SAMBALPUR: As the world is ready to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on Wednesday, the unique Gandhi temple in Sambalpur city expects a surge in visitors to mark the special occasion.
Senior officials of the district administration and locals are slated to visit the shrine to pay their respects to the father of the nation. Unlike most other temples, the rituals at the shrine will be performed by a dalit priest amid chanting of ‘Ramdhun’ by those present. It will be followed by distribution of fruits among the devotees some of whom visit the temple daily.
Dileswar Chhuria, a resident of Bhatra said people from across the region including tourists are slated to visit the shrine in large numbers on Wednesday to mark the historic occasion.
For the last more than 45 years, Mahatma Gandhi is being worshipped as God at the Gandhi Mandir at Bhatra in Sambalpur city. Built by former MLA of Rairakhol Abhimanyu Kumar in early 70s, the foundation stone of the temple was laid by the then Revenue Divisional Commissioner (Northern Division), Rabindranath Mohanty, on March 23, 1971.
While the interior of the temple was designed by local artist Truptabhusan Dasgupta, the statue of Mahatma Gandhi was sculpted by an artist of Khallikote Art College in Ganjam. It took around three years before it was inaugurated by the then Chief Minister of Odisha Nandini Satpathy on April 11,1974.
The temple’s entrance opens to the south-east and the traditional ‘Garuda Stambha’ has been replaced by ‘Ashok Stambha’. The temple is built on an area of 10.97 metre x 6.70 metre and is 11.88 metre high.
The entrance to the temple is an ornamented arc-way and there is a statue of Bharatmata holding a tri-colour (national flag) with the map of India in the backdrop at the top of the arc structure. The statue has lions and peacocks at its both sides.
The sanctum sanctorum of the temple has a bronze statue of the Mahatma in a squatting position (Siddhasan) and its height is 1.07 metre.
Pramod Ranjan Kumar, son of Abhimanyu Kumar and former president of Gandhi Mandir Development Committee, said his father decided to build the temple when he became MLA for the first time in 1971. “We have been worshipping Gandhiji as God in the temple since 1974 with contribution from the locals,” he added.