BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan and Tourism Minister Ashok Panda released a book ‘Unveiling the Mystery of Jagannath, the Supreme God on Earth’ here on Friday.
The book, which presents a detailed study of the origin and antiquity of the cult of Lord Jagannath, has been penned by Ashutosh Prasad Patnaik.
He had earlier published a book ‘The Early Voyagers of the East’ in 2003 and during research work of this book, Patnaik discovered the namesakes of many ancient historical sites of India, particularly Odisha, that were connected with ancient civilisations. As Puri was located near the sea and was accessible by sea route, the author writes that people from other civilisations including the Sumerians, Egyptians, Mycenaean Greeks, Persians and Mayanese tribe of Native Americans arrived in this part of India and brought with them their Gods and Goddesses, who are presently worshipped as the Holy Trinity in Puri. He writes that the Egyptians came to Puri after Sumerians and introduced their deities, presently known as Lord Balaram and Devi Subhadra.
Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister Pradhan said Odisha has an extremely rich civilisation and it needs to be propagated at an international level.
Among others, eminent poet Haraprasad Das, Lara Books publisher Mahendra Misra, KK Basa of Centre for Heritage Studies and Utkal University Professor Jatin Das were present.