The author of the book, Dr. Surendra Prasad Mohanty, is a retired professor in English and he belongs to Betada of Basudevpur Block of the District, Bhadrak. He has written a good number of books in both Odia and English and has received many awards from different cultural and literary organizations. The present book "Goddess Bhadrakali" by him is a small but very useful book on Bhadrakali and Bhadrakali temple of Bhadrak. The tourists, devotees and general readers will be highly benefitted by going through this book.
Dr. Surendra Prasad Mohanty has brought to limelight Goddess Bhadrakali of Bhadrak in Eleven Chapters beginning with location, history, features, significance of child in the lap, supreme force of the universe, Meghasan to Bhadrak, the invasion of Kalapahad, her greatness, system of worship, fairs and festivals, Kalipuja in different places and the present situation of the place of worship.
Dr Mohanty with lots of reference from ancient sources, puranas, poets like Kalidas and history has established special focus and attraction of Bhadrakali. This book will serve a great purpose presenting Odishan culture in India and outer region since his endeavour is through English, the international language.
I congratulate Dr. Mohanty for publishing this valuable document and believe this attempt will foster the cultural, academic and public enterprise.
Goddess Bhadrakali is the presiding deity of Bhadrak in Odisha. She is very ancient and she stays at Bhadrakali Sahi of Aharapada, 7kms away from Kacheri Bazar, Bhadrak. Though she is said to be the protector and savior of the people of Bhadrak, she is primarily the Divine mother of the universe. She is not fierce, dreadful and blood thirsty like Mahakali, she is too full of milk of human kindness. She sits in a lotus seat with her four hands. She holds in the two upper hands 'khadga' and 'khapar' and in the two lower hands rosary and a child. This shows that she is both dreadful and peaceful. She is very frightening for the dishonest and wicked persons but full of love and compassion for the good and honest ones. Her appearance is not at all horrible but loving and peaceful.
Goddess Bhadrakali belongs to the Jain period when Bhadrak was called Champak Nagar. She came to Bhadrak from Meghasan mountain of Mayurbhanj for the welfare of the people of coastal area. On examination of an old stone plate found from the temple site and reading the inscription on it, the Archeologists say that she is from 3rd Century AD but she is practically at Bhadrak for more than two thousand years. Bhadrak town and the district have been named according to her name. Some historians of the state agree to this view.
The temple of goddess Bhadrakali has been made and destroyed and made again. The temple in which she has been worshipped was made in 1952 by some volunteers of Bhadrak. After the independence of the country that has been her permanent place. Kalipuja is the favourite festival and tuesday is the favourite day of goddess Bhadrakali. Kalipuja is held ceremoniously in the month of 'kartik' for 7 days. In 7 days goddess Bhadrakali takes up 7 different forms such as Vedamata, Mahakali, Singhabahini, Jagadhatri, Rajrajeswari, Mahalaxmi and Mahasaraswati and provides health, wealth and wisdom to the people. There is no 'Bali' or animal sacrifice at her place of worship. Visitors from different places of Odisha, Chhatishgad, Jhadkhand and West Bengal come to Bhadrak to see Kalipuja. People are highly benefitted worshipping goddess Bhadrakali in festive occasions.
This book is written chiefly for the tourists, visitors and devotees to apprise them of various matters relating to goddess Bhadrakali. The book has Eleven chapters in all. The first chapter is about goddess Bhadrakali and the ninth chapter is about the present situation of the place of worship of the goddess. The seven middle chapters discuss the history of the temple, the invasion of Kalapahad, fairs and festivals and the greatness of the goddess. Lastly, the list of books followed for reference, has been given to facilitate the readers to refer some of them if they liked to get some additional information about the goddess.
Since the book is meant for common readers, its language and the system of presentation have been kept very simple and straight as the facts stated can be easily accessible. The author will be highly happy to find the book appreciated by the readers.
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