Kolkata/Puri: West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari Tuesday announced the state government will remove the insignia ‘Dham’ from the state-funded Lord Jagannath Temple and cultural activity premises in Digha, which was inaugurated by former CM Mamata Banerjee in April last year.
The premises will now be called ‘Sri Sri Jagannath Cultural Centre’ and the deities of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra, at the temple within the premises, will be worshipped in accordance with prescribed norms and rituals, Adhikari said.
The decision was taken in the wake of a formal request for removal of the tag made by the Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, Adhikari said.
The official request was delivered to Adhikari by Sambit Patra, BJP’s MP in Lok Sabha from Puri, who acted as an emissary of the Odisha chief minister.
Adhikari said he spoke to the ISKCON monks recently about the name of the temple complex of Lord Jagannath in Digha, and was convinced that it was not named in accordance with the Sanatani culture and tradition of India.
We will remove the word ‘Dham’ from the complex and worship the deities strictly in accordance with the prescribed sanatani norms, Adhikari said, referring to his recent visit to the ISKCON headquarters at Mayapur in Nadia district.
The temple structure would henceforth be called Sri Sri Jagannath Dev Mandir, the CM added.
Adhikari said that the cabinet resolution and the subsequent tender notices for constructing the premises of the erstwhile Mamata Banerjee government called the project a ‘cultural centre’ with no provision for the word ‘Dham’ in it, indicating that the word was added as an afterthought.
There were debates on the word right from the beginning, and the previous government had insulted Sanatani sentiments by including it, Adhikari said, adding that he has directed the chief secretary to issue the necessary notification and apprise the Trust managing the premises about the change.
Patra said that countless devotees of Lord Jagannath all over the globe, including 4.5 crore Odiyas, were anguished at the naming of the Digha temple complex which reflected an attitude of toying with Hindu sentiments by the previous TMC government.
As per the Sanatan dharma, Adi Shankaracharya established the four sacred pilgrimage sites or Char Dham in Hinduism, of which the original Jagannath Temple in Puri is one. There is no provision in our ancient tradition to add to those sites, Patra said.
The BJP MP welcomed the idea of building another site of worship of Lord Jagannath in Bengal by the earlier Mamata Banerjee government.
The Jagannath Dham temple complex, conceived as a deliberate architectural homage to the iconic 12th-century Jagannath Temple of Puri and aiming to serve as its near-replica in both scale and style, was inaugurated by Mamata Banerjee on April 30, 2025.
Spreading over 20 acres at Bengal’s coastal town of Digha in Purba Medinipur district, a popular seaside getaway for Bengalis, it was built at an estimated cost of Rs 250 crore from the state exchequer.
Gaining immense popularity as a spiritual destination, the complex registered a footfall of over 1.3 crore — averaging roughly 50,000 visitors daily and significantly higher numbers on weekends and festival days — in its first year of existence, as per figures posted by the managing trust.
Besides the naming dispute, the inauguration of the Digha temple premises was accompanied by additional controversies, particularly from sections of the servitor community associated with the Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri, who issued formal directives barring their members from taking part in rituals at the Digha temple.
The servitors argued that the reproduction of Puri’s sacred rituals at a temple outside the historic shrine undermines the sanctity and cultural legacy of traditions that have been preserved for centuries.