Altar of Power: The Temple and the State in the Land of Jagannatha

Is it possible to remove political institutions from their culturalcontext? The question is a relevant one in the wake of recentdebates on the role of religious and social identities in thefunctioning of the modern Indian state. The ritual bond between theJagannatha Temple, Puri and the Gajapati kings of Orissa aptlydemonstrates the enduring power of such a link. This book exploresthe evolution of this relationship since the construction of theTemple by Anantavarman Codagangadeva in AD 1147, until the takeoverof Orissa by the British East India Company in 183. When this linkwas taken over by the colonial regime we see a fundamental shift inthe premise underlying the Temple-State relationship. Certaininstitutes were retained to promote the notion of the ‘CompactIdeal’. Yet these were bereft of their contextual framework. TheGajapati raja was removed from the throne but was given authorityover Temple functioning. The Temple was de-linked from the networksof resource distribution that connected it with the land. Yet itwas circumscribed and denoted as a ‘separate’ sacred entity,removed from the State, an expression of the Company regime’sbenevolent tolerance of local customs and beliefs. The uniquesituations of conflict and contradictions that marked the clashbetween ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ systems of governance of socialinstitutions, form the substance of this study of the JagannathaTemple.