The hundred thousand residents of Puri, in coast al Orissa, think that beyond their municipal limits nothing exists, at least in civilisational terms. Perhaps they cannot be faulted. Puri was, after all, once part of the Kalinga of Mauryan Emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BC. And it continues to be one of the four sacred Hindu pilgrimages of India.
Puri residents are surrounded by water, and the breakers of the Bay of Bengal in the east and south are just a part of it. It is all water beyond this ancient holy town and destination of pilgrims and tourists. To the south, not far distant, is Chilika, Asia's largest fresh water lake. Close at hand to the north-west is the more modest and unassuming Lake Sar. The river Barghab flows a little to the west. And then there are the five holy lakes of the town—Markanda, Shweta Ganga, Narendra, lndradyumna and Parvati Sagar.
Puri, not more than a few kilometres in length and breadth, gets its sanctity from the 12th century temple of Lord Jagannath (an incarnation of Lord Vishnu), built by the Ganga dynasty ruler Anangabhimadeva Chodagangadeva. The tallest Vishnu temple in the world, the Jagannath temple, also called the Purusottama khetra, is one of the finest expositions of the 'Pancharatha'-style of Kalinga period architecture. Hindu devotees from all over the country, particularly northern and western India, throng this coastal city for a divine high. From overseas, on the other hand, the Westerners come for a package trip of sea, sun, yoga and antiquity.
Puri embraces all with its saline hospitality, the tourists from the West, the devout locals, the sloppy government officials and all those who come for a darshan of Jagannath, the humpty-dumpty God whose chariot is pulled by the multitudes on the Rath Yatra or "Car Festival Day". Far cry, indeed, from juggernaut, the industrial metaphor for relentless force that took its name from the deity of this ancient town.