Politicians casually transplant these gods across the land to suit their agenda, confusing devotees.

Illustration/Devdutt Pattanaik

As the chariot rolls out of the Jagannath temple in Odisha this year, some may ask, is Jagannath now the favoured ‘national’ god, overshadowing Ram of Ayodhya? But words like national come with borders. Cosmos has no borders. Jagat means cosmos.

India is full of cosmic gods who take local form—Vitthala is the local form of Vishnu in Maharashtra, Tirupati is the local form of Vishnu in Andhra Pradesh, Ranganathaswamy is the local form of Vishnu in the Kaveri river. Politicians casually transplant these gods across the land to suit their agenda, confusing devotees.

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As per local temple philosophy in Puri, Jagannath is both ‘avatari’ and ‘avatar’—he is the infinite one (Narayana) and........

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