Foreword
This is to certify that Sri Baman Charan Pradhan, M. A., Lecture in History in Class-II of the Orissa Educational Service, has worked with me for the last four years on the religious developments of Orissa in ancient and mediaeval periods.
Under my supervision he has composed the thesis entitled SAKTI WORSHIP IN ORISSA which is a historical analysis of the cult of the Mother Goddess and its various ramifications in Orissa from the Gupta period to the mediaeval time. Sri Pradhan's dissertation is mainly based on sculptural sources and epigraphical records. It is also well supported by relevant literary evidences for a study of Sakti Worship in Orissa which was ultimately assimilated in the cult of Jagannatha. The present thesis which is submitted to the Sambalpur University for Ph. D. degree examination throws new light on the cult of the Mother Goddess and it deserves publication.
Preface
In Sakta literaturs of India Orissa is well known as Odra-pitha. For centuries it was recognised as one of the four great Saktapithas of India. Viraja on the bank of the river Vaitaraņi at Jajpur and Vimala at Purusottama Puri are the most well-known representations of the cult of Mother Goddess in Orissa. Jajpur, Bhubaneswar and Puri emerged as the centres of Saktism, Saivism and Vaisnavism respectively in course of time. But the whole of Orissa abounds with Sakta shrines and icons ranging from the Gupta period to the modern times. The earliest image of the two-armed Mahişamardini Durga at Jajpur, beautiful sculptural representation of Uma-Mahes-vara of Krsnagiri, Bankada and Bhubaneswar, the early Sapta-Matṛka sculptures of Parasuramesvara and Ghodar near Titilagarh, are some of the important landmarks in our study of SAKTI WORSHIP IN ORISSA. The cult of Stambhesvari represented by the worship of a log of wood or a pillar or a post is yet another significant aspect of the most ancient form of Sakti Worship in Orissa. Epigraphic, iconographic and ethnological evidences indicate the hoary antiquity of this cult which continued to exert overwhelming influence in the socio-religious life of the people of Orissa through ages. Tantricism which became popular in early mediaeval Orissa also deeply influenced Sakti Worship which found vibrant manifestation in Yogini cult with its two great centres an Hirapur and Ranipur.
The present dissertation is primarily a historical study of Sakti Worship in Orissa. It is the first systematic account of the various cults pertaining to Saktism in Orissa. Scholars
like J. D. Beglar and Rama Prasad Chand had made pioneer-ing attempts in studying the Yogini images of Ranipur and the Durgă image of Kalasapur (now enshrined at Jajpur) respec-tively. P. Acharya, a student of Rama Prasad Chand also surveyed many interesting Sapta-Matrka sculptures of Orissa. The late K. N. Mahapatra discovered the Yogini temple of Hirapur and surveyed a number of Śakta shrines and sculp-tures of Orissa. In recent times K. C. Panigrahi, K. S. Behera, M. P. Dash, R. K. Sharma and H. C. Das render valuable contributions to the study of Śaktism in Orissa, but the studies of these scholars have been more or less fragmantary. Our thesis is the first comprehensive account of the various cults relating to the worship of the Mother Goddess in Orissa from Circa 4th century A. D. to Circa 13th century A. D. In our dissertation we have made fresh interpretations and proposed new identifications, particularly in our studies in the cult of Stambheśvarī and the Yogini cult. In the light of archaeological and literary evidences we have presented the historical survey of Śakti Worship in Orissa which in the long run was assimilated in the Jagannatha triad.
In the Chapter One of the thesis we have introduced the subject in the Indian context and also dealt with the epigraphic, sculptural and literary sources for a systematic study of Sakti Worship in Orissa. In Chapter Two of the work we have presented an account of the Śaktapithas or the Centres of Śakti worship in Orissa in the light of literary and archeologi-cal evidences. Bhadrak Inscription of the 3rd century A. D. has given us the clue to locate Bhadrakalīpītha at Bhadrak where the Mother Goddess was worshipped as Parnadevati at least from the 3rd century A. D. We have for the first time shown in this Chapter in the light of the Banpur copper plate grant of Dharmaraja Śrīmanabhīta that Bhagavatīpītha of Banpur which was the heart of Kongoda under Śailodbhavas was recognised as a significant Saktapitha of Orissa at least by
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