temples were built during Somavansi rule in 8th
century AD. Historian K N Mohapatra assigns the period of the structures to 650
- 950 AD.
Chausasthi
(64) yogini of Ranipur-Jharial is one of the four remaining of the famous
temples of the kind. The others are at Hirapur near Bhubaneswar, Khajuraho and
at Bheraghat near Jabalpur. It is a circular roofless temple and joginis are
installed in the niches of the inner side of the wall. In the middle of the
temple, stands an image of six handed Shiva. The jogini temple smacks of occult
practices. Historians are of the view that the jogini temples are built when
Brhminical tantricism gained popularity during 6th-7th
century AD.
Hundred
metres away from the jogini temple stands Indralath brick temple. The sikhara
of the temple is 60 ft high standing on a high sand stone platform. Historians
say that it was a Vaishnava temple, but later it was converted to a Shaiva
temple. This is the tallest surviving brick temple in Odisha.
Near
Someswar temple one finds foot print emblems. The priest Tripathy and the
locals believe those foot prints were of Sita Devi and Ramachandra of Ramayan
who had visited the place during their fourteen year forest exile. But historians
attribute the foot prints to its association of early Buddhist worship. The
existence of Buddhism is also corroborated by discovery of a Buddha statue in
the village Ranipur.
Belief
defies law and logic. Despite law against cruelty and killing of animals, slaughter of animals
continues in Manikeswari of Bhawaniptna, Pateneswari of Patnagarh or in the
Sulia yatra. In Sulia yatra of Khairagad village of Tusura police station of
Balangir district, people defied the order of the High Court of Odisha and
imposition of 144 of Cr P C by administration and killed thousands of
buffaloes, goats, sheep and hens. While chatting with Sanyasi Bhoi, a resident
of the village Ranipur, he said, in the early seventies of the last century, A
N Tiwari, bureaucrat and a lover of culture had visited the place. He was
appalled to find animals were sacrificed before the statue of Buddha, the
epitome of non-violence. Sanyasi said,
Buddha was worshipped under a silk-cotton tree in the Ranipur village as Bhima
Debta and animals were killed before it to propitiate the Debta (God) for good
rainfall. Tiwari stopped the practice of sacrificing animals before the Buddha
statue and brought the statue from the silk-cotton tree and kept it in the
Indralath temple. The statue is kept in one corner of the Indralath temple.
Mrutyunjaya Pardhi, the retired Head Master of the school of the nearby village,
Sindhekela said, if a child or a woman gets fever, people of the locality
believe, evil spirit has entered in the body of the child or the woman. The
exorcist is called, and he performs puja in the precinct of the chausathi
yogini temple late in the night. Rooster is sacrificed to satiate the Goddess
and to ward off the spirit from the body.
Poverty
and lack of education make the people superstitious and believe in black magic.
The site is neglected by the tourism department. There is a guest house which
remains always closed. There is no restaurant, nor any publicity to attract
tourists and visitors. Although Someswar sagar(lake) has been developed and
boating arrangements have been made, care is not taken for its cleanliness. We
found plastic cups and plates were heaped in a corner of the lake, that gives a
bad look. Government should take steps both to eradicate poverty and educate
the local people, and at the same time preserve the rich heritage. The
visitors, tourists and picnickers need to be conscious to keep the place clean.
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( This article was published in the Pioneer on 5 November 2014 under the caption " Ranipur-Jharial speaks of Balangir's cultural affluence" )
