The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hindusim vol 2

Puri Dashanami
534
into the pantheon as a form of the god
Krishna and therefore, by extension, a
form of Vishnu. The temple was completed
in 1198 C.E. and is currently
receiving much needed restoration,
after several pieces fell off the tower in
the early 1990s. The most important
annual festival held in Puri is the Rath
Yatra. During this festival, Jagannath,
his brother Balabhadra, and his sister
Subhadra are carried in procession
through the city’s main street in enormous
wooden carts. They travel to
another temple about a mile away,
where they stay for a week, and then
return to Puri. Aside from the spectacle,
the ceremony is an important ritual
theater used to demonstrate the relationship
between Jagannath and the
kings of Puri, who were considered to
be deputies ruling in his name.
Although the kings no longer wield
actual power in modern times, by
virtue of their status they still play an
important ritual role.
Aside from containing the temple
of Jagannath, Puri is one of the four
dhams, which symbolically mark the
geographic boundaries of India. It is
also the home of the Govardhan
Math, one of the four Dashanami
Sanyasi sacred centers supposedly
established by the philosopher
Shankaracharya. Puri’s character as a
holy city has made it an attractive
place for religiously inclined people to
make their homes, most notably the
Bengali saint Chaitanya (1486–1533),
who lived there for much of his adult
life. The cultural life generated by the
worship of Jagannath also made Puri
a center for the arts, and it is the
traditional home of the classical
dance form known as Orissi. For further
information see Anncharlott
Eschmann, Hermann Kulke, and Gaya
Charan Tripathi, The Cult of
Jagannath and the Regional Tradition
of Orissa, 1978; and Frederique Apffel
Marglin, “Time Renewed: Ratha Jatra
in Puri,” in T. N. Madan (ed.), Religion
in India, 1991.
Puri Dashanami
One of the ten divisions of the
Dashanami Sanyasis, ascetics who are
devotees (bhakta) of Shiva. The
Dashanamis were supposedly established
by the ninth century philosopher
Shankaracharya in an effort to create a
corps of learned men who could help to
revitalize Hindu life. Each of the divisions
is designated by a different
name—in this case, puri (“city”). Upon
initiation, new members are given this
name as their new surname, thus allowing
for immediate group identification.
Aside from their individual identity,
these ten “named” divisions are also
divided into four larger organizational
groups. Each group has its headquarters
in one of the four monastic centers
(maths) supposedly established by
Shankaracharya, as well as other particular
religious associations. The Puri
Dashanamis belong to the Kitawara
group, which is affiliated with the
Shringeri Math in the southern Indian
town of Shringeri.
Purity
(shaucha) Along with its opposite,
impurity (ashaucha), purity is one of the
fundamental concepts in Hindu culture.
Although to outsiders purity can be easily
confused with cleanliness, it is fundamentally
different—purity is a religious
category marked by the presence or
absence of pollution or defilement,
whereas cleanliness is a hygienic category.
In some cases these categories can
overlap, but in most their disjunction
becomes clear. For example, from a religious
perspective, bathing (snana) in
the Ganges River makes one pure,
whereas from a hygienic perspective the
lower reaches of the Ganges are quite
heavily polluted.
On a personal level, purity can be
best described as the absence of defilement,
gained through removing impurities
in some manner, most often by
bathing. After becoming purified, one
remains pure until coming into contact
with a source of impurity. These sources