Here, the Lord is revered in human form

BALASORE: In a departure from tradition from Puri and elsewhere, the idols of Lord Jagannath and his brother Balabhadra are worshiped in human form in a temple at Nalapatana village in Balasore district. This is perhaps the only temple in the world, where the deities are found in human form. In Puri and other places, they are worshipped without arms and legs. The deities here are made of wood, as in some other places, and are about six feet tall. Peculiarly, besides legs and hands, lips and nose have also been carved on the idols. The hands, however, have been damaged due to lack of care, but another deity, Devi Subhadra, is worshipped in an incomplete form here as in Puri.Just as there are folk tales to justify that Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra are formless, the residents here have been worshipping these idols for over 200 years. Though there is no recorded history available about the deities and the temple, village old timers say the deities were installed by a renowned saint, Hari Golam Das, after being directed to do so by some divine power in his dream, about 200 years ago.“The place where the temple stands now was his hermitage. He had installed the three deities before establishing a Durga idol here,” said Upendranath Puhan, former president of the temple trust. The daily rituals of the temple do not follow the Puri temple as Hari Golam was a follower of saint Raghubar Das of Chhatia in Jajpur district and all the rituals here are performed as per the Chhatia Jagannath temple.  Though this idol of Lord Jagannath is believed to be an incarnation of Kalki, the tenth incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the temple’s uniqueness still remains far from public scrutiny.