KENDRAPARA: Major portion of a 400-year-old famous temple in Kendrapara’s Satabhaya, where women donned the mantle of the priestess, caved in during high tide on Thursday. The historic Panchubarahi shrine was the last vestige of the coastal erosion-hit panchayat in the district.
Eyewitnesses said more than half of the temple crumbled into the sea after tidal waves crashed into its wall on Thursday night. A few days back, the marching sea had consumed two stone lions in front of the temple.
The State government, three years back, had relocated the deities from the temple as it was on the verge of collapse due to sea erosion. The deities had been shifted to a new temple at the rehabilitation colony at Bagapatia, 12 km from the original temple.
The Panchubarahi temple was unique as only women from the fishing community have been in the priestess job for last 400 years and males are forbidden from touching the deities in the temple. “The priestesses are highly respected and the age-old practice continued without any disruption and resistance. Sadly, this age-old tradition will soon be lost to history with the marching sea,” said Sangram Rout, a resident of Satabhaya.
The event left villagers in despair given their generations-long association with the temple. “A portion of the temple was engulfed by the sea in front of my eyes on Thursday. The structure may collapse anytime,” said Niranjan Rout, a fisherman of Satabhaya.
According to Dr Basudev Das, a researcher of Kendrapara, the temple is packed with history, religion and mythology. As per the legend, male priests were worshiping the Goddesses but once, an inebriated priest violated the stone image of the deities in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. The furious deities cursed all the male priests and the villagers decided to engage only women as priestess in the temple, he said. Shivendra Narayan Bhanjadeo, the scion of the royal family of Rajkanika and the trustee of the temple said, the pace of sea erosion is accelerating due to climate change and the day is not far when Satabhaya will be literally erased from the map.
Satabhaya panchayat under Rajnagar block is one of the worst-hit due to sea erosion. Once a cluster of seven villages, only a small portion of it stands while six villages have disappeared into the sea. The 17 km stretch of the coast near Satabhaya is said to be the fastest-eroding beach in Odisha. Three years back, around 600 families of Satabhaya were shifted to the rehabilitation colony at Bagapatia. However, around 40 families are still staying in the village as they were not allotted land in the rehabilitation colony.