post news network, Bhubaneswar, July 12: The Indian National Trust for Art and Culture Heritage (INTACH), Orissa, released the project report, ‘Listing and Documenting the Monuments of the Jagannath Sadak in Orissa’ and handed it over to the minister of culture and tourism, Ashok Chandra Panda, at the Bhanja Kala Mandap, here in the city, Sunday.
The INTACH had taken up the project in July 2014. The project was undertaken “to highlight the sad plight of this once great and now forgotten road on which pilgrims travelled to visit the gods at Puri,” said Anil Dhir, chief project coordinator, INTACH Jagannath Sadak Project. “The project has been completed successfully and the report has been handed over to the tourism minister today,” he said.
The ‘sadak’ that begins in West Bengal and ends in Puri, has along its sides, significant monuments hidden from the eyes of both the state government and the common people; but those were revealed by Anil Dhir and 25 other members of his team that worked on the project. Anil began his journey from Jaleswar, close to the West Bengal – Orissa border, in a bullock cart to unravel the mystery of the ‘sadak’, as well as to discover the monuments, which were not taken into consideration so far.
“It was a wonderful journey for me. Amazingly, we have discovered many ancient monuments on the way. We found 10 ancient mosques, three gurudwaras and five churches; besides, we also discovered 200 other ancient monuments; among these 160 have been highlighted in the report. I request the minister and the department of culture to acknowledge the work and take initiative for the publication of it soon,” said Dhir.
The minister assured INTACH authorities that their request would be certainly considered. “The request will be taken into consideration seriously, as it is the matter of our Jagannath culture. The research, which was done by these people, is a historical event for the state. The hidden treasures of the state were discovered. This research will help other researchers, who want to carry forward the work in future. I hope the present and the future generation will be benefited from this research. By the way, it’s a beautiful gift for the lovers of the Jagannath culture as it has been completed before the Nabakalebara festival,” said Panda.
An 18-minute-long documentary film on this project was also screened by the INTACH after the project-report release ceremony. Apart from the minister those who attended the programme included Arvind Padhee, the commissioner-cum-secretary of the department of culture and tourism, H Balakrishnan, Bhubaneswar chapter convener, INTACH and AB Tripathy, state convener, INTACH.
