BHUBANESWAR:The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH)’s Odisha Chapter notched up a significant achievement on Sunday when it came out with a book which has documented the monuments and landmarks of Old Jagannath Sadak, the route which led millions to Puri centuries ago before the rail roads came up.
The book ‘Documentation of the Monuments of the Old Jagannath Sadak in Odisha’ was formally unveiled and handed over to Tourism and Culture Minister Ashok Chandra Panda as well as to Secretary Arvind Padhee.
The documentation project was taken up in June last year to highlight the sad plight of this road which pilgrims used to visit the Trinity at Puri. When the British unveiled the railways and the road projects started, the Old Jagannath Sadak lost its identity.
However, the remnants in terms of heritage monuments, structures, wells, ponds and amenities for pilgrims and travellers have been identified and documented by INTACH to re-tell the story of the road and how it can be preserved as a slice of Odishan cultural heritage and the Jagannath cult.
Various members of INTACH’s State chapter visited the road and collected evidence from various sources to document the monuments which have vanished and the ones which are still in existence, albeit decaying.
While the Odisha stretch of Old Jagannath Sadak was covered in the INTACH project, the Bengal side would be part of a subsequent phase. The project was undertaken to coincide with the Nabakalebara festival.
State convenor of INTACH AB Tripathy, Bhubaneswar Chapter convener H Balakrishnan, noted dramatist Ananta Mahapatra and Chief Project Coordinator of the documentation project Anil Dhir were present on the occasion.