Bhubaneswar, June 9: The invasion of Raktabahu on Jagannath Temple at Puri had taken place during the second year reign of King Sovandeba. The unprovoked attack on the temple had forced the servitors to take the Trinity into hiding so that the deities could be saved from Javanas.
According to Madala Panji, the four deities were taken to an undisclosed place in faraway Sonepur and holed up in a cave surrounded by dense forests. The cave is on the Lokanath Ranibasa and Daru Kona hills in Sonepur district, the modern Suvarnapur district in Odisha.
The deities had been extricated from exile during the reign of Somavansi King Yajati Keshari under the advice and supervision of Adiguru Shankaracharya who were visiting Odisha then during ninth century. In fact, the ‘brahmas’ in the old deities were translocated to new images. The entire exercise earned the king the title of second Indradyumna.
Even today, the exalted cave where the deities had been holed up on the Lokanath Ranibasa and Daru Kona hills in Sonepur district mesmerizes every devotee. In fact, the multiple caves on these hills are extremely sacred and are visited by Jagannath devotees and tourists as well.
Even as many places associated with Puri Temple and the four deities (Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra, Devi Subhadra and Sudarshan) are popular and worshipped, Patali Shrikhetra in Sonepur district, where the deities had remained in exile for 144 years, is special.
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