Jagannath Temple

The Jagannath Temple at Puri, on the Odisha coast, is dedicated to Jagannath, a form of Vishnu, and ranks among the four great pilgrimage sites of Hinduism. A shrine already stood there when Adi Shankara founded the Govardhan Math in the ninth century; the present temple was raised from the early twelfth century by Anantavarman Chodaganga of the Eastern Ganga dynasty after his conquest of Utkala in 1112.

His successor Anangabhima Deva III dedicated the kingdom to Jagannath. The wooden images of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra are replaced every twelve or nineteen years, and each summer the deities ride through town on cars in the Ratha Yatra.

In 1568 the Bengal general Kalapahar sacked Puri and burned the images; Ramachandra Deva I of Khurda installed new images in 1575. After taking Odisha in 1803 the East India Company taxed pilgrims until ordered to withdraw from temple affairs in 1833.