| Temples & Legends of Bengal |
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| Temples & Legends Of India |
THE TEMPLES IN HOOGHLY |
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| Ballabhpur is a
part of Srirampur town in between Serampore and Mahesh. Ballabhpur and the village Mahesh
are famous for its Jagannath temple and for the annual festival of Snan-jatra (bathing festival), Rath-jatra (car festival) and Ulta-rath (the return festival). The Rath-jatra of Mahesh is next in importance to the largest festival of its kind at Puri. It is said that an ascetic of Mahesh named Dhrubananda Brahmachari had gone on a pilgrimage to Puri. Tradition ascribes to him a dream that Lord Jagannath asked him to return to Mahesh. The Lord promised he would appear at Mahesh. After his return Dhrubananda found an image of Jagannath partly buried in the sands of the river Ganga. A few days later the ascetic found the images of Subhadra and Baladeb in the same place. The three images were made over to his disciple Kamalakar Piplai and
worship began. Some years afterwards a Nawab of Murshidabad was given shelter during
a storm by the Sebaits of the shrine. The Nawab rewarded them with a piece of revenue-free
at Mahesh. The Mahesh temple quickly grew in importance. The shebaits came to be known as
the Adhikaris. The village of Jagannathpur was given to the Adhikaris as debottar land.
The Shebaits started observing the jatras in great pomp. |
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| About Temples In Hooghly | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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