Dhenkanal: The 25th edition of the Dhenkanal Heritage Walks (DHW) conducted a trail around the Manipur Village Radhakanta Jew Temple yesterday explored with around 50 participants from across Odisha.
The exploration, which commenced with a visit to the holy shrine Lord Radha Krishna, the brass idol bought from Nadia in early 20th Century along with a giant “mrudanga” .
The district of Dhenkanal, one of the centrally located districts of Odisha and the district headquarters town, owe their names to erstwhile tribal king Dhenka Sabar. Similarly the village Manipur where the 1937 Radhakant Jew was entered to this newly-built temple premise by the villagers, has its name related to “mana” (a measuring instrument used locally). It is believed that the fertile land has never short of grains in any period and no measuring “mana” will become empty measuring the food grains hence, comes the name of Manipur.
Dhenkanal district was full of jungles once upon a time as high as 58 percent of land mass was under forest cover. Manipur is full fertile land and enough water was there to take care of cultivation and other allied activities.
At Manipur temple premise, the participants gathered for a discussion on the village naming, temple history and rituals observed by the temple they had visited. Convener Suresh Prasad Mishra delivered the welcome address, setting the tone for an insightful exchange with the senior members of the village and temple committee. The village president Prakash Chandra Mallik spoke about the history and heritage of temple.
The temple was built by villagers and prominent person who are responsible for this temple construction were Gopinath Sangram Singh and Sridhar Mangaraj. There were hardly any “parshwadevata” on the temple wall except goddess Saraswati. Professor Durga Biswal spoke about the unique style of this temple, which is neither a “Khakra” or “Rekha” style as per the Kalingan style of architecture, but rather with influences of Bengal style of Krishna temple making.
The temple priest Rabinarayan Debata spoke about the divine and supernatural aspects of Radhakant Jew saved villagers from water and health issues. The session concluded with a vote of thanks by founder member Dr. Malay Pati. One of the fellow travelers in the 25th DHW was this time 1929 Baby Austin car. The car is still functional today. Its owner, Saranath Mishra, from a heritage-rich family in Dhenkanal city, brought it along. For the walkers and the villagers of Manipur, the Baby Austin was a major attraction during the walk.
The group then returned to Sadeibareni known as artist village for the Dhokra work this time not to witness the work, but to enjoy the heritage food of Dhenkanal, “bara” prepared at the village shop. Biswaranjan Dehury convenor of Odisha Heritage Walks gave information how heritage walks are regularly conducted at Cuttack, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Balasore and Baripada by different heritage enthusiast groups under different banners.
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